was she trying for irony?

[cellio]

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation sounds like a great book for grammar nerds, but I am put off somewhat by the 1.5 punctuation errors in the title. (One is debatable and might be excused by context (it refers to a joke containing the phrase); the other is clearly wrong.)

Comments

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Chicago now says that the hyphen for adjectival clauses is optional and declining. It's important for a house style to be consistent, but that's it.

[cellio]

Adjectival hyphens are becoming optional in at least one reputable style guide? How sad. While I can't call any to mind at the moment, I know I've read enough confusing hyphenless sentences to fear the results. (The very best writers can be clear regardless of the applicable grammar/style rules -- it's everyone else I'm worried about.)