THE USEFULNESS OF THE OXFORD COMMA

From Oxford Dictionaries:

What is the 'Oxford comma'?

The 'Oxford comma' is an optional comma before the word 'and' at the end of a list:

We sell books, videos, and magazines.

It's known as the Oxford comma because it was traditionally used by printers, readers, and editors at Oxford University Press. Not all writers and publishers use it, but it can clarify the meaning of a sentence when the items in a list are not single words:

These items are available in black and white, red and yellow, and blue and green.

The Oxford comma is also known as the 'serial comma'.

Rumors fly around and about on the demise of the Oxford comma, but it appears that the wee mark has life, yet.

From Linda Holmes on NPR:

For now, the Oxford comma lives on at Oxford. And it lives on in my heart. Life is nasty, brutish, and short (or, to introduce unnecessary ambiguity, "life is nasty, brutish and short"), and the least I can do for myself is to hold tight to the linguistic niceties about which I, for whatever reason, care. It's comforting. It's calming. And when it comes to taking a firm position about mostly unimportant debates, that's about all I can hope for.

The Oxford comma lives on in my heart, too, and I will continue to place the mark in a series. Even if the comma dies, I will flog the poor creature for my personal use, so long as I live.

FUNNIEST PICTURE I'VE SEEN TODAY

Thanks to Bishop Alan on Facebook.

MR CATOLICK HAS A BLOG

Check it out.

Besides his brilliant videos, Mr CatOLick posts cartoons, and writes blog posts. Below is a cartoon from his blog.



The guys are English, but the humor translates to this side of the big pond.

UPDATE: SCG at Wake Up and Live makes the videos with Bishop Yellow Belly and Ms Young Person. I mistakenly attributed them to Mr CatOLick.

"IT'S CURTAINS FOR JESUS"

Please leave comments of praise or blame at Of Course I Could Be Wrong.... Thank you. :-)

REJOICE IN THE ANGLICAN COVENANT!

From the introduction to the Study Guide to the Anglican Communion Covenant:

In December 2009 the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion sent the text of The Anglican Communion Covenant to all the member churches of the Anglican Communion, asking that they consider it for adoption according to their own internal procedures. It is hoped that there will be wide consultation within those churches, so that Anglicans around the world will have an opportunity to understand and rejoice in the commitment which the churches are being asked to make. (My emphasis)

So. Anglicans around the world are to rejoice in the commitment to the covenant even before they undertake to study the text of the covenant to see if its implementation WOULD BE A GOOD THING FOR THE AC! I'm sorry to shout, but I thought studies were to be impartial, with the conclusion left open to come AFTER THE COMPLETION OF THE STUDY! Oops! There I am shouting again.

Alan Perry, a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada, who blogs at Insert Catchy Blog Title Here, riffs off the crazy-making study guide which accompanies the daft covenant and introduces sanity into the discussion. Please read his post. Thank you.

"BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PRAY FOR"


Click on the cartoon for the larger view of this fine example of MadPriest's brilliance.

(MadPriest insists that the description of the cartoon includes "brilliance" or "brilliant" as a condition for its use.)

MAXINE FOR THE SNOWBIRD WANNA-BE

UPDATE: Oh my goodness! I forgot to give credit to Doug.

DUTY CALLS

This one is for Grandpère.

PS: Oh my goodness! I forgot to say thanks to Ann. I'm still laughing at the cartoon.

UPDATE: From xkcd.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE....

From Doug:

A couple of limmericks...the first is clean :>)

Now the limericks. The first is my favorite clean one.

There was a young lady from Clyde
Who ate a green apple and died
The apple fermented
Inside the lamented
And made cider inside her inside.

Sorry, folks, you're only getting the clean limerick. :>)

From Ann:



From Suzanne:

WHAT GOD DID

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

CROSSING THROUGH ARIZONA

From undercovernun.

Thanks to Ann.

A SURPRISE 14TH CENTURY CARTOON

Your face doesn't fit ... who would expect to find a mischievious caricature on a revered scripture like the Bangor Pontifical? Photograph: Tom Service

As usual click on the picture for the larger view.

From the Guardian:

It looks like something Jake and Dinos Chapman might do if they turned their hand to the creative defacement of illuminated manuscripts: the Viz-style gargoyle just to the left of the plainchant notation on page 77 of the nearly 700-year-old Bangor Pontifical, one of the treasures of the Welsh medieval world.
....

And yet in the middle of this beautiful Latin hand – the meticulous gold-leaf decorations and square noteheads of the neumes looking as vivid as they must have done in the early 14th century, and every vellum surface of the book seeming to speak across the centuries – there's a cartoonish scribble of what looks like an unshaven 21st-century bloke with curly hair, a big nose, bejewelled beard, flat cap and shades. Except that it's not. According to Sally Harper, leader of the Bangor Pontifical Project...this is an original piece of medieval satire the scurrilous scribe included beside the chant, which would have been sung to consecrate a church bell.

What a delight to find such a clever, though mischievous, cartoon in the process of doing serious research.

Thanks to Cathy for the link.

UPDATE: From Lapin in the comments:

You've jogged me into photographing a couple of items that I own and uploading them to my Facebook page. Click on the left-hand image to see the full thing. There's a fun red dragon lurking up at the top of the page.

I clicked and copied, and here is!

OH NO! NOT AGAIN! PRAY FOR PAUL THE BB

That big lovable bear, Paul the BB, has a swollen jaw and a toothache now. Paul says he looks like a gopher, but we all know him as the Big Bear. What could I do but make another cartoon and ask for prayers? Poor baby is moaning over at Facebook.

Seriously, please pray for Paul to be relieved of his pain. You know a toothache is no fun.

O God, the strength of the weak and the comfort of sufferers: Mercifully accept our prayers, and grant to your servant Paul the help of your power, that his sickness may be turned into health, and our sorrow into joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

PS: The BB appears to be smiling throught his pain, but what you see is not a smile, but a grimace. The two sometimes look alike.

UPDATE: From Paul in the comments:

Update for you all: the endodontist said he cannot do a root canal until the swelling goes down. I trust him, especially after he said the anesthetic will not work in my current condition. A very convincing argument. He doubled the dose of the antibiotic, switched me to non-drowsy, non-narcotic analgesics (hooray) and we will wait a week. Scheduled root canal is next Monday. I can work the rest of this week but am going to spend today resting.

Thanks for all the prayers and good wishes, folks.

We'll keep praying, luv.

COME ON!

Stolen from Ann at Facebook.