Courtesy of Sasha by way of Alan May on Facebook, we came across this lovely literary nugget this morning:
Also known as the serial comma, and I'm a fan, too—legions of journalists and Cormac McCarthy notwithstanding . . .
This picture is why we like the Oxford comma
Filed under humor, punctuation, Uncategorized
Oh, dang. Let me send you the corrected version. Here’s what’s wrong with this one: first, it complains about commas, but it can’t figure out the rule for a proper noun? Second, the picture in the first example is OUT OF ORDER! It doesn’t scan right. I’ll email it to you now.
Forget the serial comma. I want an elliptical comma,,,
The comma in example 2 is unnecessary and incorrect, so.
Right—hadn’t seen that! The reason I hadn’t seen it is because one would normally use a comma there to make an introductory clause. The reason it’s wrong there is the false relationship it sets up, which it does for the sake of the joke. Okay, gotta be a better example out there . . .