[laumars]

I really enjoyed this story. However I did struggle on one part:

> Whitson, his 13-year-old son and girlfriend, Krystal Ramirez, had decided to spend Father's Day weekend backpacking the Arroyo Seco River.

It took me longer to parse this sentence than I should perhaps admit to. The first couple of reads lead me to believe his son and girlfriend were the same person.

[wvenable]

Just imagine if he had a daughter instead. I don't know why some linguists are so against the Oxford comma.

[parliament32]

Definitely an oxford comma situation, and need to fix those commas around the girlfriend's name. Whitson is the subject, not the son:

> Whitson, his 13-year-old son, and girlfriend Krystal Ramirez had decided to spend Father's Day weekend backpacking...

[jdbernard]

Nice place for an Oxford comma.

[laumars]

I was thinking this too. I'm generally a big fan of the Oxford comma.

[hervature]

Just an fyi, Oxford comma only applies to lists of 3 or more. I think this is just a dangling modifier.

[mikeash]

This is a list of three: Whitson, his son, and his girlfriend.

[ant6n]

Girlfriend of the whitson or the his son?

[mikeash]

Beats me!

[lonelappde]

The Oxford comma isn't the issue here. The issue is that "his" binds both son and girlfriend, and therefore needs an "and" in front of it. It's not grammatical as is.

[rpmisms]

It would still read perplexingly. The Oxford comma isn't a tool for the inept; rather, the ept.

[Spare_account]

It's interesting how sometimes what appears to be a prefix, isn't.

[rpmisms]

That is an affront up with which I will not put.

[kbutler]

Leaving out the oxford comma is like relying on JavaScript automatic semicolon insertion - it works fine, until it doesn't.

[ChristianBundy]

Thankfully we have linters!

[CWuestefeld]

I'm still not sure whether it's the dad's girlfriend or the son's.