A veteran was talking about how his military training had helped him after the war. He belonged to a church and they needed to raise some money. So he called the congregation together and said If you had a hard job to give somebody, who would you give it to? The congregation was pretty unanimous about who they’d choose.

But in telling the story, the gentleman said

“And I did it by having all the people come in and the congregation. And I said, Who is the man he—if you looked for someone to give a hard job. Oh, that’s Joe Blow. Hey, Joe Blow, stand up. You’re now the head of our campaign. Oh, no, not me. Yeah, it’s gonna be two weeks, that’s all. And we did that all down—the captains, the majors, and all the way through till we organized our whole campaign in an hour’s half time.”

But Joe Blow is strictly an American-ism! It doesn’t even make sense to people who aren’t steeped in American culture.

Merriam Webster cites an example of its use from 2020, but I really don’t hear it much any more.

Recent Examples on the Web

Under secret balloting, someone might say, hey, here is $5 to vote for Joe Blow, but the voter could take the money and go into the curtained voting booth and vote for Bill Smith.—Jay Ambrose, Star Tribune, 10 Aug. 2020

We are not ones to go around telling people how to express their excitement or how much excitement is the appropriate amount of excitement in informal speech, but this post by Grammarphobia does make an interesting point. Have you noticed a tendency towards using more than one exclamation point? Have you seen it in formal English at all?

Q: I’m seeing a lot of exclamation points in greetings (“Good Morning!” … “Hello!”) and in expressing gratitude (“Thanks!” or “Thanks!!!”). Is there an overuse of exclamation points? I have a feeling it’s generational, the younger you are the more you use them. Sure would love your opinion.

A: We can’t tell you definitively that the increasing use of exclamation points these days can be attributed to young people. Much of what we read now seems to be overexcited, with exclamation points proliferating on almost every front.

Why the overuse of a punctuation mark that’s supposed to be emphatic to begin with?

It may be that a simple “Hello” in a greeting, followed by a comma or a period, no longer feels enthusiastic enough. Or a simple “Thanks” may not seem grateful enough. So the writer punches it up with an exclamation point—or two or three.

The use of a single exclamation point isn’t wrong in these cases, though it can seem overwrought if no real emphasis is needed.

However, using more than one exclamation point at a time—“Thanks!!!”—is going too far. It’s not good English and it’s entirely out of place in formal usage. (Of course, people don’t always use their very best English, especially in casual use with family and friends.)

In her grammar and usage guide Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English (4th ed.), Pat has a few things to say on the subject:

“The exclamation point is like the horn on your car—use it only when you have to. A chorus of exclamation points says two things about your writing: First, you’re not confident that what you’re saying is important, so you need bells and whistles to get attention. Second, you don’t know a really startling idea when you see one.”

We are not ones to go around telling people how to express their excitement or how much excitement is the appropriate amount of excitement in informal speech, but this post by Grammarphobia does make an interesting point. Have you noticed a tendency towards using more than one exclamation point? Have you seen it in formal English at all?

Q: I’m seeing a lot of exclamation points in greetings (“Good Morning!” … “Hello!”) and in expressing gratitude (“Thanks!” or “Thanks!!!”). Is there an overuse of exclamation points? I have a feeling it’s generational, the younger you are the more you use them. Sure would love your opinion.

A: We can’t tell you definitively that the increasing use of exclamation points these days can be attributed to young people. Much of what we read now seems to be overexcited, with exclamation points proliferating on almost every front.

Why the overuse of a punctuation mark that’s supposed to be emphatic to begin with?

It may be that a simple “Hello” in a greeting, followed by a comma or a period, no longer feels enthusiastic enough. Or a simple “Thanks” may not seem grateful enough. So the writer punches it up with an exclamation point—or two or three.

The use of a single exclamation point isn’t wrong in these cases, though it can seem overwrought if no real emphasis is needed.

However, using more than one exclamation point at a time—“Thanks!!!”—is going too far. It’s not good English and it’s entirely out of place in formal usage. (Of course, people don’t always use their very best English, especially in casual use with family and friends.)

In her grammar and usage guide Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English (4th ed.), Pat has a few things to say on the subject:

“The exclamation point is like the horn on your car—use it only when you have to. A chorus of exclamation points says two things about your writing: First, you’re not confident that what you’re saying is important, so you need bells and whistles to get attention. Second, you don’t know a really startling idea when you see one.”

New BOOKLink Service Available at Hobby Airport

Houston Public Library and Houston Airports team up to offer travelers, visitors and aviation workers access to a new BOOKLink machine, ahead of expected record-setting holiday travel. The self-service kiosk offers a convenient way to get free e-books and audiobooks for readers who are on-the-go. A library card is not required; users can scan a QR code an enter a valid email address to browse and borrow from a digital pop-up library.  A limited selection of physical titles in both English and Spanish can be checked out with a MY Link library card.

For more information and to sign up for a card, visit:

HPL – MY Link – Visit Us at Houston Public Library (houstonlibrary.org)

CitizensNet | City of Houston

CitizensNet was created to share important city issues of interest to you and your neighbors.

Subscribe to CitizensNet or manage your preferences here:

houstontx.gov/citizensnet/

Thank you for your interest in the City of Houston!

New BOOKLink Service Available at Hobby Airport

Houston Public Library and Houston Airports team up to offer travelers, visitors and aviation workers access to a new BOOKLink machine, ahead of expected record-setting holiday travel. The self-service kiosk offers a convenient way to get free e-books and audiobooks for readers who are on-the-go. A library card is not required; users can scan a QR code an enter a valid email address to browse and borrow from a digital pop-up library.  A limited selection of physical titles in both English and Spanish can be checked out with a MY Link library card.

For more information and to sign up for a card, visit:

HPL – MY Link – Visit Us at Houston Public Library (houstonlibrary.org)

CitizensNet | City of Houston

CitizensNet was created to share important city issues of interest to you and your neighbors.

Subscribe to CitizensNet or manage your preferences here:

houstontx.gov/citizensnet/

Thank you for your interest in the City of Houston!