Olivia, dearest - The comma was not the issue at all - rather, you should have put the phrase in quotation marks, rather than parentheses, even though you were more or less paraphrasing Crystal and not precisely quoting her. (Oh, hell, what are the rules for such things, anyway?? One of the great advantages of a board forum such as this is that we can be creative in our use of the language, its grammar, and such dreadful niceties as punctuation.) I personally do not follow the rule of putting the comma inside of either the parentheses or quotation marks, since I think that confuses the reader. My rule (and since I make up my own as I go along and therefore am comfortable with such rules) is that the use of grammar and punctuation should be absolutely oriented either towards making one's writing more easily comprehensible for the reader or more self-indulgent for the writer, whichever works out. (Sometimes both work out, which is a genuine bonus.) I know that lots of people hate parenthetical phrases; but I love 'em. I even speak in them, both at work and socially. I find that works better than making those horrible little finger "quote" signs when I talk.

Sue - I will not venture a guess as to whether your in-house counsel was complimenting you and insulting you when he/she/it (we must be inclusive) suggested that you, as a grammar nazi, write like a lawyer!! As both an in-house counsel and a grammar nazi (although I like to think of myself more as a grammar brown-shirt - preferring Italian food and opera to German), I am quite careful to not ever suggest that my colleagues share any traits with those of us in the shark profession.

Marsha - What a pity that your child's public school education was so deficient. I went to a public school (a very working/lower class one at that, since that was certainly the demographic into which my family was correctly identified) and managed to learn enough grammar to do the damage I am doing to this thread.

And finally (as everyone is sighing, "At last, he is dragging this post to an end."), the issue of lay/lie. I have found that the best way to deal with that problem is to remember that often a good lay is something to lie about, and aside from that, who gives a damn about the grammar aspect of it all?!

Cheers, Fred