Is the yet a good idea? One comma, pause in speech, and you have:
Not developed enough yet to live.
Not developed enough, yet to live.
That just shows why commas are important.
The Panda. Eats shoots and leaves? Or eats, shoots, and leaves?
"too early ? " is said after no one laughts at a joke about a possibly painful topic ??
So the level of pain is on a scale … not binary.
“Too premature ?” sounds like it could be said instead of "too early ? " by a comedian … or someone who just made some sort of joke. In which case its just banter and isn’t meant to be deeply analyzed.
This was the distinction that came to mind.
Plus, the quote as I heard it was “The Panda eats, roots, and leaves.”
So does everyone else at the sports bar; don’t know why the Panda is specifically called out.
Sorry if this is too obvious, but the panda eats bamboo shoots. Panda eats shoots. (Then someone misheard or misremembered it as “roots”.)
For those coming in late - here is the book which started the whole thing:
Apparently commas matter. Here in America, we’ve been at each other’s throats over that comma in the Second Amendment for 200++ years now.
I heard the joke from a New Zealander, and apparently down under, “roots” has an alternate meaning which makes it funnier.
(Why spoil a good joke with the fact that Pandas don’t eat roots?)