Why commas count

Sent by a friend:

It seems that Dunn Lumber (ten locations in the Puget Sound area) is famous for posting such thought-provoking, mind-bending messages on the sign outside its store.

I know:  Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.

For the record, I am a strong advocate of the Oxford / Harvard / series / serial comma, and am forever correcting my students when they fail to use it.

Readings

• "'My parents, Ayn Rand and God'" (3/16/06)
• "When commas are crucial to comprehension" (4/9/09)
• "War strikes lockouts" (7/31/09)
• "Merle Haggard's ex-wives" (10/24/10)
• "Visual aid for the final serial comma" (9/18/11)
• "The Oxford Comma is your friend" (12/10/13)
• "Commas (and parsing) are important" (9/27/14) — reminiscent of the sign featured in this post
• "Academic punctuation" (10/31/14)
• "Court fight over Oxford commas and asyndetic lists" (3/19/17)
• "[. ] or [. ]?" (3/5/18)