Inside or Out?

In between discussions about raising the debt ceiling, world hunger, and how to increase awareness about hepatitis C, I am pondering an imponderable. Should the period and the comma go before or after the quotation marks? I am serious. Apparently it isn’t as cut and dry and issue as I had believed. For interesting and enlightening edification, read Ben Yagoda’s article in Slate.

I don’t really care where the punctuation marks go—just tell me the right way and I will do it. 

in the meantime I am boycotting punctuation marks 

ee cummings was on to something