In Making Masterpiece: 25 Years Behind the Scenes at Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! (p.129), Rebecca Eaton includes a facsimile of a note on New York Times stationery that Russell Baker wrote to her regarding his scripts for introducing Masterpiece Theatre on January 10, 1997.
It says:
Dear Rebecca _[Note: Baker didn't use the Oxford comma, so there's something for those who oppose it to point to.]
These can be cut, sliced, pared, slashed, canned, pruned, trimmed, condensed, abridged, curtailed or sheared, if you want me never to speak to you again.
Yrs
Russell
