Posted by Mike Field on December 20, 2003 at 11:41:31 from 203.166.84.105 user mikefield.
In Reply to: Re: Oxford Comma posted by David Brooks on December 19, 2003 at 18:48:35:
Well David, the rule I was taught is that you'd put a comma in writing where'd you'd put a slight pause in speech.
So for me "Eats, shoots and leaves" reads like "Eats, shoots-and-leaves." Since they're three distinct verbs and I'd want to distinguish between them, I'd always write "Eats, shoots, and leaves."
However, in your example about orange juice et al, ham-and-eggs is so often considered an item, rather than two (or three or more, depending on the number of eggs,) to omit the comma after "ham" seems quite appropriate.
If you wanted to put that comma in, then you'd leave out the "and" before "ham."