Missing Comma Causes Twitter Outpour

/

A New York Times book reviewer missed a comma, according to the book author, implying that she is married to her dog.

NYT comma

Ragan's PR Daily presents the situation as an example of how Twitter users with relatively few followers can make a large impact. With only 981 followers, one user received more than 2,700 retweets. 

PR Daily also describes an issue of style:

The [Baltimore] Sun shrugged off the comma, but took issue with the Times' sentence structure:

[T]he reviewer's unfortunate implication rose not from failure to provide an uncommon comma, but from unthinkingly resorting to the ranging from construction.

A range, dammit, is a series of discrete bounded elements. From a to z and from soup to nuts describe the ranges of the alphabet and the dinner menu.

Discussion Starters:

  • Why do you think this topic generated so much interest on Twitter? It's only a comma, after all.
  • Do you think the comma is missing?
  • What's your view of the "from...to" construction: harmless, overused, or something else?