Today is the 5th anniversary of National Punctuation Day. This day came to being in 2004. The man behind it is the "chief of the punctuation police" Jeff Rubin, a former journalist.

This day is described as "a celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotes, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis".

Today is also a day to remind business people that poor punctuation can cost your business millions of dollars. Rogers Communications, for example, one of Canada's largest telecommunications companies, learned the hard way just how important proper punctuation could be, when an attorney misplaced a comma in a contract with a company that agreed to lay Rogers's cables across the Maritimes. A Canadian court said ignorance of correct punctuation was no excuse and invalidated what was believed to be an ironclad five-year contract. That errant squiggle alone cost Rogers $2.13 million.

It's a great day for librarians, educators, and parents ' people who are interested in teaching and promoting good writing skills to their students and their children. It's also a day to remind business people that they are often judged by how they present themselves, and punctuation counts.