That's a beautiful example of careless use of commas and how it can leave a reader momentarily baffled! I suppose there would have been less scope for misunderstanding with a serial comma (some of us call them 'Oxford commas'). As for triggering protracted and meandering threads - well, I can only agree, having unwittingly started a few, including the recent one about the '/' (I'm not even going to mention it by name). I'll also avoid expressing any opinion for or against those controversial commas. Howard On 5 January 2011 09:18, Janice Gelb <janice.gelb@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > This photo caption: > > http://nielsenhayden.com/waits.jpg > > :-> > > -- Janice > > P.S. Please, please, I beg you, don't use this as the start > of another pointless argument about the serial comma > that will produce much heat but little light and not change > anyone's opinion on the subject. > > ************************************************************** > Janice Gelb | The only connection Oracle has with > janice.gelb@xxxxxxxxxx | this message is the return address > ************************************************** > To view the austechwriter archives, go to > www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter > > To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with > "unsubscribe" in the Subject field (without quotes). > > To manage your subscription (e.g., set and unset DIGEST and VACATION modes) > go to www.freelists.org/list/austechwriter > > To contact the list administrator, send a message to > austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > ************************************************** >