Victorian sword stick esoterica

[urbanspaceman]

A friend of nearly 70 years, a professor of English grammar, tells me again and again, when my ignorance of the subject disrupts my literary endeavors, that it all boils down to effective communication, and that many of the rules we learned in school are products of personal pronouncements that remain open to debate.
When you read what is written, do you understand what the writer intended?
Actually, correct punctuation is far more important in accurate conveyance of intention. The lack of a comma can completely change the meaning of the sentence - as countless school-time exercises have shown.
Jim, everybody understood perfectly well to whom you referred, it didn't need to be corrected; and, in fact, the correction was potentially inaccurate, as Alan so eruditely pointed out. Well done Alan, I was hoping someone would set the record straight.
ps
The USA and the UK are countries separated by a common language.