The semicolon - the (almost) forgotten star

Semicolons frighten most people I know. People can get real emotional if you ask them to use one. Native German speakers seem to harbor an inherent distrust of them; as if they were contagious, or could somehow taint the sentence around them.

I find them nice. They look friendly and important. They’re not quite as serious as a colon, and not quite as frivolous as a comma. They’re a bit of a compromise, in a diplomatic sort of way.

By chance I read this in the New York Times. Seems the semicolon is celebrating a resurrection of sorts.
A current poster in the New York subway reminds passengers not to leave their newspapers behind when they get off the train.
Please put it in a trash can, read the sign, until Neil Neches, a transit’s marketing agency employee, added the now-famous semicolon and finished the sentence to read,  that’s good news for everyone.

This did not (how could it in New York) go unnoticed. Even cult grammarian Lynne Truss, author of the popular punctuation book “Eats, shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.” saw the sign and called it a “lovely example” of proper punctuation. (note to self: return borrowed book to Justi)

But that’s not all.

The semicolon has become The Topic of the blogsphere. Our Bold Hero, a reactionary proof-reader blogging unflinchingly against prescriptive grammar, fills in his two cents worth here.

Long live the semicolon! - And if you get time, buy the punctuation book. It’s worth the read, even if you don’t care about punctuation.

semicolon lynne truss New York subway Neil Neches punctuation