Le Matus Wrestles with Commas

Here http://grammargrinch.blogspot.com/2008/01/skip-to-main-skip-to-sidebar.html Lee writes:

>In an initial interview, McNeil said he couldn't remember the names of any classes or instructors, or whether he wrote a master's thesis.

The comma after “instructors” is redundant. It splits compound direct-object noun clauses of “said”: “said [that] he couldn’t remember…” or “whether he wrote…”<

The noun clauses are not the object of “said”, you dumb bint. So McNeil said whether he wrote a master’s thesis? Rubbish. He couldn’t remember the names, and he couldn’t remember whether he wrote a thesis.

“The names of any classes” and “whether he wrote a master’s thesis” make a compound object of “could not remember”. Your explanation is as wrong as the comma.