What’s The Best Punctuation Mark?

Have you ever just sat there and wondered, "What's the best punctuation mark?" This may be no surprise to many who know me, but, yes, I have wondered what the best punctuation mark is. My pick for best punctuation mark: the comma (,).

Why do I love commas? Well, I love introductory words and phrases in writing. Yes, if you you read through my blogs, I use many introductory words. Yup, I just used three in a row. Also, comma usage was drilled into my head in college when I did a project in grammar class about commas.

Many say I'm obsessed with commas. Yes, it's true. My obsession starts to rear its ugly self when birthdays roll around. In a birthday card, you see, "Happy Birthday John!" Seems right, right? Well, yes, but, a comma is missing. "Happy Birthday" is addressing a person, and the person who is being addressed should be set off by a comma. So, it should say "Happy Birthday, John!"

Now, the reason I bring this up is not for therapy about my comma obsession, it's because Woot.com recently asked its website visitors what's the "Awesomest Punctuation Mark Ever"? And, although it wasn't a comma that come in first, it was another pretty cool punctuation mark--the exclamation point (!) came in at the number one spot with 37.7 percent of the votes. Followed up by exclamation point was the semicolon (;) with 31.1 percent, the question mark (?) with 12.1 percent, "other" got 8.7 percent of the vote and the colon (:) got 5.6 percent.

But, wait, where is the comma in this poll? Well, my beloved comma came in dead-last in the poll. The last "awesomest" punctuation mark is the comma (,) with 4.9 percent of the vote. That's OK, comma, I still think you are the number one "awesomest" no matter what anyone says.

To further delve into my comma obsession--while putting together this blog, I asked a few people what their favorite punctuation mark was. Well, they didn't have an answer. I then replied with, "Do you know what my favorite punctuation mark is?" And, one of my co-workers said, "For Zach, there is no other punctuation mark but the comma." So, it's like a comma sickness at this point.

Is there a punctuation mark that you think is the "awesomest"?