IS THE COMMA DEAD? OR JUST 'COMMA-TOSE?'

Could we be we in danger of losing our comma forever?  And would you miss it if it disappeared?

 The humble comma could  be abolished 'without doing much damage,' according to an American professor of English talking in The Times newspaper today.

John McWhorter  from Columbia University argues that 'as internet users and even some authors become increasingly idiosyncratic .... in their use of this punctuation mark, it may have outstayed its welcome.' 

Commas, he says, could be taken  out of  modern American text citing the Oxford comma, inserted after the penultimate item in a list, as an example.   'There could even be a case made for not using commas at all'. 

I disagree. In England our language changes all the time, with new words being added and others falling into disuse, but  we can't  afford to let  punctuation go out of fashion.

Take this example from The Times article:  'Rachel Ray finds inspiration in cooking her family and her dog.'  In a world without commas, what sort of mother would Rachel be?

Today's generation has  dispensed of the letter 't' as in compu'er, wa'er and par'y. So, come on,  do we care enough to keep the comma? What do you think?
 

Wood you like to join me?

This is my new writing place - a wooden arbour tucked away at the back of the garden. My fascination with words started when I was very young and my mother taught me to recite poetry.  The first  poem I ever learnt went like this:

  Old Wood gave me some wood and said would I carry the wood through the wood. And Wood said if I would he would give me the wood, and if Wood said he would, Wood would!

This showed me the importance of  punctuation and intonation when reading out loud, and demonstrated how words could be spelt differently even when they sounded  exactly the same.

The other poem that I have never forgotten was even more prosaic.

It was a dark and stormy night
And the rain came down in torrents
And the Captain said to the mate
'Bill - spin us a yarn'
So Bill began...

It was a dark and stormy night
And the rain came down in torrents
And the Captain said to the mate
'Bill - spin us a yarn'
So Bill began...

I'm still waiting to hear how it ends...