This is the first column in Comma Connects, an occasional series detailing the building of Comma, the nonprofit set to assume ownership of The Spokesman-Review in 2026, through the personal stories of ...

The serial comma, also known as the Oxford comma, is the one before “and” in a series of three or more: Herman Melville wrote “Moby-Dick,” “Billy Budd,” and “Bartleby, the Scrivener.” It is also the ...

When linking three or more elements, some writers place a comma before the "and": bell, book, and candle. That's known as the Oxford comma (or serial comma). Other writers don't use that comma: bell, ...

Vampire Weekend posed that question in the opening line of the song “Oxford Comma,” from their 2008 debut album. Eleven years later, everyone on the internet seems to give a fuck—many fucks, a ...

Words have meaning (including incorrectly used words that can make you look dumb). And so does punctuation: The lack of one Oxford comma in a Maine state law just cost Oakhurst Dairy $5 million in ...

Writers frequently debate whether or not the Oxford comma is a necessary piece of punctuation. In an unlikely turn of events, a group of Maine dairy drivers have yielded the answer: Yes, it is. A case ...

Portland-based company Oakhurst Dairy will potentially owe $US10 million ($13 million) to 75 milk-truck drivers in the US state of Maine because of a missing comma in ...

Surely, Oakhurst Dairy would have done well to heed the immortal words of the '80s hair band Cinderella: "Don't know what you got (till it's gone)." The milk and cream company based in Portland, Maine ...

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Recipe writing is an art. You might not even think of it as writing, but it requires absolute precision, not only in word choice but also in punctuation. Overlooking punctuation is one of several ...