What do you do when you, the dutiful copy editor, is are forced to adhere to an in-house style that flies in the face of the rules of grammar you hold in such high esteem? You blog about it.

Andrew Beaujon, the City Paper’s Copy Editor, seems to have had enough. In a witheringly comical post he published on the paper’s blog yesterday, Beaujon takes issue with the “serial comma.” He writes:

I hate the serial comma: the final comma in a series, e.g., “this, that, and the other thing.”

The one after “that” is the serial comma. Associated Press style, and the style at most newspapers, is to not use the serial comma, i.e., “this, that and the other thing.”

Most magazines use the serial comma. The Washington City Paper uses it, too (even though we otherwise adhere to AP style), and since it’s my job to enforce our house style, I dutifully add that last comma anytime it’s missing from someone’s copy.

That doesn’t mean I have to like it.

He goes on to detail his grief with the serial comma, though promises not to launch a “serial-comma coup” against his superiors. Phew. We already lost Erik Wemple once, and we wouldn’t want to see him booted a second time for blaspheming against the righteous wisdom of AP Style and its strongest adherents, the Copy Editors.

Rest easy, Andrew. We’ve had the same debate plenty of times. We’ve also feuded over dangling modifiers, DC vs. D.C., affect vs. effect, and comma splices. Shit. I just used a serial comma. I’m so fired.