I learned that serial commas were correct in elementary school, but wrong in high school. I am inconsistent in my usage.

I have grown to cherish the quick title sequences since Six Feet Under abused theirs so heinously. The best is Scrubs, I think, with the catchy but short theme song. Though The Sopranos is just about perfect, title sequence-wise, in general shorter is better.

Re: television themes: I started watching the post-miniseries first season episodes of Battlestar Galactica last night, and I'm pretty sure they've taken all the opening sequences to use themselves.

If all stories were written like science fiction stories

“Do you think we’ll be flying on a propeller plane? Or one of the newer jets?” asked Ann.

“I’m sure it will be a jet,” said Roger. “Propeller planes are almost entirely out of date, after all. On the other hand, rocket engines are still experimental. It’s said that when they’re in general use, trips like this will take an hour at most. This one will take up to four hours.”

After a short wait, they were ushered onto the plane with the other passengers. The plane was an enormous steel cylinder at least a hundred meters long, with sleek backswept wings on which four jet engines were mounted. They glanced into the front cabin and saw the two pilots, consulting a bank of equipment needed the fly the plane. Roger was glad that he did not need to fly the plane himself; it was a difficult profession which required years of training.

Heh.

Re: television themes: I started watching the post-miniseries first season episodes of Battlestar Galactica last night, and I'm pretty sure they've taken all the opening sequences to use themselves.

I just started to watch these too and was intrigued by the fact that the second half of the credits is basically a trailer for the episode to come. Interesting, but a bit too spoilery for my tastes. Does that continue on throughout the series?

Also, serial commas rule. As I tell my students, they can only clarify what you are trying to say, so why not use them?

My sistah in serial!

Who else is with me?

Me!!!

In "serial comma" you mean a comma that comes before the word "and", like in Nutty's example from above, "I'd like to thank my parents, G-d and Ayn Rand", that makes so much mroe sense if it's "I'd like to thank my parents, G-d, and Ayn Rand" and not as if Ayn Rand suddenly mothered a kid with some holy spirit, right?

It took Nilly's explanation of that sentence for me to realize why a comma might be necessary. What kind of fool thinks that Ayn Rand would let God get close enough to her to make a baby?

I abuse commas enough that I don't need those extra serial commas.

I generally don't use serial commas. Call me Rebel Without A Comma.

I generally don't use serial commas. Call me Rebel Without A Comma.

Rebel Without A Pause?

Better than Rebel Without a Clause.

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.

If you teach this to the writers I edit, my revenge will be more horrible than you could possibly imagine.

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.

Yes I will. Even if your stance on the serial comma is so wrong it almost robs me of words.