In Praise Of the Semicolon; It’s About Time.

And in, of all places, the New York City subways.

“Please put it in a trash can,” riders are reminded. After which Neil Neches, an erudite writer in the transit agency’s marketing and service information department, inserted a semicolon. The rest of the sentence reads, “that’s good news for everyone.”

Semicolon sightings in the city are unusual, period, much less in exhortations drafted by committees of civil servants. In literature and journalism, not to mention in advertising, the semicolon has been largely jettisoned as a pretentious anachronism.

And don’t even get me started on apostrophes; their misuse is maddening.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.