Today, something that will give you a pause.
I saw this somewhere and it took me to a lot of different places – literally!
Never thought of the comma in that position did you?
But then I stumbled upon a more serious discussion of the comma as in the Oxford comma. This is something that I do not recall Sister Gregory having ever taught us in her English classes. (At least I don’t recall her teaching it by that name. The Oxford Comma is also referred to as the Serial Comma. She may have called it that, but I still don’t remember her doing so,)
The Oxford Comma is used as the final comma in a list of items. For example, you will see it in the following sentence after the word white: “Our flag is red, white, and blue.” Newspaper articles, along many other folks, do not use the Oxford Comma. Among literary nerds, the Oxford’s usage can be a somewhat controversial topic (click here.)
The Anti-Oxford folks maintain that it is not needed since you have the word “and” in there. However, omitting the Oxford can lead to problems as shown in the following learning aid involving JFK, Stalin, and strippers:
Got it? If not, Martha’s example is little more obvious:
Wonder if Boy George believed in the Oxford Comma. I’m thinking not.
No English lessons at Buzzy’s, but lots of good Karma and comma free conversations. Drop in, stay awhile and drink one. There are rumors of a pre-birthday visit by the fella in the following photo. Like Santa, he visits Buzzy’s once a year on his 20 November birthday. Because he has something else scheduled for tomorrow, he will hit Buzzy’s today.
