This should give you pause
It’s a column about the demise of the comma, and whom to blame. (Evidently, the comma is following “whom” right into the dustbin of history. Just like the word “dustbin.”)
The columnist, who looks to be of a certain age, naturally blames technology and those damn kids who use it. (And please note my judicious use of commas to separate an exclusionary clause.) Some others among us might point out that the English language has been on the slide since Chaucer, was rudely fiddled with by Mr. Shakespeare among others, and has never had more vibrancy that it has today. If we need the comma, it will survive. If we don’t, it won’t.
One person the columnist doesn’t blame: Cormac McCarthy, who elides commas the way most of us reject anchovies. But I guess blaming literature isn’t as attractive as blaming kids and the overall culture.
July 17th, 2007 at 11:28 am
that darned Cormac
if I were his father I’d learn (or ‘larn’) him
toss him into the vestibule or the commode
not let him sit on the chesterfield with his betrothed
he’s a flibbertigibbet
people in China are starving for commas
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,!
And who’s this Exclusionary Claus? Some relation to Santa, I suppaus. Well, brother, there ain’t no Exlusionary Claus, nor no Easter Bunny neither
tho’ I do have a couple lucky rabbit paus
Whom?
me!!!!
July 18th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
What’s all this crittysizm of the ‘overall culture’? I lak overalls. It’s them newfangled fancy types of bluejeans that are spoiling stuff.
And I say we should have gotten rid of those commas years ago. Let em go back to Russia if they don’t like it here.
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:56 am
Commas are merely semicolons who have missed their periods.