Morford took a huge gamble early on in his writing career: He established a voice, and decided he would live or die by that voice. That voice is largely defined by its looping, digressive nature, its run-ons perhaps as carefully chosen and edited as the more discrete sentences of Herb Caen. Some love it, some hate it. But Morford's gamble paid off insofar as the Chron decided that there are more people who love it than who hate it, and there are more in both camps than in the ambivalent camp. I usually find it charming, but I can see why those who don't, don't.
And even if Morford actually lacked a grasp of grammar, there's no way the Chron copy editors would let errors and awkwardnesses like his slide without approval on a couple levels. It's not like he's blogging to the site from home. I can only imagine how many "CQ"s show up in his columns when the copy editors Scoop them (inside ref for copy editors). What's there, for better or worse, is what's consciously intended to be there.
