Why I Support WBHM: “I Don’t Have to Think About the Oxford Comma!”
Nick Patterson is the editor of the weekly newspaper WELD, and joins WBHM each Thursday during All Things Considered to discuss the week’s news. He’s not just one of the voices you hear on WBHM. He’s also a member and a fan.
“I love the education stories and the in depth news stories,” says Patterson. “I love the fact that WBHM, as an NPR affiliate, really connects you to some of the best journalism you’re going to hear in any broadcast medium.”
When he’s not writing for and reading WELD, he’s listening to the radio.
“I listen to WBHM in my car, sometimes at home, because, really, when you need the news right now, this is the place to get it,” Patterson says.
But there’s also one other reason this print journalist likes WBHM. He doesn’t have to worry about punctuation. Especially the Oxford comma.
“That always comes up as an issue I have to deal with,” says Patterson of the tricky comma.
For the uninitiated, Patterson explains: “The Oxford comma is the comma that you put before the ‘and’ in a series in a sentence. Sometimes you have three things that you mention. At the one just before the ‘and’ you have to make a decision. Do you put a comma before it…or not?”
“When I worked at the Birmingham Post-Herald, we used the Oxford comma quite frequently. Now that I’m working at WELD, we basically decided we wouldn’t,” says Patterson. “It feels weird because I have to take the Oxford comma out, not only of my own writing, but of other peoples’ writing as well. It feels sort of like I’m betraying the Oxford comma.”
One thing he says he’d never betray? The public radio station he loves.
“WBHM: Whether you like the Oxford comma or not, it’s great public radio in Birmingham,” Patterson says.
A proposed Bessemer data center faces new hurdles: a ‘road to nowhere’ and the Birmingham darter
With the City Council in Bessemer scheduled to vote Tuesday on a “hyperscale” data center, challenges from an environmental group and the Alabama Department of Transportation present potential obstacles for the wildly unpopular project.
Birmingham Museum of Art’s silver exhibit tells a dazzling global story
Silver and Ceremony is made up of more than 150 suites of silver, sourced from India, and some of their designs.
Mentally ill people are stuck in jail because they can’t get treatment. Here’s what’s to know
Hundreds of people across Alabama await a spot in the state’s increasingly limited facilities, despite a consent decree requiring the state to address delays in providing care for people who are charged with crimes but deemed too mentally ill to stand trial. But seven years since the federal agreement, the problem has only worsened.
Ivey appoints Will Parker to Alabama Supreme Court
Parker fills the court seat vacated by Bill Lewis who was tapped by President Donald Trump for a federal judgeship. The U.S. Senate last month confirmed Lewis as a U.S. district judge.
How Alabama Power kept bills up and opposition out to become one of the most powerful utilities in the country
In one of the poorest states in America, the local utility earns massive profits producing dirty energy with almost no pushback from state regulators.
No more Elmo? APT could cut ties with PBS
The board that oversees Alabama Public Television is considering disaffiliating from PBS, ending a 55-year relationship.
