Anthony Wells has an amusing post about compulsive parliamentary candidate Lieutenant-Commander Bill Boakes, who stood for election at every opportunity from 1951 to 1981 on a platform that varied from being a democratic monarchist campaigning for equal pay for women to being the “Air, Road, Public Safety White Resident” candidate (rather less fun). All very interesting, but the English language intervenes when Wells describes some of Boakes’ other eccentricities.
“Fast moving traffic held no fears for Boaks, his other passtimes included sitting in the middle of the fast lane of the M40 on a deckchair, reading the Daily Telegraph, and deliberately pouncing onto Zebra crossings into the path of oncoming traffic, pushing a pram full of house bricks.”
Very amusing, but I wasn’t aware that reading the Daily Telegraph was quite as dangerous as hurling yourself in front of moving cars. Possibly it’s even less enjoyable, but that isn’t what that comma after “deckchair” suggests, even if the alternative gives the impression of a deckchair fascinated by conservative newspapers.
Or maybe he meant it.