To add to Joanna's remark about heavy subjects taking a comma before the verb (I assume by "heavy" Joanna means a long NP with lots of embedded phrases and/or clauses): [1] this seems to happen when the verb is BE, [2] E.D. Hirsch loves to put a comma there. I just read an interesting comma splice in a novel last night. I'll post it if I think to do so. --Bill Murdick