In defense of the serial comma

If you'd asked me how I felt about the serial/Oxford comma when I was working in New York, you'd have quickly learned I was dead-set against it.  I thought it was too mucky, overkill, too much—and I was yet to've worked with a single stylebook that used it.

Now, working in Denver, I find it poetic, calming—even romantic. It's funny how people change*. I could say the same thing about the Mile High City itself, actually—so who knows what we're talking about anymore.

Without further ado, today's funny:

Thanks to Jess F. for the find.

*I also always put spaces around emdashes (btw, did you see this awhile back?) until Denver. Now, I like 'em better without. I'm just so accommodating and flexible.

Two-for-one Monday

Quite apartments in my neighborhood! I coulda told you that.

Who would've thought there was shame in getting oxygen!?

I *told* you a comma can change everything!

Miss one little mark, and you risk turning a famous chef into a canine- and human-eating crazywoman.

Sounds like a peaceful existence to me

Sushi mold—I know...cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater—purchased at Pearl River Mart, New York City. Still my favorite shopping experience anywhere.

Look away, kids

The things you'll find on the interwebs these days...

Custodians revolt!

This is for Wallace.


There are four copies of this letter in our ladies' office restroom right now — one for each stall. The first stall boasts a copy-edited version, complete with penciled-in semicolons! It wasn't me, but whoever did that is awesome.

For the record, the bathroom is pretty gross. Come on, ladies! Pick up your ish!

Friday FAILS

(Top photo via FAILBLOG; bottom photo via Dan P. via somewhere else)

Nobody does WHAT?

(As pointed out by Brooklyn correspondent Benjamin B.)

Healthy stools?

Once again, I must thank all the midtown Duane Reade locations for providing so much good YSV material.

Menus: On the whole, just way too easy

Ready, set ... spot the errors/hilarity! This is part of a giant menu with many, many mix-ups. Thanks again to Alex.

Two things

One: I made this at work today. Can anyone tell me what it is/they are?


Two: I would like to meet the parent who decided that "SIZE DOES MATTER!" was a good slogan for a sign tacked up on the side of an elementary school as part of a campaign to decrease class size. Consider your audience, people. Yeesh.

Girls in fishnets, please form a line to the left

I've seen this around before, but I'm posting it because my friend sent it to me!

Thanks to D.D.

Counterintuitive Dept.

I do believe I have never seen the likes of this before:

Thanks to Dan P. in our Fort Worth offices.

Laryngitis in the workplace ...

This is what I had to do today to remind myself not to answer, after I picked up (to what was luckily a junk-call recording) and said what came out sounding like, "Gwarddd murk, Dneeaarr."


I have stuff to do that does not involve the phone, so I came in to the office, but I have no voice. But I do have a computer! and texting! and IM! and two blogs!

There's no shutting me up, really.

Wait, what?

How can you log on to an e-mail address?

Murray Hill Post Office, 34th Street

Your sign is funny and must be posted

Third Avenue, Manhattan

(Although I am slightly bothered by the use of 'everyday' as a noun, I'll let it slide. Or not.)

That is good.

I love a great wordplay.


(Photo: Robert Stolarik for The New York Times)

Maybe I can live here

For $710, who cares what the ad says?

I've found my personal hero

A dude named Jeff Deck is TRAVELING AROUND THE COUNTRY for three months correcting errors on signs. He carries around a Typo Correction kit that includes chalk, white-out and adhesive letters.

His blog is here. It is so deeply entertaining and hilarious. I can't stop reading it.

Details on his trip are here.

Thanks to correspondent B.W., who is getting a Ph.D., though not in grammar.

'That's what happens when the mayor shuts down the sex shops. It pops up in your cuisine.'

Love the play on words here, but what's up with the failure to pluralize? If nothing else, it's very authoritative. Sandwich! Noodle! Dumpling! (Of course, salad can be singular or plural.)

Chelsea, Saturday night. Taken from cab during massive windstorm. The quote up top is from "Sex and the City." Did you see that one?