No. 1 is an evil stepsister, to No 2, who is a nicer son than cousin No. 1a is. So much for the merit of the relatives.

And of course, as you well know, these are all pretty much the same, but 2 is a more awkward child than are the others. Assuming as he does that the purpose of writing is not only to communicate but also to entertain, James J. Kilpatrick says that cadence is of great, though little-discussed, import.

To many people, the elimination of the "and" improves the cadence of the sentence. It seems to flow more trippingly through the mind and across the tongue.

Now, as an avowed descriptivist (shudder) you need to explain why you used periods, commas, capitalization, and sentence order. Since descriptivists appear to believe that there are no rules, why do you follow rules?

Just curious and all!

TEd