http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/721833.html Splendidly dogmatic essay on punctuation: “Periods and commas are lovely because they are simple. They force the writer to express his ideas directly, to eliminate unnecessary hedges, to forgo smart-aleck asides. They also contribute to the logical solidity of a piece of writing, since they make us put all our thoughts into words. By way of contrast, a colon can be used to smooth over a rough logical connection.” (The author especially dislikes semi-colons.)
This is one of my favourite colon-droppings ever:
It is possible that there are uglier towns in the world than Walsall, but if so I do not know them: and I consider myself better than averagely traveled.
(From the lead to Crudity beyond belief, by Theodore Dalrymple. I suppose he's “[smoothing] over a rough logical connection” here but goddamn it was worth it.) 23:24