Hi Max,
Thanks for your thoughts on commas; I think I'll tell my 9th
graders that they should use them after the last of the series,
even though I had been taught otherwise.  It might help make
them the literate elite, which is probably what their parents
expect from this private college-prep school!
 
I started at Miami U. in 1969 and dropped out as a result of
latent immaturity and the general feeling of those times; I
ended up getting my A.B. at UC Berkeley 20 years later.  I'm
sure Oxford is still as pretty as I remember it.
 
Carole