Slog - Comments on ;?

Comment by Mr. Poe

Mr. Poe — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:20:30 -0800

I actually talked about this with this dude I had sex with for money (for drugs). Interesting stuff.

Comment by Dougsf

Dougsf — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:20:41 -0800

I use them all the time; but when I do, it usually shows I DIDN'T go to college.

That Vonnegut quote is priceless.

Comment by Gloria

Gloria — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:20:46 -0800

I'm addicted to semicolons, but I learned about them in high school (on my own, because they were still busy teaching about commas), not college.

He's right about arts though. SORRY MOM AND DAD!

Comment by Commatose

Commatose — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:22:48 -0800

Let's all conquer the apostrophe before we move on to the subtle semicolon.

Comment by Jay

Jay — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:23:18 -0800

I loves me some semicolons; they make the world go round.

Comment by Michigan Matt (soon to be Balt-o-matt)

Michigan Matt (soon to be Balt-o-matt) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:28:23 -0800

I'm pretty sure my fabulous use of a semicolon is what got my letter to the editor published in the NY Times. . .

Comment by It's Mark Mitchell

It's Mark Mitchell — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:28:31 -0800

Poe; a ho.

Comment by Ari Spool

Ari Spool — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:29:00 -0800

Not until bands stop putting commas in their names like Good Dream, Bad Breakfast; Molly Shannon, Molly Shannon; and Husbands, Love Your Wives. Then we can eradicate the semi-colon.

God, I hate when bands do that.

Comment by kid icarus

kid icarus — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:29:15 -0800

I also loves me some semicolons. They're perfect in a pinch. DOWN WITH PENNIES!

Comment by Ari Spool

Ari Spool — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:30:20 -0800

Also, how will we wink in emails?

Comment by JC

JC — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:31:23 -0800

Can we kill the word "whom" next? I've always thought that it sounded archaic.

Comment by tsm

tsm — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:33:55 -0800

I like semicolons. I once tried to budget my use of them, but it just felt wrong somehow; my sentences were insufficiently long and meandering.

Comment by Dr_Awesome

Dr_Awesome — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:34:57 -0800

When semicolons are outlawed, only Charlton Heston will have semicolons.

Comment by Gillian Anderson

Gillian Anderson — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:36:23 -0800

Paul, you're breaking my heart.

Comment by nerd

nerd — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:36:45 -0800

Ever wondered why the semicolon is so handy on keyboards? It's for programmers. We use them all of the time when writing code.

So... if you are writing English I would worry about losing the semicolon; I'm glad it's so handy on my keyboard.

Comment by Sasha

Sasha — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:36:57 -0800

I use semicolons, not often, but they are quite nice when listing variables for big nasty equations. Indeed communicating much of the modern research and bettering our world through it requires a semicolon. Okay Back to dissertation.

Comment by heywhatsit

heywhatsit — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:38:35 -0800

X FILES!!!!

Comment by PopTart

PopTart — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:40:34 -0800

I'm too comma happy, sometimes a semi-colon is better.

According to Strunk & White: "If two or more clauses grammatically complete and not joined by a conjunction are to form a single compound sentence, the proper mark of punctuation is a semicolon."

Jesus, Strunk & White always puts me to sleep.

My favorite Vonnegut is when he appears in the Rodney Dangerfield movie "Back to School" He writes a paper about himself and then Melon gets an "F" on it. The professor says "whoever *did* write this doesn't know the first thing about Vonnegut."

Comment by Mr. Poe

Mr. Poe — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:46:09 -0800

NEWS YOU CAN USE!!!: Gillian EEEXXXXXFFFIILLEESSS Anderson has commented on this post!!!

As you were.

Comment by Dougsf

Dougsf — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:48:41 -0800

@11: Whom sounds really weird in speech, but in print, I think it's necessary.

(Cut and pasted excerpt, if this helps) �he/him� or �she/her,� and that every verb with a tense must have a subject � you should solve the �who/whom�.

Comment by Julie

Julie — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:48:50 -0800

I use dashes quite alot -- probably when I should be using a semicolon. But, like Ari, I mostly use them when I'm making a list of things where the items have commas in them.

Comment by Kim Hayden

Kim Hayden — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:49:16 -0800

I think semicolon haters are just afraid of them because they don't know how to use them. A semicolon connects two complete sentences; I would've changed your semicolon use in this post had it come through copy.

Comment by Jonathan Golob

Jonathan Golob — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:52:22 -0800

Fact:
Before writing for the Stranger, and being educated by the copy department, I lived in fear of both the em dash and semicolon. I used neither.

