The Left-Handed Conductor of Planets - Oxford Commas and Hand-Picked Photos

A curated selection from my personal photos

Apr 08, 2026

Hello there,

Mrs C is from the town of Cheltenham Spa, the place usually abbreviated, but not by much, to Cheltenham, and that’s where we met, back in 1988 when we were young and I was instantly bowled over by her smile.

There are strong family connections for Mrs C, and for me too since one of our sons adopted the town as his own, so we visit fairly often. On this occasion, it was a beautiful spring day, and the streets, adorned with flower beds, were looking fine in the sunshine. A stroll in the park with an old friend was a great way to spend the afternoon, and it was he who pointed out to me a fact I’d never noticed despite living in Cheltenham for five years and being a frequent visitor: the statue of Gustav Holst shows that the composer of the Planet Suite was left-handed.

These days, Cheltenham is well known for its festivals of literature, jazz, science, and music, though not all at the same time. And yes, I used the Oxford or serial comma, because in this unusual case it would’ve caused confusion if I had omitted it. Although come to think of it, a science and music festival could be a lot of fun.

Some people get hot under the collar about this kind of punctuation, but in the UK we are generally taught that there is no need to separate the last two items in a list with a comma because the word ‘and’ handles the job admirably on its own. There is no confusion in the phrase ‘red, white and blue’.

In the US, I believe that the serial comma is often taught as if it were a necessity. I have no idea why this should be.

The English language is so widely used because it is almost infinitely adaptable and flexible. It is a Swiss Army knife of a language, and there are very few rules that can’t be broken or at least bent in the service of delivering an effective message or a decent story (and even an indecent story come to that).

Interestingly. American humorist James Thurber argued against having too many commas in the phrase ‘red, white, and blue.’ He said: “all those commas make the flag seem rained on. They give it a furled look. Leave them out, and Old Glory is flung to the breeze, as it should be.” But Thurber suggested there should no commas, leaving the phrase as ‘red white and blue’ and I think that looks odd.

Anyway, the point is that sentences should be clear and precise, using punctuation where it is needed to deliver meaning and to create an effect in the mind of the reader.

By the way, please don’t come back at me with some hackneyed nonsense about Oprah Winfrey and your parents, nor may you cite the one about some strippers and a president. Those exemplars are simply clumsy writing and they should never be recorded in any way. Fixing a bad sentence with a comma is like putting a sticking plaster on a gangrenous limb.

Anyway, let’s get to the photos.