two-million dollar comma

[alexxkay]

For all the language wonks on my Friends list, another object lesson about the importance of punctuation:

Different interpretations of a comma end up costing a contractor 2.13 million dollars.

Comments

[freerange-snark.livejournal.com]

Oooooooooooh, now I get it. Somehow it was just escaping me before. Yes, without the comma it does mean that any five-year term after the initial, not-get-out-of-able one, could be terminated with a year's notice. With the comma, anyone can terminate the contract at any time, so long as they warn the other party a year in advance.

Thankee, thankee. I couldn't figure out where the comma should go instead, but it just shouldn't be there at all. That was driving me bananas.