From CNN:
If you have ever doubted the importance of the humble Oxford comma, let this supremely persnickety Maine labor dispute set you straight.
A group of dairy drivers argued that they deserved overtime pay for certain tasks they had completed. The company said they did not. An appeals court sided with the drivers, saying that the guidelines themselves were made too ambiguous by, you guessed it, a lack of an Oxford comma.
This is what the law says about activities that do NOT merit overtime pay. Pay attention to the first sentence:
The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of:
- Agricultural produce;
- Meat and fish product; and
- Perishable foods
That’s a lot of things! But if we’re getting picky, is packing for shipment its own activity, or does it only apply to the rest of that clause, ie the distribution of agricultural produce, et al?
See, all of this could be solved if there were an Oxford comma, clearly separating “packing for shipment” and “distribution” as separate things! According to court documents, the drivers distribute perishable food, but they don’t pack it.
Yes, this is the real argument they made. And they really won.
“Specifically, if that [list of exemptions] used a serial comma to mark off the last of the activities that it lists, then the exemption would clearly encompass an activity that the drivers perform,” the circuit judge wrote.
. . . .
“For want of a comma, we have this case,” the judge wrote.
Link to the rest at CNN and thanks to Melinda for the tip.
Going to send this story to my boss. At work, I’m forever adding Oxford commas, and other clarity-assisting commas, to the documents I edit, and his senior assistant (who’s not really a word person, and thinks I’m weird for spending my lunch hour reading in my car) is forever STETing them. I’d love to hear what she’d say if this happened to one of our clients over a comma I had originally added.
Oxford comma for the win!
When I was taking some college-level courses a few years ago, my papers were always returned with little red circles all over them. The reason? According to the instructor, modern usage was less commas. We actually had quite a nice talk about it, especially when she admitted that how I wrote the sentences was technically correct. Apparently little kids can no longer figure out sentences if there are commas.
We were hanging out last night with the strippers, Hitler and Stalin.
I love the Oxford comma!
My fav was a sentence I found while proof reading for a friend… I can’t remember the context, but the sentence read something like:
“I went to the park with Sally, a hooker and a nun.”
My response?
Either 3 people went to the park with you or Sally is a busy and very conflicted girl.
Discovering the Oxford comma and its use in English made fall in love with the language. 🙂
Komma use in German is handled quite differently.
Hannah, I am reading Bismark, Gedanken und Erinnerungen. Bismark peppers his long sentences with commas (Kommas). And his spelling is unusual. ‘Theil’ for ‘Teil’. ‘Lehrern’ for Lehrerin’.
Yes! I use the serial comma and it bothers me when authors don’t. It sometimes pulls me out of the story because the last two objects are combined in a way that looks strange.
Superb! Still laughing.
Famously:
“I’d like to thank my parents, Mother Teresa and the Pope.”
Yes, this sentence needs an Oxford comma.
And people argue that “Let’s eat Grandma” should be perfectly clear.
It isn’t.
Commas can be overused, and I’ve seen it done to ridiculous lengths. But a comma to prevent ambiguity is ALWAYS right.
I agree. There might be a better way to write a sentence to avoid the need for a comma. But commas are necessary if they prevent ambiguity.
Over the past ten years, I have seen a lot more “for the avoidance of doubt” provisions used to provide additional clarity to contracts.
Example: For the avoidance of doubt, in the event that Party A fails to make a payment when due, Party B shall not have the right to behead Party A.
And people argue that “Let’s eat Grandma” should be perfectly clear.
It isn’t.
It’s clear to me. This is either a horror story or a speculative fiction piece featuring an unusual way to honor the dead.