Since one subthread of this has moved on to regional usages and British/American language differences, I thought I would point out Eats, Shoots & Leaves which kayakjazz brought up in another unrelated thread here.

Fortunately, the American Edition has chosen to leave her British spellings, punctuation, and references unmolested; they simply added a preface (by the author) which deals with some of these differences. I have certainly enjoyed it so far.

Those of you who have read it have, no doubt, spotted my "Oxford Comma" above which is standard American usage, but no longer quite so standard on the other side of the pond.