Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Eats, Shoots & Leaves is a book about the importance of English punctuation. English punctuation can make a lot of difference in the meaning of a sentence. In the opening chapter of the book, a story is told of a panda that enters a bar, eats, shoots his revolver, and leaves the bar. Normally, pandas eat bamboo shoots and bamboo leaves. But by placing the comma after the word "eats" rather than after the word "shoots", the meaning of the word "shoots" is changed from bamboo shoots to the verb "shoots", which refers to discharging a weapon.