The Oxford Comma

I'm working on The Elements of Academic Writing this morning and ran across a reference to the optional comma at the end of a series. For the record, MLA Style says to use a comma to separate items in a series, including the last one, which comes before a conjunction. So it should be "red, white, and blue" in MLA Style. However, journalists use AP Style and write, "red, white and blue."
This bizarre little bit of inconsistency is known as a "serial comma," or (especially in Britain) the "Oxford comma."

All this brings us to a great song by a British rock group called Vampire Weekend. The song has the unforgettable refrain, "Who gives a fuck about the Oxford comma?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rob4qqGQKBY

3 p.m. update: Somehow I managed to get back on track and write a lot more of Chapter 5 on commonly misused words. I'll need to return to that chapter tomorrow to finish it.