Goddess.  But Comma Queen has

stuck.  Norris, a copy editor at The New Yorker for more than 30 years, is

author of Between You & Me:

Confessions of a Comma Queen – just out in paperback.  Mary Norris -- with her wonderful sense

of humor – helps make us feel more secure in our use of language.  She demystifies fine points of grammar

and punctuation.  She liberates us

to break rules that were never really rules to begin with.  Her journey -- from a teenager hired to

check swimmers for foot-fungus at a public pool in Cleveland -- to published

author -- is worth sharing.  So is her experience, recounted 23:30 into our conversation,

of learning that her brother was becoming her sister (a singer/songwriter known

by many New Yorkers) – which leads us back to grammar and the debate over the

correct pronoun for transgendered individuals.