The semicolon.
 

This, from The Australian, is interesting:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226109371840

I was going to go for the obvious and mention how too much usage of the semicolon may cause blockage, with the only remedy the clarifying effects of the full colon, but since that backup sounds counter-intuitive, I won't go on.

I had my head screwed up early by a high school teacher who insisted it was sinful to link two sentences with a semicolon. I feel the harmful effects of her advice to this day.

Biographical Note:

I am a semi-colon kind of guy;
enamored of the curlicue, the dot;
the quiet, understated way it’s got
of letting life just slide and sidle by;
a ritualistic pause that may imply,
a thing or two, a shrug, a sigh, is what
I choose to offer; not the cold-and-hot
assaults of passion that transmogrify

a subtle hint into a joust with God:
no images, no metaphors, no blood,
no wild-eyed horses dying in the mud;
I don’t make love or war, I simply nod;
and as I semi-smile and semi-bow,
my semi-colon arcs a jaded brow.

I'm a semicolon kind of gal, though I couldn't match Michael's excellent offering in verse. I have to say that the semicolon (no hyphen) will be around for as long as I, for one, am able to write.

I teach all my students to use it; I love it! ;)

Of course, the semicolon is but one part of punctuation's unholy trinity (colon, semicolon, comma), so here's a thought -- written many years ago (yes, what about dashes?) -- on the larger subject...


Colonitis
(for Ogden Nash)

When rendered commatose by stress, the anxious writer’s colon does only a half-asked job
and degenerates into a semicolon; intermittent in its punctuation;
resulting in fluctuation of the Muse’s functuation;

Which is all highly irregular; but not nearly as bad as a semicolon succumbing to its lower nature
and lapsing into a comma, hardly stemming the flow of idea,
resulting naturally in verbal diarrhea,

Which, however commacle, is not nearly as bad as a semi-colon losing its better half
and sinking into a barren period. Stopping all inspiration.
Resulting periodically in mental constipation.

That is fantastic, Michael. Chapeau.

Pedro.

Yeah, that's got LIGHT written all over it, Michael. Like it a lot.

I've always liked the story of James McAuley, who, on being told that he would have to be operated for bowel cancer, said, "Better a semicolon than a full stop."

Stephen,

'O', how interesting - my Webster's confirms your spelling of 'diarrhea' without an 'o'. (Knowing you, I didn't really imagine you'd get it wrong.)
In the UK we spell it 'diarrhoea', for which there's a perfect mnemonic: Dash In A Rush Run Hard Or Else Accident.

I have a book entitled "Lapsing Into A Comma - A Curmudgeon's Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print - and How to Avoid Them" by Bill Walsh, Copy Desk Chief, the Washington Post.

Bill says: "The semicolon is an ugly bastard..." but goes on, "Use the semicolon when two intimately related sentences are fused together without the word and: I looked outside; the weather was not nice.