Source: Internet

The serial comma topic is no stranger to this site. Here’s a friendly, important, and overdue reminder from ProofreadNOW:

Corn flakes, Wheaties, All-Bran? No, that would be the cereal comma. Let’s talk instead about the serial comma, which our standard guide, The Chicago Manual of Style, dictates is necessary.

Commas needed. Items in a series are normally separated by commas. (But when the items are themselves punctuated, use a semicolon between items.) When a conjunction joins the last two elements in a series, a comma — known as the serial or series comma or the Oxford comma — should appear before the conjunction to prevent ambiguity. If the last element consists of a pair joined by and, the pair should still be preceded by a serial comma and the first and.

• She took a photograph of her parents, the president, and the vice president.
• The owner, the agent, and the tenant were having an argument.
• I want no ifs, ands, or buts.
• Paul played bass, Ringo played drums, and George and John played guitars.
• JoJo mastered the slalom course, Jay did trick skiing, and Gracie did the ski jump.
• The meal consisted of swordfish, red snapper, and both wild and farm-raised salmon.
• Dori was barefooting, Jon was reading, and Wells was painting walls and fixing decks.

Comma not needed. In a series whose elements are all joined by conjunctions, no commas are needed unless the elements are long and pauses helpful.

• Is it in Harrison or Naples or Bridgton?
• You can turn right at the light and left onto fire lane 202, or turn left on Route 35 and right onto fire lane 201, or just ask a local person how to get theyah.

Semicolons within series. When elements in a series involve internal punctuation, or when they are very long and complex, they should be separated by semicolons.

“Etc.” and “and so forth.” The abbreviation etc. (et cetera, literally “and others of the same kind”) is traditionally both preceded and followed by a comma when it is the final item in a series. Such English equivalents as and so forth and and the like are usually treated the same way.

• Cats, dogs, parrots, etc., in transit must be confined to cages.
• The carpenter’s saw, hammer, level, and so forth, were found in the attic.

Source: The Chicago Manual of Style

RELATED: Comma Mistakes

AND: The Punctuation Therapy Group

Phyllis Diller has died. Besides her trademark cackle, the first thing I’ll always think of when I hear her name is the series of obscure commercials she did for an eighties hardware store chain called Ole’s (pronounced “oh-leeze”):

RIP

Tony Scott, British-born director of blockbusters that include Top Gun and True Romance, jumped to his death today from the Vincent Thomas Bridge at the Los Angeles Harbor in San Pedro. Not the first.

Aged 68, Tony was the younger brother of director Ridley Scott.

If you’re not familiar with Los Angeles, the Vincent Thomas Bridge is walking distance from where Rip Greamer awaits at the door of Williams’ Book Store on Sixth Street in downtown Pedro. Drop in and say hi, but take everything he says with a grain of salt.

RELATED: YOUR SUICIDE HAS BEEN DENIED

UPDATE: Sources say Scott was facing inoperable brain cancer.

Hey, Boss! Kevin Nealon reminds us of the absurdity found in the phrases “What’re you gonna do?”, “Now hear me out,” “Neither here nor there,” and more.

I tried this interactive séance last night. (Minus the optional Scrabble tiles, paper, etc.) Keep an open mind and we’ll talk about it later.

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2 of 6: [click to continue…]

Well, maybekindasorta. It’s likely a fabricated image, as is every other “you are here” space photo. But it gives you an idea.

From the top down: Earth, Jupiter, Venus.

ROD SERLING: “Modern science examines the heavens in search of information. Data according to Dr. Warner von Brown gives us perspective on our own brief existence in the firmament.”

DR. WARNER VON BROWN: “It is important to remember that the distant stars are not only far away from us in terms of miles, but life on other planets can also be very far away from us in terms of time. The Earth is believed to be approximately five billion years old. And if you mentally condense these five billion years into one year, then the presence of Man on Earth would be about one minute out of that year. And the period that Man understood radio — and was capable of effectively communicating with heavenly bodies outside of the Earth — would only be approximately one second out of that year. So if you want to communicate with another heavenly body and its intelligent life, you’d have to reach that heavenly body also at a time when its people have invented the radio and know how to operate it, and have their receivers going, so to speak.” — Dr. Warner von Brown

ROD SERLING “But we had no receivers going even a mere fifty* years ago. We were too busy with the steam engine and the biplane.” (*1973)

Part 1 of 6:

The documentary that started the entire In Search Of series; In Search of Ancient Astronauts (1973). Based on the book Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Däniken, narrated by Rod Serling.

Part 2 of 6:

Part 3 of 6:

Part 4 of 6:

Part 5 of 6:

Part 6 of 6:

ROD SERLING: “Modern science examines the heavens in search of information. Data according to Dr. Warner von Brown gives us perspective on our own brief existence in the firmament.”

DR. WARNER VON BROWN: “It is important to remember that the distant stars are not only far away from us in terms of miles, but life on other planets can also be very far away from us in terms of time. The Earth is believed to be approximately five billion years old. And if you mentally condense these five billion years into one year, then the presence of Man on Earth would be about one minute out of that year. And the period that Man understood radio — and was capable of effectively communicating with heavenly bodies outside of the Earth — would only be approximately one second out of that year. So if you want to communicate with another heavenly body and its intelligent life, you’d have to reach that heavenly body also at a time when its people have invented the radio and know how to operate it, and have their receivers going, so to speak.” — Dr. Warner von Brown

ROD SERLING “But we had no receivers going even a mere fifty* years ago. We were too busy with the steam engine and the biplane.” (*1973)