1) Board game played by members of the educated upper-classes. Each player is distributed a number of abstruse grammatical items including hyphens, ems, ens, semi-colons, demi-semicolons, and parenthesis. They then take it in turns to punctuate a sentence in a creative, but appropriate, manner. Extra points are given for each comma they manage to slip in their sentences.
2) Nervous tic developed by players of 1), above, when they see items such as misplaced apostrophes and the like. If left untreated, it can develop into a sudden spasm or the dreaded collywobbles. (For more on this disease, see our entry on 'Feeling sic')
3 comments:
Dear Sirs,
Having perused yrs of the 17th inst. I wish, for and on behalf of my employers, Messrs Snodgrass, Wapthrottle and Smythe, Attorneys-at-Law, to place order for 756 articles of the aforementioned Entertainment.
The League of Scriveners have long held the education of the Common Man as one of their most pressing mandates, and to further the realisation of that lofty goal, wish to humbly venture that you, Sirs, may see fit to endow public Reading Rooms, Guild Halls &c with copies of same.
Until such the day when Editorial Departments are disbanded due to the Consistently High Standards of education and erudition long prevalent among a select minorty becoming widely emulated throughout the land,
I remain,
Humbly and Sincerely yrs,
St John Nottlesby, Esq.
Sirs,
In reply to yr letter of 17th, we will only be too happy to furnish you with the material requested. They are being sent on the backs of several carrier-Elephants as we speak.
Faithfully yrs,
Tim T, Esq.
PS Egads, you appear to have mispelled 'minority'! If you will excuse us, we have to call our maid: we can feel a case of the collywobbles coming on!
Not misspelt, my dear chap, I simply reverted to village dialect - as oim wont to do from toime to toime.
Looks like rain.
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