I share an office with Christine Hollermann-Hanlon (and I'm sure she'll thank me for linking you to the worst picture she has ever taken in her adult life), and today, we were getting in a discussion about which punctuation is the sexiest. I don't mean "sexy" in that trendy way where it is interchangeable with the word "popular," as in, "401Ks are a very sexy option for the employee in their 40s." It chaps my hide when people use "sexy" that way, mainstreaming a perfectly good if slightly 1970s taboo word.
No, I mean sexy, as in, "It's really hot when a guy knows how to use a semicolon." Isn't it crazy naughty fun to be an English teacher? This is our office talk. Christine is partial to the em dash, which, while it is my personal favorite form of punctuation because I'm all about parenthetical thoughts, just isn't sexy. Now the semicolon, well that requires one to create and inscribe two thoughts that are so close, so intimately connected that a period would be a sea between them, but also independent and evolved enough that they need their own space and can stand alone when necessary. Now that's sexy. Anyone care to weigh in on their own personal faves?
Turn ons: Anyone who says, "That's not really my forte" and pronounces it FORT not FOR-TAY.
ReplyDeleteTurn offs: Anyone who says, "I had boughten it at Wal-Mart." We convict people for murder, insider trading, and bestiality but we allow THIS atrocity to God and man to go unpunished?
Jess, you had me convinced that the semicolon wins as the sexiest punctuation. Then I mentioned this debate to a friend who has some very compelling thoughts:
ReplyDelete"?" is an obvious choice because it not only suggests mystery but is also very shapely. "¿" is a mystery in a foreign accent. "%" has a sort of yin-yang/harmony vibe. "@" has always seemed like such a puzzling glyph (who would come up with that?), partially because I've never seen it outside of an e-mail address. ". . ." can be used to sexily imply something unspoken (as long as a space is used between each dot). "£" is really fun to draw, and has a similar motion to the L in love. The humble comma, however, may be closest to my heart right now. It seems to be the most often misused mark in the things that I work on (although semicolons are very rarely used correctly), but their use is at the same time often very subjective. A person can use commas to change the meaning of something on very subtle levels. It's a very delicate art that is often overlooked but vitally important. (I may be a little too infatuated with the serial comma. I feel like its inner beauty is often unfairly—and incorrectly—ignored.)
My personal all-time favorite punctuation marks are parentheses (as you can probably tell).
Um, I've alwasy said "for-tay," which, as I see from dictionary, is the correct pronunciation of the musical application but not the noun form of the word. Cripes. You can learn something from people from Wisconsin. I'll have to add that fact to my ca-shay of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI do love a good comma, Barbara, but the semicolon has got it going on. :) Hot, hot, hot.
I've not blogged before, but I've read all of Jessie's books.
ReplyDeleteThe semicolon was Ronald Reagan's favorite punctuation mark, especially after he had part of his colon removed. :)
Bravo on forte! Now if people would say, "Cleek" when using clique we'd have it made.
Question: Didn't semicolon used to be spelled with a dash, or was that a cosmos thing?