As a big fan of the Oxford comma, I surprised to learn it's not actually used at Oxford, where they prefer to drop the last comma in a series. To my eye, a sentence just looks naked without it (poor JFK and Stalin out there on their own, nipple tassels blowing in the wind), not to mention the dangers of ambiguity your illustration points out so well.
MGIP, that's terrible news. Next you'll tell me that cream cheese isn't really from Philadelphia! You can mess with punctuation, but don't molest my cheesecake.
I have to share with hubby, we were just debating this yesterday! Hilarious.
Anonymous said…
"We invited the strippers, jfk and stalin." fits the first image. "We invited the strippers jfk and stalin." and "We invited the strippers: jfk and stalin." fit the second image.
Anonymous said…
"I dedicate this book to my parents, Margaret and God."
Comments
"We invited the strippers jfk and stalin." and "We invited the strippers: jfk and stalin." fit the second image.