As if perfectly planned to coincide with our blog’s ode to all things punctuation, Moira Rose Donohue wrote two books entitled Alfie the Apostrophe and Penny and the Punctuation Bee. Okay, they were published well before this week, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy hearing about them. Moira answers burning questions like What is a punctuation bee? and How can punctuation make or break a Supreme Court case? as well as What punctuation mark are you? Yes, really. Akin to the age old “What sign are you?” question, this is a fun new way to identify with those squiggly little marks that permeate our language. (For the record, I am a question mark.) Click below to listen to our conversation. (RT:
Moira Donohue loves tap dancing, old movies, opera and, OK, is a self-proclaimed grammar and punctuation geek. In ALFIE THE APOSTROPHE, she first revealed the secret talents of punctuation marks that only true lovers of punctuation know about. For example, did you know that question marks love riddles and jokes? And exclamation points? Cheerleaders! Perhaps you’ve already noticed that quotation marks are often filled with hot air. She followed ALFIE with PENNY AND THE PUNCTUATION BEE in which punctuation marks compete to make sentences using their punctuation marks..
Her father, who read the dictionary for fun, instilled in Moira a love of words and grammar. Later, her interest in punctuation was piqued when, as a young lawyer, she had to research a question about a missing quotation mark in a very old banking law. Without the quotation mark, it looked like the law, which people thought had been around for almost 100 years, really didn’t exist at all. The question ultimately had to be decided by the United States Supreme Court!
She grew up in Bayside, Queens (NYC) and was educated at Mississippi University for Women (’75) and the University of Santa Clara School of Law (’78). Today Moira lives in northern Virginia with her husband, Rob, also a lawyer; and two dogs, Sniffles the pug and Quincy the Cavapoo. Her two children, Peter