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Thursday 23 August 2007

Colons

Today we will discuss the colon. Briefly.

Extremely fond though I am of the semi-colon, I never seem to think to use a colon. George Bernard Shaw, that talented yet irritating man, used them to excess. He probably used up my share, and a lot of other people's.

I am not sure what a colon does that a full stop doesn't do better.

In the whole of Trav Zander, I use one colon. When it is published, there will be a small prize for the first person to locate it.

(Don't all rush at once, you'll trip over the ellipses).

10 comments:

  1. Trav had always been hard worker, that was never an issue. But he had also had a long-standing problem with money. He never had enough of it. He had tried numerous professions in turn: bounty hunter; arms smuggler to would-be rebels; a spectacularly insubordinate and therefore unsuccessful mercenary.

    I have seen colons and I have seen colons. But this one is used to perfection. Elegant, refined and somehow boisterous to boot.

    Actually, I like any colon that doesn't have "oscopy" attached to it.

    Alan

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  2. Boisterous? Perhaps: exuberant, ebullient, yet brash slightly.

    I second Alan's statement. That O'Scopey clan is a mean bunch.

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  3. Alan, if you are hoping to steal a march and make off with the small prize: no chance.

    That colon, elegant though it may be, is from YOUR version of my paragraph!

    Be off with you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Really?

    Oops.

    Is that like salting a mine?

    Or seasoning a ragout?

    This is what I love about corresponding with people who speak a different English. I get to pick up new phrases like "steal a march". That's a good one.

    I shall now endeavor to swipe a January.

    Or purloin a June.

    Perhaps instead I will appropriate an April.

    This is fun. I shall continue on my own and waste no more of your blog space.

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  5. Alan, you're teasing me?

    In the unlikely case you're not: (note adroit use of punctuation mark of the day) stealing a march is a military term, where your troops move quickly and unexpectedly to a vantage point. Probably by night.

    What's salting a mine?

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  6. To salt a mine is to import easily found and genuine bits of real gold or silver or whatever is selling at a premium at the moment into a mine that is on the market, so that when one takes a prospective buyer on a tour of the shaft, as it were, it appears to the poor sap that this is a mine worth having, and at any cost.

    There you go. We both learned something today.

    I require a nap now. Too bad such things are frowned upon at work.

    Alan

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  7. I aiming for that coveted 1,00th visitor on your blog, Lexi. I understand the prize is a parentheses. Or possibly an ampersand?

    Okay, three more people can click in and then number one thousand is mine!

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  8. Ta da!@#$%^&* I'm your 1000th visitor.

    Wow, I love how the confetti and balloons dropped from the ceiling and scantily clad women frolicked about.

    I'm going to sit over here and rest now.

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  9. We aim to please.

    Alan, you'll just have to wait to be the 10,000th visitor.

    I'm planning virtual fireworks for that, and just for you, a choir of specially trained dogs barking the Hallelujah Chorus.

    Simple, yet elegant.

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