My long-ago senior prom date (ah, the prom: also the day I crashed my parents' car on the way to pick up my date's boutonniere) unearthed this hilarious explication of the
serial comma. See, in particular, the sections on ambiguity and resolving ambiguity.
5 comments:
The examples are indeed hilarious, but as far as I'm concerned, the bible is Fowler's Modern English Usage, Second Edition, revised by Sir Ernest Gowers, 1965. I have Strunk & White too, of course, and a lovely little book called The Essentials of English Composition, which happens to have been written by my great-grandfather, James Weber Linn, a professor of English at the University of Chicago. But Fowler's rules.
No kidding; you're a scion of someone who wrote a grammar book? Once my great-great-great shopkeeper grandfather in NJ sold a bag of oysters to someone named Springsteen, and a great-aunt on my mother's side was related to John Wayne by marriage, and my mother grew up 2 towns over from Florence Henderson. But as you can see, we are small potatoes. . . . Not a comma-comprehender among 'em.
Well, there you go. He also wrote a biography of his aunt (my great-great-great-aunt), Jane Addams, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work at Hull House in Chicago. As you can see, the level of illustriousness achieved has been decreasing with each successive generation of the family ....
So you're a member of the Addams family? . . . no doubt an old joke you've a heard a million times already. Kind of like being named Potter and getting called Pothead.
yup ...
Post a Comment