Tales Of Typos And Punctuation Problems

I've written once or twice in the past about how questions of punctuation and typographical error can be unimportant when the issue amounts only to pedantry. Of course, punctuation can be very important. The stage phenomenon Hamilton has a good line or two about this involving "My dearest Angelica. With a comma after dearest, you've written ... My dearest, Angelica" with this particular Schuyler sister noting how it changed the meeting and inquiring whether Alexander intended it.

There are more mundane, less lyrical examples that can be encountered in situations every day. For example, just playing around with punctuation can change entirely the meaning of two paragraphs that only differ by their punctuation:

Somehow I managed not to write anything for almost two weeks. I'm sick it happened. I'll try to do better starting now. Somehow, I managed. Not to write anything. For almost two weeks I'm sick. It happened. Ill! Try to do better. Starting now. Today's post hits two topics with nearly nothing in common other than the role that punctuation (or asserted typographical errors) plays in each one.

The ABA Journal directs all of our collective attention to this story of a Florida lawyer who has now been disbarred for breaking into his former law firm and stealing items. The headline of the article reads: "Lawyer disbarred after breaking into former law firm; blamed punctuation problem." Now, setting aside the fact that the ABA managed not to properly use that semicolon there in that headline, the headline is one that seems like it is designed just to make you click through to see how in the world a punctuation problem could be a defense to breaking and entering.

Go ahead and click if you want, but [SPOILER ALERT] it's not even close to a viable defense. I'd call the role of punctuation in that case mere pedantry but I think that might be insulting even to pedants. You can read more of the details in the order disbarring the lawyer here, but the flimsy reed to support some of his conduct apparently was that because his former law firm had incorporated its professional name - Barak Law Group, PA - without putting periods after the "P" and the "A," then he could incorporate his own entity by the same name but with "P.A." That, apparently, would give him ownership and domain over the assets of his former law firm.

He proceeded to hold himself out in public as the owner of the firm and to file hundreds of notices of liens as well as some other...