This is a passage that I came across some years ago. The challenge is just the same as in zm's post - punctuate the passage.
To avoid helping each other I'll say the same thing he did, send your attempts to me via pm and I'll collate them.

quote:

dear john
i want a man who knows what love is all about you are generous kind thoughtful people who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men i yearn for you i have no feelings whatsoever when we are apart i can be forever happy will you let me be yours
jane

Mine's in.

WM

dear jane,
i think you would be very happy with archie the cockroach
http://www.donmarquis.com/archy/

As a few of you noted in your PMs and as zm mentioned elsewhere, the passage is deliberately written to provide two opposite interpretations.

They are, of course, as follows.
(Minor variations occurred in all the submitted versions.)

quote:

Dear John,
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we are apart. I can be forever happy. Will you let me be yours?

Jane

and

quote:

Dear John,
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior! You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we are apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?

Yours,

Jane

Poor Jane seems rather ambivalent about her feelings. Maybe that's why she left the punctuation out in the first place.

Your text shows that punctuation sometimes is necessary; zmj's showed that sometimes it isn't.

I'm not so sure that mine shows that.
I can punctuate it perfectly well with just the Newline character

dear john
i want a man who knows what love is

all about you are generous kind thoughtful people who are not like you

admit to being useless and inferior

you have ruined me

for other men i yearn

for you i have no feelings whatsoever

when we are apart i can be forever happy

will you let me be

yours jane

OR

dear john
i want a man who knows what love is all about

you are generous kind thoughtful

people who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior

you have ruined me for other men

i yearn for you

i have no feelings whatsoever when we are apart

i can be forever happy will

you let me be yours

jane

quote:

I can punctuate it perfectly well with just the Newline character

Except that the omission of conventional punctuation means that nine lines are required rather than three. So, whereas it is possible to do without normal punctuation, as these examples have shown, punctuation is an aid to both clarity and brevity - which is no doubt why it arose.

Would someone telling a former lover to get lost sign it, "Yours, Jane?" That's not been MY experience! There's ambiguity in both renderings, IMHO.

Would someone telling a former lover to get lost sign it, "Yours, Jane?"

Probably not, but maybe so. It's not a real letter, dear John or otherwise. It's something somebody cooked up to show how important punctuation is.

The "Yours" would, in British usage at least, be the shortest and curtest way of signing off. In this letter it has a distinctly sarcastic sound about it.

zm, of course it is, but I feel that my newline only version shows that even in something as clearly contrived punctuation is no more than a matter of convention.