Working in Ottawa today --The Oxford quote

Good morning folks,

This morning I am on my way to spend the day working in Ottawa.

In the Globe and Mail today in Russel Smith's column.. prior to continuing I'll mention that I can't remember anything else that he has written, but his byline pic looks familiar.  In his column he has revealed what sounds like a fairly informal poll and study into his reader's habit regarding the double space after a period and the use of serial commas and finally the practice of including final punctuation within quoted text.

I use the double space after a period.  It is what I learned as correct.  However it seems that it is outdated and that editors and proofreaders hate them.  Well, tough.  I will still use them, in fact, I may even end sentences early.  Just so that I can use more of them.  Like this.  Many readers agreed.

The next item was the serial quote, often called the Oxford quote. It works like this, here is a list of several items, an apple, and orange, a pear, and an orangutan.  The comma after the pear it seems is actively advised against by the Canadian Press Stylebook.  Sometimes I use it, other times I don't.  I find it very useful when listing sets of conjoined items, such as a pear and an apple, a donkey and a goat, and two sheep.  There was no consensus among the readers.

Finally, the final punctuation within the quote.  This is referring to quotations at the end of a sentence such as Jack the Ripper said, "That's a lovely pendant you are wearing, may I touch it?"   The capitalized "the" is then presumably how the reader knows that I have started a new sentence.  I prefer to include what ever punctuation as appropriate for the quote, but then to quote myself, "to finish my own sentence as I damn well please!".  Russel did not reveal how his readers responded, but added that consistency was the key.

Have a good day, and please work on your spelling and punctuation.