I have stayed with PixKristin! At your old tiny IKEA-riffic cottage in LA!
Delurking 1: Because we don't always check our e-mail.
That's right!! I couldn't remember if we'd ever actually stayed at one another's places or just stayed adjacent. Ima go back and edit.
That reminds me, I need to upload and send you guys the picture of us in my sleep cave!
Yes! Totally!
Hee. Sleep cave and my mutant arm!
billytea, I was taught not to use it and, in general, am opposed to it. I do take it on a case-by-case basis, though, and if I think it's required to prevent ambiguity I will use it. But I try not to get myself all wound up in a sentence of such complex construction that I honestly need to use it.
I've stayed with Kristin and DebetEsse. Nilly has stayed with me. I think that's it.
The strongest argument I heard for using the serial comma is that it gives items in a series equal weight. It is the reason I use it even when clarity is not a major concern.
I can't believe I even have an opinion. Pre- buffista it was an arbitrary rule.
As a matter of interest, are there any Americans here opposed to the serial comma?
I'm against it, and it's fussiness will be properly weeded out by the English language's incessant drive towards expedience.
By the same taken I don't use the possessive "s" on a word that ends in "s." Like: Waits' instead of Waits's
Cilantro: No. Yuck. Soapy.
Olives: Yes, Greek, Italian, black, green, fancy, in a can, on a pizza yep.
Muffaletta: If it doesn't have olives it's not a muffaletta!
I've stayed with Kristin
D'oh! See, this is exactly what I meant. Of course you have!
t runs off to edit
And, weighing on on Delurking questions:
Cilantro=YUM
Olives I can take or leave (unsurprisingly, same with muffalettas)
Serial comma= yes, though I will reluctantly abandon it if I must
I learned two spaces after the period and had a very hard time letting go of it in grad school but was finally persuaded to do so. Now I always use one and get annoyed with more.
I go back and forth with the extra possessive s.