Ode to a Punctuation Mark !!?,:;"'() . . . __--

I love Grammar Girl and have been listening to her "quick and dirty tips" podcasts -- and getting her newsletter, too -- for over a year. It's fun! Do you have a favorite punctuation mark? Maybe you are partial to the serial comma, which can cause problems when omitted. The woods are dovely, lark and leap. . . Or perhaps you object to the ampersand, which seems an affectation, & I disdain it as a rule except when   in a hurry or talking to the ghost of Robert Creeley.  Some people think the semi-colon (Joyce called it the semi-colonial) is ostentatious or pretentious or just downright ugly. I don't: When used judiciously, the semicolon can be elegant. 
   In honor of National Punctuation Day (September 24) Grammar Girl is sponsoring a contest. Write an ode to the punctuation mark of your voice and send it to: [email protected]. "Ode" can be loosely defined. The best entries will be featured in  the "tip-of-day" e-mail newsletter, and one entry may be chosen to be the Grammar Girl podcast on September 24. Read all about it here.

-- sdh

Comments

[Jim Cummins]

Here's Donald Hall's entry:

I, Too, Dislike

I, too, dislike it--the mannerism of plain,
natural, or idiomatic language
McPoets go in for. Horsecollar prefers
chatting in Latin.

"Iowa delenda est," par example.
Squish the demotic underfoot, Arbogast.
When you take up syntax and semicolons,
then show me your stuff.

["Iowa delenda est": "Iowa must be destroyed"] There's more to the poem, but this is the only reference to semicolons. Did you know Hemingway had an operation and was left with only a semicolon? You've probably heard the song, "Papa's got a brand-new bag ..."?

[Three-Fingers Brown]

I thought the "brand-new bag" was a condom until H. J. wised me up with wha used to be called, genteelly, a nickel bag. "Are these ideas right or wrong?" And should I have the right to smile?

[Jim Cummins]

Mordecai, I love that: the genteel nickel bag ... I would guess Papa never had a bag of the nickel OR colostomy variety ... but I could be wrong.

[ostomy supplies]

Thanks, I will visit the Grammar girl to see what it's all about!

-Luigi