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I love this thread.
Regarding punctuation within or outside of quotation marks: American usage calls for the punctuation to be inside, while folk in the UK put it outside.
Parentheses, however, have their punctuation outside, for the most part, unless common sense puts it inside. Actually (which is pronounced "egg-jelly" by some English people), if your phrase inhabiting parentheses needs punctuation inside the parentheses, it may be that it's not really a parenthetical phrase at all and might as happily live outside the parentheses or perhaps make its own tidy little paragraph.
Orionath and I went to a little tavern that had wonderful fish and chips and the most abysmally incorrect menu I have ever seen. They reversed their possessives and plurals ("Captain Blighs onion ring's," and suchlike that.); it was enough to make a word processor/proofreader/editor type (c'est moi) apoplectic. Orionath persuaded me not to say anything to the witress, not even the mildest remark or a sweet request to visit with the manager and offer free proofreading services. Probably I was not capable of a mild remark, and he was wise. I wanted a menu as a souvenir. He also discouraged that. I don't know why.
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It's the quiet little people who make all the difference.
Well, okay. The big noisy people, too.
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