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

[Tarq]

Tom Russell wrote:
> 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.

Good point.

> 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.

Wait -- what sort of Lord's prayer did YOU learn? =S I was always
taught "May the kingdom, the power, and the glory be thine, now and
forever." But I was never much of a Christian, and I understand that
several other translations would be way more out. It's also interesting
that, as an Australian, I was taught the "the kingdom, the power, and
the glory" when, as I earlier stated, the comma before the 'and' is an
American convention. Perhaps my sources on this were not as reliable as
I had believed. Curious.

> ==Tom
< ==Mitchell