Unexpected but obvious downside to having all-black accessories in my purse: I either need a flashlight or empty out the whole thing to find what I'm looking for in the gaping, shadowy maw of the thing.

Okay, technically, the sentence using the serial comma is about the serial comma - they just don't use the phrase:

5. Use commas to separate three or more words, phrases, or clauses written in a series.

AP style does not use the Oxford comma, and since the vast majority of my writing has used AP style, neither do I.

My favorite AP style rule:

It is drunken, not drunk, driving.

Thanks, guys!

Connie, I did tell the guy who did the phone interview with me yesterday that I am more familiar with CMoS. I plan on actually taking my computer with me (it's a wee one, slips into my interview bag) and even though they probably won't let me use it, tell them:

"I have exemplary prooreading skills, but since I *am* a meticulous proofer, I would normally have the 2014 AP Style guide, the in-house style guide and X dictionary called up in tabs on my work computer. EVERY proofreader has to check multiple sources while proofing, no matter how long they have been editing. Any errors I make during this sample wouldn't be errors I made with my normal workflow set up, and within a few days of working with your team and getting a feel for your in-house preferences, I am confident my error rate would be low to zero. And my usage of checking multiple sources doesn't impede my speed; it increases it in the long term, because then I don't have to look up that particular query again."

Or some such.

(Guys, I'm NERVOUS! I am completely in control of my skills and am a hell of a good interview, but I haven't NOT been my own boss for years! Even though this is so flexible it actually, incredibly would work well with my weird insomnia/depression stuff that's made 40 hour, 8-5 jobs such a disaster for me.)

I don't think I got why people ate raw tomatoes until I was, like fifteen, because of the weird, mushy, unripe ones that taste like soap. Then, I finally got a good one.

Heh, Connie, in doing my quizzes and studying, I found that it's verboten now in AP to use the phrase "illegal immigrant," since the word illegal should refer to actions and not states of being or persons.

I was all YAY!

It is drunken, not drunk, driving.

Medical editing has ruined me for the colloquial use of "data" as singular (i.e., "The data is lost!" -- and even typing that makes my teeth itch). In medical writing, "data" is always ALWAYS plural, no exceptions, we don't care if NPR makes it singular, you make it plural or you die.

But most of the world makes it singular, which makes me twitchy.

What phrase is used to denote a person who has entered the country without going through official channels?

unauthorized?

roasted beets are a wonderful thing to have around, and for some reason are delicious^10 when paired with goat cheese. I may be dairy-averse for the most part, but just the teeniest smidge of chevre on a roasted beet is a mini-holiday for my mouth.