This is despite writing sentences of sufficient complexity and length to require the use of a GPS receiver, flares, a ten pound bag of rice and a Saint Bernard to find your way though.

(This comment is em dash and semicolon free.)

Comment by madamecrow

madamecrow — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:54:06 -0800

Every time I use a semicolon, I picture Kurt Vonnegut shaking his head at me in disappointment. I usually end up changing it.

Comment by My name is URL

My name is URL — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:55:29 -0800

Dearest Gillian, the written word isn't adequate to express your fake British-ish accent. BTW, how IS Madonna?

Comment by Levislade

Levislade — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:59:19 -0800

I use them all the time, but then I probably read too much John Irving in my formative years.

Comment by Timrrr

Timrrr — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:02:27 -0800

I've found the "dash" has replaced (and as often augmented) a role once played by the semicolon within my writing.

The dash seems to me more flexible in its clause-joining powers -- bridging a greater space between short pause of a comma and the full stop of a period.

Comment by STJA

STJA — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:08:38 -0800

What is the world coming to?

PostScript

It should be "Poe: a ho."

L2semi:

Comment by Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:10:20 -0800

Semicolons are for programming.

Comment by Aislinn

Aislinn — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:12:13 -0800

@7: A colon would have been more appropriate there.

Comment by Aislinn

Aislinn — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:14:24 -0800

Whoops... took too long before posting, sorry to repeat @28.

Comment by Spoogie

Spoogie — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:20:27 -0800

@7, that should probably be Poe: a ho. Not that I'm a prescriptivist; I understood exactly what you meant.

Comment by Spoogie

Spoogie — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:24:14 -0800

@7, sorry to pick on you. Looks like I was unintentionally playing pile-on; shoulda looked before I leapt.

Comment by Anti-Semicolon

Anti-Semicolon — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:41:08 -0800

I was recently editing a piece that my SO was working on when I offered up a bit of criticism.

ME: "Gee, you sure are a big fan of the semicolon."

HIM: "I love semicolons! They're artful, and not many people know how to use them properly."

Fact of the Day! George Orwell actively campaigned against the use of the semicolon, believing it to be a contributing factor in the erosion of language and meaning. He argued that the semicolon blurs the distinction between the comma and the colon, thereby obscuring the exact nature of the relationship between the two phrases it sits between.

I tend to agree with Orwell, however I love that topics of conversation around my house on any given night regularly include such dorktastic things as my SO's passion for punctuation marks and literary devices.

Comment by Catman

Catman — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:46:03 -0800

I always use semicolons for linking independent clauses; they come in very handy.

Comment by spencer

spencer — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:57:13 -0800

I love semicolons and "whom" (both in writing and in speech), but I also like spelling words with redundant 'e's on the end, like "shoppe" and "grille" and "olde", so I guess I'm not a good judge of how our written language should evolve.

Comment by Christin

Christin — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:58:04 -0800

@34: I don't understand George Orwell's problem. Sure, people mix up commas and semi-colons, but colons and semi-colons? How could those ever be confused? They don't even do *close* to the same job; while confusing commas and semi-colons is like confusing cell phones with PDAs, confusing colons and semi-colons is like confusing cell phones with blocks of cream cheese.

(Comment 7 nonwithstanding, of course.)

Comment by inkweary

inkweary — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:04:10 -0800

Vonnegut really had it in for trannies and hermaphrodites. I wonder what brought that on?

Comment by mnm

mnm — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:14:25 -0800

As a programmer I have an intimate and loving relationship with ;

Comment by Irena

Irena — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:45:41 -0800

Whatever. Vonnegut was a hack.

Comment by Gitai

Gitai — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:58:59 -0800

Semicolons have plenty of established purposes, but it's the sheer nature of their obscurity that will keep them alive. There will always be the William Safires of the world who will use them just for the appearance of erudition.

Comment by another nerd

another nerd — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 02:37:57 -0800

Oh, well, that's interesting, the slog software added the missing semicolon on © when I previewed, but your replacement isn't recursive, and &copy got around it, but of course I had to skip previewing to get that in (so I don't know for sure what this will look like when posted)

Also without a semicolon,

main(){printf("hello world/n")}

would generate error messages rather than the intended output.

Comment by Tom

Tom — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:49:10 -0800

Hi Paul--you used the semicolon incorrectly in your own sentence, so maybe you're better off doing without. The part of the sentence after your semicolon could not stand alone as a sentence; it would have better been separated with a comma or a dash.

I love the semi, and would hate to remove any useful and unique device from the toolbox. It can add a nice rhythm to the usual declarative drone.

Bring it on, haters!