The Star, and its commas, confuse(s)

It's been a busy week here. On Saturday I was in Duke's Epic 8 Hour Relay Series, and then on Sunday my son was in the Kids Of Steel Triathlon. On top of that my computer was in for repairs and there's a conference here starting later today at which I'm presenting a paper and hosting a forum. As Geoffrey Chaucer hath sayd,

"Myn gentil rederes, the joly tyme of Averille and May hath not been of much jolitee to me – in feyth, ich haue had but litel tyme to look upon the newe floures and heere the smale foules doyng their thinge, for cursid busynesse hath fallen a-newe vpon me."

Anyhow, on Monday the Toronto Star rolled out its new format. The text is certainly more readable with larger font and leading. The headlines vary, but are often overbold. Linguistically, what caught my attention was the one on the front page that accompanied a note from the publisher, Jagoda Pike.

The Star, and its mission, evolve

For about half the teachers here in the EAP office, this is fine. For the other half, which includes me, it should be evolves. Fortunately, everybody can see both sides of the argument and before nary a blow could be thrown, everyone agreed that the real problem is those commas.