Lio by Mark Tatulli for September 30, 2015

Great Captain Kangaroo’s Ghost! A running joke for years in the Treasure House involved one of their frequent animal guests, a poodle that loved to eat carrots. The Captain would invite Mr. Greenjeans to see the carrot-eating poodle. Mr. G would watch the dog munching the crunchy veggie and say, “What I see is a poodle eating carrot.” Little kids across the nation would crack up and begin to understand the humor and elegance of a good play on words.

—In which is demonstrated the importance of hyphens. Punctuation saves lives!

He could have just added “eating man” to what was already there.

Semantics, schemantics…(can I buy a hyphen?)

Problem is that when you hear something you don’t hear the punctuation. Or you hear what you want.

Geiko commercial?

Squids shouldn’t eat men: they have no idea where they’ve been!

Agreed Lio.

a hyphen would have been way easier. but not funny

As a kid, I got so confused when I heard Charlie Brown call Linus “a blanket-carrying Sherlock Holmes.”

… and people say grammar doesn’t matter.

A judicious hyphen would have made all the difference.

So women are safe around man-eating squids !!