Commas, Adjudicated, In Pennsylvania

Strunk liked the serial comma. I agree.

I agree with pleasure, alacrity, and wit.

My rule has been, with anything relating to the English language, that if it has the word "Oxford" attached to it (Oxford Comma, Oxford English Dictionary, etc.) then using it is the proper thing to do.

Oxfords AreTo Be Worn

Even in PA

Paul in PA

Personally, I’ve never been a fan of the Oxford Comma. This stems from growing up in some rather obscure, remote areas where commas were a rare commodity and only to be used when absolutely necessary. Even here in Bend the commas have to be shipped over the mountains from the Willamette Valley and the freight cost are exorbitant, especially during the winter when the mountain passes are treacherous and sometimes closed due to avalanches. The comma mongers just don’t like hauling their wares over dangerous roads. One false move and the resulting accident can damage their goods and they’ll be reduced to salvaging their inventory on the apostrophe market for pennies on the dollar.

> Personally, I’ve never been a fan of the Oxford Comma. This stems from growing up in some rather obscure, remote areas where commas were a rare commodity and only to be used when absolutely necessary. Even here in Bend the commas have to be shipped over the mountains from the Willamette Valley and the freight cost are exorbitant, especially during the winter when the mountain passes are treacherous and sometimes closed due to avalanches. The comma mongers just don’t like hauling their wares over dangerous roads. One false move and the resulting accident can damage their goods and they’ll be reduced to salvaging their inventory on the apostrophe market for pennies on the dollar.

Seems like it's always been comma feast or famine on that side of the mountains.

I can remember driving over said passes, traveling betwixt Eugene and Sunriver, in a Triumph Spitfire with the top down and skis in the passenger seat, smuggling a boot full of bootleg commas from the U of O English Department, unbeknownst to the authorities, to sell on the Eastern Oregon comma black-market.

I'm starting to believe my own dribble, now, about the sissification of Oregon.

We don't hide our commas under blankets in a trunk. We defiantly load ours into the front seat with us so anyone can see what we're doing.

> I'm starting to believe my own dribble, now, about the sissification of Oregon.
>
> We don't hide our commas under blankets in a trunk. We defiantly load ours into the front seat with us so anyone can see what we're doing.

Wasn't Kansas the first state in the union to pass an "open carry comma statute"?

.....Wasn't Kansas the first state in the union to pass an "open carry comma statute"?.....

That should be: The Union.

Not to be confused with those corrupt political machines that force nice American companies to relocate to Malaysia, Myanmar, and Madagascar.

You bet, BTW. We proudly carry our commas in plain sight for all to see and respect. We are careful, however, with our exclamation marks so as to not startle the delicate flowers from certain other States. We do have one sexist tradition here, however. Only females over a certain age are allowed to have ownership of periods.

> We do have one sexist tradition here, however. Only females over a certain age are allowed to have ownership of periods.

Only tilde reach a point later in life, about the same time their husband's doctor starts to inquire about checking his colon.

I believe that where commas are concerned, if you have any question as to whether to use one, don't.

I dislike the Oxford or Harvard comma.

If you wouldn't change tone or inflection vocally when reading aloud the text you are writing, then do not use a comma.

My rule. I edit when I am writing to see if I can leave commas out.
😛

Who gives an "F" about an Oxford Comma?

NSFW (song has bad words)

[flash width=560 height=315] http://www.youtube.com/v/P_i1xk07o4g?version=3&hl=en_US [/flash]

If the judge is so concerned about how things look, rather than substance, perhaps he might not want to let his frivolous doodling become public. It might not look so good to the landlord waiting for the court to get around to his eviction case so he can rent to someone who actually pays rent, or to the tenant who wants to force his landlord to fix the plumbing.

"If the judge is so concerned about how things look, rather than substance, perhaps he might not want to let his frivolous doodling become public"

Well yeah, you can say that, but if you fall back to that Wiki link, posted above, the few outstanding examples speak to the need for proper use of commas, to wit

"An example collected by Hayden was found in a newspaper account of a documentary about Merle Haggard:

Among those interviewed were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson, and Robert Duvall."

[...]

"The Times once published an unintentionally humorous description of a Peter Ustinov documentary, noting that "highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector". This would still be ambiguous if a serial comma were added, as Mandela could then be mistaken for a demigod, although he would be precluded from being a dildo collector."

These are just news articles for print, and the bit of confusion introduced doesn't hold the same weight as possible civil or criminal penalty.

Now Cow...

... I can’t argue with you about the sissification of this once great state. I mean, we are one of the first states to have a Death with Dignity law. Death isn’t supposed to be dignified, it is supposed to be a full-diapered, bullet bitin’ fight to a climatic hemorrhaging choking fit.

But our inherent dislike of the Oxford comma stems from our Spartan pioneer roots, where a life or death decision had to made back in Saint Joe on whether to buy another couple barrels of flour for the trip west or a hogshead of commas. Those that went with flour generally made it. Those who bet on commas… well you can’t eat commas on a snowy mountain pass in late November.

Homesteaders got used to economizing comma usage until the mid 1860s when bunko steerers, rapscallions and other such riffraff from the played-out California goldmines began bringing up bootleg commas. These charlatans would buy a bushel of used up end-quotes ("), chisel them in two (' '), pound them to grade (, ,) and sell them on the black market as brand new commas. This went on for a decade or two until the vigilantes got the Californians all properly lynched.

Things were peaceful until the 1960s when hippies at the U of C in Berkeley began smuggling commas to the U of O English Department in Eugene. They would hollow out 1 kilo bricks of hashish (legal tender on both campuses) and stuff them full of thousands of commas. The state went wild with commas, so much so that hippie chicks in Eugene even began making clothes out of them:

And thus began our slow decline…

Now Cow...

And don't even get me started on the Comma Rush of 1859.

Now Cow...

No comma(ent).

Rick

So how big is the NW1/4, NE1/4, SE1/4, section 8? Would that be three-fourths of the section or 1/64th of the section?

Definitely in the legal profession, they need to know how to write clearly and conclusively. That's why it is always advised to hire an attorney to draw up contracts for you and/or represent you in court. So that the appropriate language is used to protect you or at least to not further exacerbate the situation.

If you have a poorly-written contract, often you can lose a court battle. Courts tend to rule in favor of the party that didn't draw up the contract. We hear about this with ambiguous legal descriptions all the time. A lawyer shouldn't mix up his commas, any more than a surveyor should be calling out NW when they meant NE.

One more, well credentialled advocate, for the case of commas - Enjoy

<iframe src=""" https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/mary_norris_the_nit_picking_glory_of_the_new_yorker_s_comma_queen.html " width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen>

embed troubles here