Bomaderry Railway Station may be the end of the line but it was the start of a conversation I had with a retired school-teacher whose subject had been English - not literature, just English.
"So you'd know all about the pervasive misuse of the apostrophe and lack of use of the Oxford comma", I suggested. She did indeed, and her advice, given to countless pupils before, was "If in doubt leave it out!" which may have contributed to much of the problem we face today.
That may have worked with Peter Carey who produced an entire novel, "True History of the Kelly Gang", without using a single comma, but I suggested that the Oxford comma would have clarified the inscription "This book is dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand and God" and the sentence "Highlights of Peter Ustinov's global tour included encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector".
There was no time to discuss the pervasive misuse of the apostrophe or to have some drink's [sic] before the bus pulled in to take us farther down the coast. And I forgot to ask if she had seen WAKE IN FRIGHT.
