Hardest style/grammar rules to get right

Yep.

 

constantly vs. continually

 

Hyphenating verb-noun combinations that act as adjectives preceding a noun.

 

Hearbeat is constant. Inhaling is continual. Unless you're talking about Clinton's weed days.

 

Carlin sums it up better than anyone.

"Irony deals with opposites; it has nothing to do with coincidence. If two baseball palyers from the same hometown, on different teams, receive the same uniform number, it is not ironic. It is a coincidence. If Barry Bonds attains lifetime statistics identical to his father’s it will not be ironic. It will be a coincidence. Irony is "a state of affairs that is the reverse of what was to be expected; a result opposite to and in mockery of the appropriate result." For instance:

If a diabetic, on his way to buy insulin, is killed by a runaway truck, he is the victim of an accident. If the truck was delivering sugar, he is the victim of an oddly poetic coincidence. But if the truck was delivering insulin, ah! Then he is the victim of an irony.
If a Kurd, after surviving bloody battle with Saddam Hussein’s army and a long, difficult escape through the mountains, is crushed and killed by a parachute drop of humanitarian aid, that, my friend, is irony writ large.
Darryl Stingley, the pro football player, was paralyzed after a brutal hit by Jack Tatum. Now Darryl Stingley’s son plays football, and if the son should become paralyzed while playing, it will not be ironic. It will be coincidental. If Darryl Stingley’s son paralyzes someone else, that will be closer to ironic. If he paralyzes Jack Tatum’s son that will be precisely ironic."

 

See, that's why I don't know if I'll ever be able to draw the line.

If Darryl Stingley's son paralyzes Jack Tatum's son, is that not coincidence too?

 

I'm with you on that example. The insulin truck is closer to actual ironu. Of course, like in all difficult language debates, there's a group saying we need to lighten up, that irony needs a broader definition.

 

Of the things in Alanis Morrisette's song, which, if any are ironic?

Rain on your wedding day? Just bad luck.
A free ride when you're already there? Bad timing.
The good advice that you just didn't take? Stupidity.
Mr. Play-it-safe, refused to fly? Again, bad luck.
Meeting the man of your dreams, then meeting his beautiful wife? Sucks for you!

98-year-old man wins the lottery, dies the next day? Percentages caught up to him.
A black fly in your Chardonnay? Some would call that flavorful.
Death row pardon 2 minutes too late? Another incompetent politician.
10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife? Frustrating, yes. Ironic? No.

 

Something that I'm seeing: placing a comma after the second to last item in a list. "The boy carried a ball, bat, and glove to the field." I thought the rule was no comma after bat.

 

That's the serial comma. Most journalism style guides denounce it. Most academic style guides favor it.

 

That's what I thought. I've seen a lot of newspapers put it in. Is the rule if you have three independent clauses then you can put it there? "The boy carried the ball, the girl carries the bat, and the coach carried the glove?"