RE: starts-with on more than one item

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Subject: RE: starts-with on more than one item
From: Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:40:18 -0400

At 09:11 AM 6/3/2008, it was written:

Ahem ....

One might equally say :
Shame on you! It's not called the "Harvard comma" for nothing...

The Wikipedia article is entitled Serial Comma and states it's also
known as Oxford Comma or Harvard Comma.
The name used is perhaps being determined by which side of the Atlantic
the speaker is not on.....
(or associated prejudices)

Unhelpfully (and markedly off-topic),
Richard.

The text is a debate about comma usage in English prose.

The subtext is some playful banter between myself, David Carlisle, and Michael Kay, who have been writing to one another on this list for going on ten years now.

They know (as many list readers may not) that they are British and I am American, but also that I have read more than my share of British prose, having received an advanced degree in the subject (albeit from an American university). Accordingly, while I may sometimes be guilty of defending and even using the Oxford/Harvard comma, this is probably not due to my nationality. It turns up in British prose not infrequently, especially before the 20th century; I probably get it from Carlyle and Ruskin as much as from Emerson. If we were really interested in the topic (as opposed to busy pulling each other's chains), I might have pointed this out to David, who first called it a trans-atlantic peversion (whatever he might mean by that). "An archaic usage more commonly retained in America" would be a more accurate description.

We all know (although, as an American, I hesitate to speak for my British colleagues) that the thread is way off topic, and has undoubtedly gone on too long.

Cheers,
Wendell

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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
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Current Thread
Re: starts-with on more than one item Wendell Piez - 2 Jun 2008 16:30:11 -0000 <Possible follow-ups> David Carlisle - 2 Jun 2008 16:36:27 -0000 Michael Kay - 2 Jun 2008 17:20:30 -0000 Kerry, Richard - 3 Jun 2008 13:11:32 -0000 Wendell Piez - 3 Jun 2008 15:43:39 -0000 <= Michael Ludwig - 3 Jun 2008 16:16:07 -0000

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