When students wonder what's the big deal about tiny little commas, show 'em this article. Acccording to the Globe and Mail, the placement of a comma in a contract may cost Rogers Communications Inc. very big bucks.

DOWNLOADS: Comma quirk irks Rogers (PDF)

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Let Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" tell your students why Wikipedia, while not a bad starting point for research, is a lousy place to stop.

Here's more information on Wikipedia.

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You can listen to the current show, download a podcast or cruise the show's archives. Or you could try to answer the questions yourself at the Web site.

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Grammar Smackdowns! meld the savagery of professional wrestling with the grace of the English language and the splendid tyranny of the AP Stylebook. Full nelsons and semicolons; the homonym and the flying drop kick - you may see it all and more at a Smackdown!

DOWNLOADS: Grammar Smackdown! Guide

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Listen to Will Shortz, The New York Times' crossword puzzle editor and NPR's puzzlemaster, as he challenges a Weekend Edition listener with one of his quizzes. If you're game, try to answer next week's challenge for a chance to go on the air witih Will.

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A short story by Eleanor Arnason, who has won several awards for her writing. “A Woman of the Iron People” won the Mythopoeic Award and the James Tiptree Jr. Award, which honors science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores understanding of gender. One Tiptree judge admired her novel for its "four-square grumpy humor and effortless inventiveness.” In this short story, Arnason takes literally the notion that words have a life of their own.

(Posted for only educational use with the author's permission.)

DOWNLOADS: The Grammarian's Five Daughters

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The next time your students suggest that only persnickety copy editors care about the fine points of language, let 'em listen while NPR's Melissa Block interviews a federal judge who threw the book at attorneys who commit sloppy writing.

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The American Copy Editors Society has created an eclectic gallery of more than 60 quizzes. Because copy editors need to know at least a little about everything, nothing is irrelevant. For instance, did you know that the first commercial winery in the United States was established in Missouri back in 1823?

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You'll have to click here to get the rest of this joke, which may be the only X-rated punch line based on knowledge of the pluperfect subjunctive. If you don't like this joke, don't bother checking out the rest of the collection.

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MSN and Encarta have teamed up for this collection of quizzes. Topics start with Language and Literature, continue through Animals & Nature, Geography, Math & Science, Sports, History and wind up with Miscellaneous.

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Courtesy of the Understanding Science web site at the University College Cork, you can use this game to show students how the mind can be tricked - or at least teased.

While you're on this page, you'll find not only science and math puzzles, but also a nifty word puzzle and another one.

The page also links to the Color Test, which is a good demonstration of the difficulty of ignoring words, even when directed to.

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"These real headlines sent to us by real viewers will make you wonder how they ever made it into print!" That's how the archive of headlines trotted out on "The Tonight Show" is introduced. Sadly, we know how they made it, don't we?

"Quaker Maid Meats Inc. on Tuesday said it would voluntarily recall 94,400 pounds of frozen ground beef panties that may be contaminated with E. coli."

"Preventing false alarms can be prevented"

"In response to the caller who didn't want his paernts to be called morons for sending him to a private school: Maybe he would be taught proper English in a pubic school. He should have said, 'my brother and me' instead of 'my brother and I.'"

Sure, Jay Leno's collection is fun. So have some more fun at this site, which includes boo-boos from ads, books, software and more.

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You can buy the game, or play it online as a way to expand your vocabulary - did you know that ted is a word, not just a name? - or make a few hours inexplicably disappear.

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Too often, the brain sees what it thinks it should see. Or, to save processing time, it skips over what it knows should be there. This "test” is a demonstration of the latter problem. Just ignore the silly reasoning at the bottom; it's a question of skipping over, not an inability to process.

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