The author likens it with a pack of cigarette a day. It would be more apt if she compared it with wine, where a glass a day has proven to be beneficial. She qu

The author likens it with a pack of cigarette a day. It would be more apt if she compared it with wine, where a glass a day has proven to be beneficial. She quoted it herself: "Use a dash only when a more common mark of punctuation seems inadequate." Who are we, we modern writers, to pass judgment—and with such shocking frequency—on these more simple forms of punctuation—the workmanlike comma, the stalwart colon, the taken-for-granted period? (One colleague—arguing strenuously that certain occasions call for the dash instead of other punctuation, for purposes of tone—told me he thinks of the parenthesis as a whisper, and the dash as a way of calling attention to a phrase. Right, so because you as a modern writer don't want to pass judgment we should stop using it? I'm on her colleague's side on this one. EDIT: Embarassing gender confusion. Thanks for the correction.