The importance of proper punctuation

This is a short (and cheeky) post on the necessity of using proper punctuation – particularly the hyphen – and how it can completely alter the meaning of your sentence, often with ill effect. This morning, for one reason or another, I was reminded of a conversation I had with @nofunnyname last week on the subject of him buying a car. He said:

I need to get an old ass banger.

So, is that ‘old-ass banger’, or ‘old ass-banger’? You decide ;)