I didn’t find the joke particularly funny then (or maybe it was just the delivery). But I was quite amused when, a few months later, I came across a story on the Internet about a British author who had just launched a book entitled "Eats, Shoots and Leaves." I wondered if it had something to do with the panda joke and true enough, the writer Lynne Truss, had used it as the take-off point for her book on what else but — punctuation.

The panda joke is retold on the book jacket, after which comes this statement: "So punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death. This is the zero tolerance guide." You can’t help but chuckle at the cover, because there’s a panda up on a ladder, dutifully painting over the comma of the book’s title. Cute. As if Truss can’t stress it enough, her work is sub-titled "The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" followed by a lone exclamation point on the next line.

Truss makes no apologies. She admits to being a punctuation stickler. Better believe it. Her photo in the book shows her holding a black marker, poised to put the missing apostrophe on a poster of the Hollywood movie "Two Weeks’ Notice." And you see her here in a photo sourced from her book’s website, this time holding a giant apostrophe to stick on to another gasp!—offending billboard of the said film.

Ordinary mortals like us may be willing to shrug off the absent punctuation mark in the movie’s title (the Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant flick was entertaining, anyway). But not Lynne Truss. This one-woman punctuation police won’t take it sitting down. She finds this ommission particularly appalling that she keeps taking a swipe at it whenever she can. In the chapter devoted to "The Tractable Apostrophe," she writes that the apostrophe indicates time or quantity and enumerates some examples to illustrate this use. Sample No. 3 reads thus: "Two weeks’ notice (Warner Brothers, take note)."

Don’t get Truss started on yet another movie — "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." That one, she says indignantly, is missing a question mark! (Exclamation mark ours.)

Just who is Lynne Truss? Well, she is a writer and broadcaster in her native Britain. Would you believe that she has presented a radio program on punctuation? Called "Cutting a Dash," the show proved so popular that it led her to write "Eats, Shoots and Leaves."

But what is her problem, you may ask. Well, Truss is just someone who gets absolutely horrified at seeing punctuation mistakes.

For Truss, a basic misuse in punctuation can make a world of difference. There’s the panda in the title. Then there’s also this to consider: "A woman, without her man, is nothing," versus "A woman: without her, man is nothing."

Through her book, Truss knows she will find more kindred spirits out there. In her introduction, Truss relates seeing a banner near where she lives that said: "for CD’s, VIDEO’s, DVD’s, and BOOK’s."

She then subsequently says that if this "satanic sprinkling" of apostrophes does not cause any adverse reactions in the reader, then he or she should just put the book down.

"For any true stickler, you see, the sight of the plural word ‘Book’s’ with an apostrophe in it will trigger a ghastly private emotional process similar to the stages of bereavement, though greatly accelerated. First there is shock. Within seconds, shock gives way to disbelief, disbelief to pain, and pain to anger. Finally (and this is where the analogy breaks down), anger gives way to a righteous urge to perpetrate an act of criminal damage with the aid of a permanent marker."

With this humorous—if a bit demented—tone, Truss sets off on her encounters with wayward and missing punctuation marks. While I may not go to the same lengths Truss would, I can identify with how she feels. Having worked as an editor myself, I’ve cringed at sentences that mix up the use of "its" and "it’s." There are also those, unfortunately, who confuse "who’s" with "whose" and vice-versa.

In "Eats, Shoots and Leaves," I was rather gladdened to learn that even Britons make the same mistakes. English, after all, is just a second language for us Filipinos. What’s their excuse?

You probably would not read a book on language, grammar or punctuation unless it was required in class. But trust me, you’ll find "Eats, Shoots and Leaves," entertaining. What’s nice, of course, is that you’re also learning about the proper use of commas, colons and semi-colons and apostrophes. Truss also shares historical tidbits about the different punctuation marks and how each one has evolved through the centuries.

Along the way, you also pick up trivia about things you might never have known about. For instance, that there was a British pop group that went by the name Hear’Say. Naturally, Truss lamented the "eternal meaninglessness" of the misplaced apostrophe and she rejoiced when the group folded up a mere eighteen months after its launch.

Truss also offers a lucid presentation. After giving the historical background of a punctuation mark, she lists down its uses and then illustrates these with several examples. Her snide remarks and asides are crucial to making the book so readable. You can’t wait what she’ll be harping about on the next page.

In the age of the Internet and cellphones, Truss takes issue with emoticons, the use of punctuation marks to express emotions so widespread in e-mail and text messages. Truss decries that smileys (using a colon, a hypen and a closing parentheses to signify a smiling face) are "designed by people who evidently thought the punctuation marks on the standard keyboard cried out for an ornamental function."

For Truss, the fight will never end. That her book reached No. 1 on Britain’s best-seller lists shows that she has touched a nerve in others. She urges sticklers like herself to unite and become punctuation vigilantes. In one typically funny passage in her introduction, Truss exhorts: "Be a nuisance. Do something. And if possible use a bright red pen. Send back e-mails that are badly punctuated; return letters; picket Harrods… if you adopt a zero tolerance approach, when you next see a banner advertising ‘CD’s, DVD’s, Video’s, and Book’s’, you won’t just stay indoors getting depressed about it. Instead you will engage in some directaction argy-bargy! Because — here’s the important thing — you won’t be alone."

We can only cheer Truss on: You go, girl!!! (And pardon the extra exclamation points. She deserves them, really.)