esrosedotblog

SEMI-COLONIC

You may have noticed that I use a lot of semi-colons.

Some have raised eyebrows at this. Others have kept mum as one would when a fart sounds in church.

Still others wallow in the ebb and flow of the semi-colonic bath. They give into it. Swim and enjoy.

Since that awful book with the panda on the front was printed, people seem to be all hyper about proper punctuation. It is as though we have all been eating happy meals together for years and now someone pulls out an etiquette book. We go all self conscious and somehow end up clumsier when we were going natural. Silver clatters to the floor and napkins go all berserk.

Natural works. That is my approach to punctuation. I do not remember one goddam thing from English class nor do I want to.

I have been edited by experts and show up pretty well. In fact, if you need that kind of thing, that is what experts are for. You hire them to fix your stuff.

But, if you just want to get on with it, you do the best you can and go by feel. It is like playing music by ear. Pauses. Stops. Waves of mental sound.

But, if you want the whole rundown on the semi-colon, this is for you.

Pause celebre

Wake me when it is over.

Did you notice that I have not used a ; in this entire item?

Oh, and thanks to Andrew Sullivan for this. He mentions that Mike Kinsley used to have a key on his computer that would change all semi-colons to a period and a next capital letter with one stroke.

I believe the zealotry if not the fact of the key.