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Whoever authored a law in Maine about food distribution and overtime pay obvious had not read Eats, Shoots & Leaves. If they had, it would have saved a lawsuit and a whole lot of money.
Drivers sued over the confusion caused by the lack of a comma that implied they were entitled to overtime pay they were not being given. Workers were not entitled to overtime pay if their jobs involved
the canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of: (1) agricultural produce; (2) meat and fish products; and (3) perishable foods.
Without a comma after “shipment” it isn’t clear whether it is one activity or two separate activities. The drivers won the case and the statute has since been revised with a slew of semi-colons!
the canning; processing; preserving; freezing; drying; marketing; storing; packing for shipment; or distributing of: (1) agricultural produce; (2) meat and fish products; and (3) perishable foods.
I bet every Oxford comma obsessed person out there is now ecstatically squeeing, yelling I told you so! and feeling a deep sense of satisfied justification.
I am not a fan of the Oxford comma, but I have to admit, this gives me pause. Not enough to make me change my ways, mind you, just enough to make me glad I don’t write anything in which the lack of an Oxford comma might cost $5 million!
Up until this point I never actually delved into the Oxford Comma debate. I have watched the two sides spar from the sidelines. I never use it as I was taught not to in school, but from time to time I have considered starting. Either way, this is a great victory for the Oxford Comma side 🙂
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Brian Joseph, I was taught it was optional and it all depended on clarity. So I use it on rare occasions. Don’t let the Oxford side taunt you into using it regularly! 😉
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I am a devout user of the Oxford comma. I always have been. Its importance was brought home to me in a similar situation to the one you write about. When I was a conservation commissioner in Massachusetts, there was great debate about one of our wetland regulations. The placement of a comma, or lack thereof, changed the meaning of the reg. As people trying to save wetlands from development, the comma was crucial and a deciding factor. Clarity in life is important to me. My husband, however, feels that ‘he knows what he means’, even if no one else does!
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Joan, heh, you husband sounds a lot like mine! I can see how dealing with regs would make you a devout Oxford comma user. It’s ok to relax now and then though 😉
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Being in HR, I can just imagine that HR department is probably doing a full audit of their policies & procedures handbook now!
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Iliana, oh it was worse than HR, it was a state law! Some poor interns have probably now been given a pile of reading 🙂
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I’m thinking should semicolons be used here? I thought they are used to connect two independent clauses (i.e. with verbs) and not just single words. Ummm… but what do I know. 😉
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You are totally right Arti! Semicolons are the completely wrong punctuation. The legislature revising the statute committed another grammar offense in the name of correcting their previous one. Clearly there are no English majors or grammarians in the ranks of Maine politicians!
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Thanks, Stefanie! You’ve just boosted my self-confidence hugely! BTW, I’ve the book Eats, Shoots and Leaves, but I learned the use of the semicolon way back in my junior high school days in Hong Kong. 🙂
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That was certainly my reaction to the revised version too Arti. Semicolon was an overkill – they wanted to make absolutely sure – but it’s poor writing. It must have been the lawyers who told them to do it!
As for the Oxford comma, my daughter loves it. I was taught it, but I also know that commas are going out. I still use more commas than I know many people but I only use the Oxford comma where I’m concerned about ambiguity.
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Ahahaha, this story cracks me up. I am a faithful Oxford comma user, but I am not super judgey of people who choose to go without. Although having written that, I am experiencing such a strong desire to hedge and be like, BUT IT IS BETTER TO HAVE THE COMMA THAN NOT HAVE IT. :p
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Jenny, heh, better safe than sorry? You make a good point and almost, almost have me thinking I should cave in and just use the darn Oxford comma all the time instead of sometimes 🙂
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No, no, no … be creative and thoughtful, and live on the wild-side I say.
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