Eric James Stone

Interesting discussion of whether there should be a comma between the second-to-last item in a list and the “and”: Dr. Weevil: Strunk And Disorderly.

I favor the comma there for two reasons:
1. In speaking, I would naturally tend to pause there.
2. It helps avoid confusion.

The only real arguments against it are that it is redundant and that it takes up space. Well, I can understand that in a newspaper, where space is at a premium, it might make sense. But unless space is a problem, I can’t see how it would be harmful to include the comma, whereas it is easy to come up with examples where omitting the comma would lead to confusion.