-----Original Message-----
From: John Denker
Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2008 2:16 AM
To: Forum for Physics Educators
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] backwards units : entrenched usage
People use punctuation because it is meaningful.
A panda walks into a bar. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a
gun
and fires two shots in the air.
"Hey, what are you doing? Where are you going?" asks the confused
waiter,
as the panda walks towards the exit. The panda produces a badly
punctuated
wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"I'm a panda," he says. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an
explanation.
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China.
Eats, shoots and leaves."
======================================================
This is the story behind the title of the best selling book on grammar:
Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss. It's very entertaining and
informative.
<http://eatsshootsandleaves.com/>
Another excellent book on writing and grammar, with much humor and many
puns, is The Write Way by Richard Lederer and Richard Dowis.
<http://www.verbivore.com/rlbooks.htm>