Here's a poser for all: The recent discussion regarding comma splices reminds me of an interesting literary reference. In Dickens's _A Tale of Two Cities_, the opening paragraph is punctuated as a single sentence with each item in the list of antitheses separated by a comma. I wonder how all we would explain this to the students who would raise (and, in my experience, HAVE raised) the comment that it's a "run-on sentence." Would you say that all these items are elements in a list? Wouldn't you want to separate each antithesis group with end punctuation: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness." and so forth? How would you explain the dash (is it an em-dash?) that separates the list from the main sentence? What would each of you identify as the main subject and predicate (I would probably say, "The core sentence of the whole paragraph is 'authorities insisted', which is also one of the main thematic elements of the story."). How, finally, would you deal with the inevitable complaint that the paragraph is not a paragraph, but rather a sentence? And then ... which one of us would be so rash as to correct Dickens? Here's a good example, I think, of an opportunity to teach grammar and literature together. Paul E. Doniger To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/