Thus spake Michael Hertrick ("MH> ") sometime Tomorrow...

MH> Instead of "To my parents, Ayn Rand and God." or "To my parents, Ayn Rand,
MH> and God." use:
MH>
MH> "To my parents, Ayn Rand, God."

<flip>

I'd just say, "To my parents and Ayn Rand.", myself...

</flip>

...but I know that'd only upset the misguided.

MH> Can anyone give one good reason why the 'and' needs to be there?  All it
MH> seems to do is complicate things and doesn't really provide any meaning.

It seems to follow the flow of the spoken word better.

For clarity's sake, many other non-English languages use the preposition
before each item in the list.  To me, this is the simplest solution.

Regarding American English vs. Commonwealth (i.e. International) English,
yes, it is nothing more than a regional dialect in a VERY populous and overly
insistent region (speaking, here, as one of its inhabitants).

I find that I prefer the non-American versions of spelling, i.e. -ise,
-our, and the like.  The only reason the documentation uses the
Americanized version of English is -- and this is just my guess --
probably by and large due to BSD's roots in Berkeley, California and
surrounding areas; had it originated in, say, Cambridge Right or Oxford,
it might have turned out somewhat differently.

As one gets older, one finds that it is not always what one says, but
how one says it, which is of importance.  After all, one will eventually
be told to go to hell, and if one can speak sufficiently eloquently, the
winner of the trip will be able to convince the donator to accompany
them before the latter is fully aware of what they have just been conscripted
to do. :-)

				--*greywolf;
--
NetBSD: Network Your World.