Silly rabbit

OK, friends and neighbors, we can probably agree that the Foremost Newspaper of the Carolinas has gotten a little slack with its edpage commas:

Hey Mayor Foxx, keep your nose out of county operations

Hey Obama White House, your double standard is showing

Hey candidates, come back and pick up after yourselves

It's a mild (and hard to confuse, though as cliches go it's getting annoying in a hurry) form of the Donner Party comma: your friend, the comma of direct address. It'd be good to stop things before they spread beyond the letters, though, because that pesky comma can make a difference. A "sorry congressman" isn't unheard of, but he's not necessarily the same one you address as "sorry, congressman."