The devil is in the ... detail

I’m not anal about punctuation. I can’t be because I once had a boyfriend who sent me a love letter and finished a sentence with ellipsis (dot-dot-dot), only his version of ellipsis was a row of dots, dot-dot-dot-dot-dot-dot, yet I did not tear my shirt, burn the letter, and break up with him. Well, not immediately, anyway. However, it was perhaps a warning sign from the grammarian gods and in retrospect, it seems even more so since one Donald J Trump is as reckless with ellipsis as my ex was – and we all know how that’s turning out. One word: dotty. Which leads me to a delightful article I came across recently in otherwise grim world news, when a single punctuation mark – or its absence – won a court case for the merry milkmen of Maine.

The punctuation mark on trial was the much-maligned Oxford comma, the one that folk are increasingly disregarding: the comma used before “and” or “or” in a list of three or more things.

So, you might say “I like to eat rice, beans and custard”, but for clarity you might throw in an Oxford comma, saying “I like to eat rice, beans, and custard” showing that you’re not wanting your beans and custard mixed together.

Now, the milkmen of Maine took their dairy to court when it refused to pay them overtime for deliveries. It’s all to do with the wording of the state’s labour laws, which say no overtime needs to be paid for the “canning, processing, preserving, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of perishable foods.”

They drivers said that “packing for shipping or distribution” meant exactly that: staff would not be paid overtime for packing produce for distribution. They, however, did not pack the milk, they only delivered it, and so they were due overtime.

Look at the sentence again, then add the comma, and see the difference: “… marketing, storing, packing for shipment, or distribution of perishable foods.”

An Oxford comma changes the meaning, the court of appeals agreed, and the milkmen got their cream. So I’m not anal about punctuation, but perhaps it’s time to be, because in this era of fake news, the devil is in the detail.

The milkmen of Maine are a reminder to look closer, to pay attention, and to check the fine print right down to the very last comma. Or lack thereof.