I no longer have to shave, wear work shirts, and eschew the Oxford comma.
The first two I expected. The third has been a pleasant surprise.
jfleck at inkstain
A few thoughts from John Fleck, a writer of journalism and other things, living in New Mexico
Welcome to freelance-ville. In a few years you won’t even take a daily shower. (That saves water, too.)
I hope you’ve stored a surplus of Oxford commas in upstream storage for the long dry summer ahead.
OXFORD OXFORD OXFORD
I also found the Oxford comma a totally surprising perk of leaving newspapers and magazines. I’d been trained to disdain them as unnecessary. The other day, a student asked me to explain the controversy in class, and I found myself giving equal weight to the pros and cons, and — heresy for a journalism instructor — advising that it’s okay to love the Oxford comma. As the copy editor wrote in The New Yorker the other day, the Country-and-Western singer was joined onstage by his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings.