I'm a writer and artist, working mainly in comic books, and living in the South East of England (although I'm technically half Scottish and half English).
I'm the managing editor of Orang Utan Comics, group editor of AAM/Markosia, writer of Alpha Gods, Hypergirl and Hero: 9-5, and also do freelance inking and lettering work for the likes of AAM/Markosia, Slave Labour, Top Shelf, Image, Marvel/Panini and I letter the official Doctor Who graphic novels for BBC Books.
mom:
you realize normal people don't have such strong feelings about the oxford comma
me:
THE OXFORD COMMA IS IMPORTANT
mom:
you realize this makes you a nerd
me:
mom:
me:
i had a party with the strippers, george bush and barack obama
me:
i had a party with the strippers, george bush, and barack obama
me:
without the comma, you are implying that george bush and barack obama are strippers
mom:
me:
mom:
this isn't normal
Ian adds:
Ironically, this very conversation shows that the Oxford comma really doesn't matter and doesn't work, because this is supposed to be a conversation that's supposed to be had via the spoken word...and so the two variations of the sentence would sound exactly the same. Any need for an Oxford comma is negated by a simple reordering of the words, so the sentence becomes, "I had a party with George Bush, Barack Obama and the strippers." Also, it's absurd that a post about the Oxford fucking Comma completely neglects the use of proper capitalisation and punctuation. Not a capital letter or a full stop in the whole thing! And yet you're bitching about the Oxford Comma!