Another Antecedent Problem

Here Dagwood offers his boss two antecedents to reply to. He spells them out in the second panel:

https://www.comicskingdom.com/blondie/2020-01-15

(Short versions: “promise,” or “get mad.”)

I see this pop up occasionally in conversations. And it’s not infrequently a source of conversational humor.

But when you write expositorily, try to avoid this ambiguity!