Serial commas are unnecessarily anal, however, and I enjoy watching fusty grammarians wail in torment as they are inevitably weeded out by our fast moving culture. Ha ha! I laugh at your grammar pain.
::cries and cries::
The girl's not playing with a full deck, Giles. She has almost no deck. She has a three.
Buffy ,'Same Time, Same Place'
Natter 47: My Brilliance Is Wasted On You People
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Amy - Oct 23, 2006 8:54:51 am PDT #5004 of 10001
Because books.
DavidS - Oct 23, 2006 8:55:57 am PDT #5005 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
::cries and cries::
::evil laughter. pointing::
Amy - Oct 23, 2006 8:57:57 am PDT #5006 of 10001
Because books.
::evil laughter. pointing::
I just want to point out that Hec is mean, evil, [SEE THE COMMA? RIGHT THERE WHERE IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE?!] and unnecessarily gleeful.
::sniffs::
§ ita § - Oct 23, 2006 8:58:11 am PDT #5007 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
megan walker - Oct 23, 2006 9:00:53 am PDT #5008 of 10001
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
Serial commas are unnecessarily anal, however, and I enjoy watching fusty grammarians wail in torment as they are inevitably weeded out by our fast moving culture. Ha ha! I laugh at your grammar pain.
Actually, I'd say the reverse, that more people use the serial comma now then they did 20 or 30 years ago when one was taught not to use it. I found that back when I was editing an academic journal it was inevitably the older professors that didn't use it.
Nutty - Oct 23, 2006 9:01:35 am PDT #5009 of 10001
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."
David, I got to teach a coworker the "I'd like to thank my parents, God and Ayn Rand" sentence the other day. The serial comma does still have a will-to-live, at least under certain circumstances.
(N.b. I don't use it all the time.)
My comma problem is that I use them whenever I would pause or draw breath in a sentence when speaking. Which is more often than formally prescribed, but I use my commas in a completely logical way. I feel oppressed by the comma-deleters of this world. (Also, I make long and complex sentences a lot, so I need commas a lot, so I use them! I have mastery of compound-complex sentences; I think I have by this point reasoned out an approach to punctuation.)
DavidS - Oct 23, 2006 9:02:16 am PDT #5010 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Looks like it's time for this.
Heh. So the negative reinforcement comes out. Bzzzzzt!
unnecessarily gleeful
Oxymoron! Glee is necessary, and you can't overindulge in it. Particularly when you're evil. If you're not going to enjoy your evil then why bother? Jilli will back me up on this, I'm sure.
Kathy A - Oct 23, 2006 9:04:23 am PDT #5011 of 10001
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
I love the serial comma, and am frustrated to no end here at work when I have to edit unemployment insurance state regulations, which never use said serial comma.
::hugs serial comma tightly to chest::
Allyson - Oct 23, 2006 9:04:26 am PDT #5012 of 10001
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica
I will stick by the serial comma til death do us part.
Kathy A - Oct 23, 2006 9:05:33 am PDT #5013 of 10001
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
high fives Allyson!