I frequently get questions over e-mail about writing, grammar, and usage. It struck me that it might be interesting and enlightening to share some of these on this blog, under the tag "Ask Me." So please go right ahead and e-mail me any questions, with the subject line "Ask Me." I'll answer you right here.

The first entry is below. Here and henceforth, please feel free to weigh in with comments, disagreements, even slings and arrows.

While considering for the umpteenth time what might be a rule to support what I think is the correct comma usage in a particular situation, I thought I should actually check. So I did, and found nothing on the usage. Perhaps you've considered the following use and would be willing to provide your views.

If Jane Doe sends me helpful information in an e-mail, I might reply with a message that begins, "Thanks, Jane." It seems to me that a comma belongs after the declaration of thanks, in part because "Thanks Jane"...

I'm just now catching up with Vanity Fair's January special comedy issue guest-edited by Judd Apatow (props to VF for not using the word "curated"!). I'm somewhat bemused by Apatow's having assumed the position of comedy's capo di tutti capi; his funniest movie by far, in my thinking, is "Superbad," which wasn't even really his movie. (He produced, Greg Mottola directed, and Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg wrote the screenplay.) But I am a fan (one of the few, it sometimes seems) of Apatow's "Funny People," a painfully truthful portrait of an unhappy and not nice comedian, played by Adam Sandler. I guess the big thing I respect about Apatow is that at least he takes comedy seriously.

The Vanity Fair issue has a lot of good stuff in it; if you can find it at a yardsale or read it online, I commend it to your attention. There's a nice profile of one of my favorite all-time funny people, Martin Short, and a meaty oral history of the cult-classic TV show Apatow produced...