Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Paul Quinn:   
      
    ak>>  Yesterday, at 9pm, without declaring a war, my neighbors   
    ak>>  bought a piano.   
      
    PQ>   The sentence would still make sense if you drop the first   
    PQ>   comma. I.e. to read, "Yesterday at 9pm, without...".   
      
      
             I'd omit the first comma there just as Paul did, BTW.   
      
      
      
    ak>   [Yesterday, without declaring a war, my neighbors bought   
    ak>   a piano.] No damage for the humor.   
      
      
             Agreed.  IMHO "yesterday" is significant, but the exact time of day   
   probably doesn't matter very much & may even be a distraction.  In Russia one   
   can buy a piano at 9:00 PM & get it home within 27 hours??  Now I am curious.   
   Unless you're referring to an electronic keyboard, a piano is not the sort of   
   thing one would carry in a shopping bag.  The more traditional acoustic piano   
   fits the joke better because it doesn't come equipped with earphones & volume   
   controls & suchlike.  OTOH, it could easily weigh half a ton(ne) or more.  So   
   where did these people buy it & who do they know who owns a truck/lorry?  :-)   
      
      
      
    ak>   [Yesterday, at 9 pm, my neighbors bought a piano.]   
      
    ak>   The sentence has lost its sense of humor! The comma   
    ak>   was put wrongly.   
      
      
             AFAIC the punctuation is correct there... but the sentence lost its   
   humo(u)r when you omitted "without declaring war".  This phrase indicates the   
   narrator does *not* enjoy his neighbours' attempts to play the piano....  :-)   
      
      
      
    ak>   Well, let's wait for Ardith's comment. ;)   
      
      
             I see you've got my number!  Where the rules don't work, I look for   
   principles.  It may take me awhile to come up with an intelligent answer.  As   
   Fidonetters say, however, you can have any two of good & fast & free....  ;-)   
      
      
      
    ak>   PS: But the final rule in that manual was the following:   
    ak>   "if you feel that in your sentence there are too many   
    ak>   commas, throw out some of them. Abundance of commas cause   
    ak>   more harm than help and hamper reading." ;-)   
      
      
             Aha!  Yes, that's the way I write.  Now we're discussing what these   
   rules were intended to accomplish.  Brits tend to use commas much more freely   
   than USAians do.  Years ago I was criticized by a (USAian) English instructor   
   for using "too many commas", and thus I omit them if I don't think they serve   
   some useful purpose and/or if they're optional where others might not be.  In   
   the back of my mind always is what will make my writing understandable to the   
   largest number of folks out there... most of whom I have never met in person.   
      
             The placement of adverbs & adverbial phrases having to do with time   
   and/or location is fairly flexible in English.  Whether you say "yesterday at   
   9:00 PM" or "at 9:00 PM yesterday" is up to you, and if you prefer not to use   
   punctuation which is more obviously needed elsewhere... I'd do the same.  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)