Punctuated equilibrium.
Some of you may have noticed that I can be a grammar pedant at times. For a while, I was worse.

For a couple of years when I was 12 or 13 I was beholden to the idea that the punctuation marks in a sentence had a kind of numerical value, and that a well-constructed sentence would be one in which the value of the punctuation added up to an integer (in rather the same way that a bar of musical score has to have the right - whole - number of beats in it). If a sentence didn't meet this criterion, it'd be somehow unbalanced or unfinished.

A comma was worth one half of a "beat", for example; a semi-colon was worth one and a half beats. A colon - notwithstanding that I didn't use them much - was worth two. So a sentence could have two commas, or a coma and a semi-colon, because that way its value'd be a whole number. Just one comma in a sentence, though, would have been unacceptable - unless there was a semi-colon as well.

I commited syntactic atrocities just to get enough clauses and subclauses into my sentences in order that they obey the rule.

And then, suddenly, I stopped caring, at roughly the same time that a small number of my classes at school became co-educational. Odd coincindence, that.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 1 Jul 2010, 14:40, 7 replies)

Hehe, that's delightfully mental
but it's the kind of mental thing I could absolutely see myself doing at a similar age.
( kingofpork is the king of pork, Thu 1 Jul 2010, 14:46, closed)

I dont' care Were tHe, letters go or about the seplling.

(waxdart hello., Thu 1 Jul 2010, 14:57, closed)

i dont believe in any type of sentence or gramatical structure what so ever
boyz rules
(TwinkleFuckingToes Has a ingrown toe nail, Thu 1 Jul 2010, 15:00, closed)

Nutter!
But in a good way. Have a click.
(SimianKid internet faffer, Thu 1 Jul 2010, 15:40, closed)

Coma
Commited?
:)
(steh30, Thu 1 Jul 2010, 16:16, closed)

Odd how you stopped caring so suddenly
One could say you were a bit of a comma chameleon...
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 1 Jul 2010, 19:04, closed)

Some times I think I love you
You make me look normal! Ehey!
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Fri 2 Jul 2010, 10:00, closed)