The Oxford comma has been the subject of a song by Vampire Weekend, a factor in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit, and the fodder for many Internet memes. Why do many people feel so strongly about this seemingly minor American English grammatical standard? When consulting style guides, most favor the Oxford comma. This includes the APA, Chicago Manual of Style, The MLA Style Manual, and the one on my shelf, Strunk and White's Elements of Style. Even Uncle Sam (the U.S. Governm

Claudia Goldin and Joshua Mitchell prepared an interesting paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, "The New Lifecycle of Women's Employment: Disappearing Humps, Sagging Middles, Expanding Tops." The descriptive word choices may conjure unflattering imagery, but that's not the point. The paper was released in summary on the Monthly Labor Review by the U.S. BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) and examines how women's participation in the workforce over the decades h