;?! We were deeply saddened by the news that the semicolon might be on its last legs. Or its last, sole, little curly leg. People. This is wrong! Look, we know we often take liberties with grammar and spelling. Sometimes we even make up words entirely. But we’re bloggers. We won’t even pretend like there are any standards for how we write. That said, we very desperately want the semicolon to stay. There’s currently a battle raging (raging!) over whether to retire the pun- no! Funtuation mark, with different (real) writers chipping in and having their say.

The French, those bastards, started the whole talk about “Oh zee semicolon! She is dying, non?” Mais non! She is most certainly not! She is simply the diamond of punctuation marks; she is only brought out on special occasions.

On the “for” side, there are authors like George Bernard Shaw, who once wrote to TE Lawrence:

“You practically do not use semicolons at all. This is a symptom of mental defectiveness, probably induced by camp life.”

On the “against” side, there are senile old men like Kurt Vonnegut [Ed. note: How would you do this to me; have you no shame?], who wrote:

If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don’t have the nerve to be a homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts. But do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites, standing for absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.

Homophobic and anti-college is what that was!

Anyway. Don’t listen to any of them! Follow your <3. Surely there is a place for a little semicolon in there? Just look. She winks for you, hopefully:

;

The end of the line? [Guardian]