The Grammar Police

I've done some reviewing and interviewing for an online dance forum. One of the great plusses to this is that I get free tickets. FREE! Nothing in San Francisco is free, well, except homeless people. Their chatter and suggestions about how you should go fuck off is free. You have to pay them just to shut up... what a system.

Recently one of the moderators asked if I'd be interesting in doing some editing for their monthly magazine. Ooooh, sounds like fun. I did PR for a year, and I've worked for some pretty bad spellers and writers whose letters and such I turned from mush into downright exceptional. So, I figure I'm familiar with proofreading and such, why not. The other day, I got my first assignment, and attached to the document was a note saying "Oh, we use AP style here." Um... AP? What are we, the San Francisco Chronicle? Guess it's now the "San Francisco Chronicle." Chicago Manual of Style is sooo much better, and it's my firm belief that the comma is truly necessary when separating items in a list. For example:

"To my parents, Ayn Rand and God."

Just think about it. And:

At the party, Anna kissed Bob, Tommy, Frank and Paul and Joe.

With the comma missing between Frank and Paul, it might appear that she kissed them AND Joe together., when in fact it was only Paul and Joe together. We don't want to imply that! Or do we?