The New York Times: "Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location"
Hey guys and gals- I found an article online at nytimes.com, about semicolon usage on a sign in a subway train. I have included what I found to be an entertaining excerpt. Interestingly, the excerpt states that semicolons are to be taught in the 3rd grade (I have a hunch that this isn't happening). If you are interested in seeing the whole article, including the actual sentence that contains the semicolon click here. Enjoy
Excerpt:
"Americans, in particular, prefer shorter sentences without, as style books advise, that distinct division between statements that are closely related but require a separation more prolonged than a conjunction and more emphatic than a comma.
'When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life,' Kurt Vonnegut once said. 'Old age is more like a semicolon.'
In terms of punctuation, semicolons signal something New Yorkers rarely do. Frank McCourt, the writer and former English teacher at Stuyvesant High School, describes the semicolon as the yellow traffic light of a 'New York sentence.' In response, most New Yorkers accelerate; they don’t pause to contemplate.
Semicolons are supposed to be introduced into the curriculum of the New York City public schools in the third grade. That is where Mr. Neches, the 55-year-old New York City Transit marketing manager, learned them, before graduating from Tilden High School and Brooklyn College, where he majored in English and later received a master’s degree in creative writing.