The strongest argument I heard for using the serial comma is that it gives items in a series equal weight.

I think the "and" gives the last item quite enough weight. Nobody else gets an "and."

Of course, the loss of various extra letters mostly came from Noah Webster, who was deliberately trying to create a leaner and specifically American English. You gotta love the godlike power of the early dictionary makers.

The retention of feet and inches mainly shows that there are some things you have to declare by fiat, because public opinion is generally an ass. These days, proposing the metric system would be branded as socialist and dangerously French. Also, didn't Hitler use the metric system?

Hello all former lurkers, of all political flavors!

I haven't had any buffistae stay with me, unless you count Amyth falling asleep on my couch. Now that I have an apartment with a guest room that should change. I do live right next door to amyth, which is lovely, as well as near smonster and within partying distance of amych and darth. Both meara and SA have been by, but I believe they've always stayed with amyth and/or smonster.

I've gone by Cincinnati a number of times, without ever visiting, as I was always traveling with my parents on our way to Michigan. They were old and didn't really get the whole invisible internet friends thing. However, I'll be heading up to MI by myself in the future, and one of those times I'll suck it up for the drive through Ohio so I can make a Cinci stop, if the Ohioistas don't mind.

one of those times I'll suck it up for the drive through Ohio so I can make a Cinci stop, if the Ohioistas don't mind.

Mind?? On the contrary -- you'd better stop!

Since I can't match numbers on with whom I've stayed, or who has stayed with me, I won't make a list.

I will add, however, for the lurkers' benefit, that I turned my keys over to smonster to stay in my apartment while I was away without every having met her face-to-face.

Since I can't match numbers on with whom I've stayed, or who has stayed with me, I won't make a list.

But you have a really cute puppy, and (cover Sass's ears) now an even cuter little girl who I really need to meet soon, so you don't need a list.

You guys have no idea how long it took me to realize that muffuletta [link] isn't a mofletta [link] Seriously. I was wondering who puts olives on a mofletta.

ION, you made me think long and hard about serial comma, and asking other people about it. Those other people in my life looked at me like I'm craxy. While I still don't know my position about it in English (but I tend to be in favor of it), I hardly think it's necessary in Hebrew. The languages just balances themselves different, and use some punctuation marks differently, you know? In Hebrew, for instance, a signal quotation mark is used to mark acronyms before the last letter of the word.

As for fondness for ellipsis... you're kidding me, right?

The only Buffista I stayed with, of course, was Nilly. That happened several times. Made of win, darlings, made of win: our Nilly ALWAYS have ice cream in her fridge. On the other hand, I missed the opportunity to see most American Buffistas by starting reading b.org two months after I got back from my great-overseas journey to the U.S..

You gotta love the godlike power of the early dictionary makers.

Trivia tidbit: the way that 19th century schoolteachers had the students drill in spelling affected how Americans pronounce words, tending to use all of the syllables ("sec-re-ta-ry" instead of "sec-re-try", for example). The way students used to take spelling tests was by recitation, not writing (very little paper meant that most things were oral instead of written), and they would break the word down by syllable.

"Secretary: s-e-c, sec, r-e, re, secre, t-a, ta, secreta, r-y, ry, secretary!"

(Thank you, Laura Ingalls Wilder, for that little demonstration of teaching methods.)

I use my real name cause back on TT Mary Beth would have cut me, or something, if I hadn't.(I was not a Buffista then, though, because I didn't take to Buffy on my initial viewing. I was also boring and shy, so if you don't remember me from then, it ain't no thing. I wish I didn't either.) But the real name habit stuck(well, I let Fay call me E, because we've got it like that, and because it so fits.) Except on lj, because that's where the freaky stuff goes. I've had Buffistas to dinner a few times and snogged more than my share at f2fs. I'm not good, by Buffista standards, with punctuation, although that still qualifies me to be a neighborhood pain in the ass. And that whole conversation reminds me of Ben-Affleck-as-Keith-Olbermann twisting a sentence to death to avoid ending it with a preposition.

I have had THREE! THREE! Buffistas stay with me! Four, if Matilda counts as a lurker.

I have had 4 Buffistas sleep in my bed at once! It was AWESOME. Ah, the Bed Of Doom. Also, ND and I were each other's First Buffista, as I picked him up in MSP to go meet Bridget and Knut for drinks at the Bryant Lake Bowl.

I'm not a fan of olives. So the mofletta looks a lot better to me than a muffuletta.