LNH/ACRA: Alt.stralian Yarns #4: Reading Clocks

[Tom Russell]

Tom Russell wrote:

> Grammatically speaking, one should usually list things as "name comma
> name comma and name" (or, for that matter, "name comma name and name"),
> but I think the use of "name and name and name" evokes the actual act
> of listing something, in which each "and" serves as a de facto
> comma/incantatory word.  It's also more commonly used in casual
> conversation, and evokes that casuality.

And you'll also see it used when it's rythmically appealing to do so.
For example, the end of the lord's prayer, "For thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory, forever and ever"-- is much more powerful
than "For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory".  "The power"
tends to lose its, well, power.  But the "and" sets it apart, makes it
special-- and thus on equal footing with the first and final words,
which usually tend to hog all the ambiance in a list.

==Tom