When I think of March, I don’t think of basketball or the infamous “Ides.” No, for me, it’s a celebration of good grammar. After all, March 4 is National Grammar Day in the U.S. (the U.K. couldn’t be bothered to observe grammar).
A relatively new holiday, National Grammar Day was established in 2008 by Martha Brockenbrough, a fellow word nerd who founded the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG). President George W. Bush officially noted his approval of the holiday by sending a letter to commemorate it in its first year. I’m sure it had impeccable punctuation.
In case you’re struggling to think of ways to get in on the Grammar Day festivities, here are some ideas:
Host a “favorite letter” party. I come from the “letter people” generation, in which we learned about our alphabet from inflatable letter people in kindergarten. You can come to a letter party dressed as your favorite letter. Alphabet soup will be on the menu, and Scrabble will be the game of choice. Receive bonus points if you can find a way to create a party game combining Scrabble with Twister.
Learn a new word. Open the dictionary to a random page and point to a random word. That word will be your guiding word for Grammar Day. My dictionary gave me the word “jobbernowl,” which means “numbskull” or “nincompoop.” I will embrace it.
Send your high school English teacher a note of gratitude. Although Facebook is a cesspool of awfulness and Russian trolls, it does provide ways to reconnect with acquaintances from the past. If your English teacher is on Facebook, send her a note of appreciation. If your English teacher has passed over to the other side of life’s final term paper, head to your local library and offer a gentle fist bump to a librarian.
Read a book. It doesn’t have to be my book about good grammar; it could be any book. Reading is a beautiful thing — it opens your mind to new ideas and worlds beyond yours. While I (personally) don’t count audiobooks as “reading,” listening to a book in the car or through your earbuds is an acceptable way to broaden your horizons.
Do you celebrate National Grammar Day? If not, this is a great year to start. After all, your bracket will almost certainly be busted by day two of the big tournament.
Curtis Honeycutt is a syndicated humor columnist. He is the author of Good Grammar is the Life of the Party: Tips for a Wildly Successful Life. Find more at curtishoneycutt.com.
