Comments on: Semi

By: Angela

Angela — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:57:44 +0000

Semi-colons and interrobangs both make my heart beat faster. Love.

By: Lyzzy

Lyzzy — Thu, 27 May 2010 03:29:31 +0000

I love semicolons. I love using them when I write. The semicolon along with the interrobang are my favourite punctuation marks. A potential tattoo, yes?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:43:30 +0000

[Semicolons] are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.

-Kurt Vonnegut

By: Harvin Bedenbaugh

Harvin Bedenbaugh — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 04:40:08 +0000

I LOVE semi-colons! As an editor, I encourage people to use semi-colons to keep similar ideas flowing instead of chopping them up with periods. In college, the semi-colon became known by my peers as my “boyfriend” because I was always bragging about it’s strengths and inserting them in other’s works. I have to add this to the potential-tattoo list!

By: Chad

Chad — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:11:01 +0000

I love this! I also love the idea of the interrobang as well! It’s nice to know someone else shares my afinity for grammar. Ha ha.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:27:56 +0000

I sort of want to have your babies now. That’s bloody brilliant.

By: Parker

Parker — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:08:11 +0000

Right on, Amy!

I do some computer programming as well and we call an exclamation point a “bang,” and I’m guessing we’re not alone there, hence the interrobang.

Another fun one I’ve heard is “splat” for an asterisk (*). Programmers/techy people use a lot of underscores for file names and such, but I haven’t heard of a good nickname for them, yet. Any ideas?

And, I’m loving the em dash too (ALT+0151 on the num-keypad)—it’s so groovy!

Parker

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:26:02 +0000

Here are some fun ideas I just wanted to share, because I’m a writer by profession and a grammar and punctuation nerd myself.

I work in advertising, and here we call exclamation points “slammers.” When I first heard that I thought it was hilarious, and similarly I love the idea of the interrobang … both as punctuation, and just the word itself.

As for semicolons, Kurt Vonnegut said they are “hermaphroditic transvestites” representing “exactly nothing,” except for suggesting that you may have gone to college.

I loooooooove Kurt Vonnegut (one of my Vonnegut tattoos is on this site, and I’ll be submitting my second one soon) … but he was wrong about semicolons. I LOVE them, just as much as I love the Em dash and the ellipsis.

By: Parker

Parker — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:29:34 +0000

Hey Sarah,

Very cool tattoo! I have always been more the math type, but recently got into writing poetry. Anyhow, I have to disagree: the semicolon IS necessary—it’s really the only way to separate a series of items that have commas themselves.

For instance: this morning I had two, extremely potent energy drinks; a bunch of un-toasted, store-brand toaster pastries; and some rich, creamy, sinfully delicious chocolate cake for breakfast.

Or, I’ve lived in Yorktown Heights, NY; Hollywood, CA; and Milton, GA.

(All the above is true, except for the chocolate cake. :o)

Thanks too for introducing me to the interrobang. I’ve used the ?! and !? combos for years. Not being much of the literary type I’d no idea that such a beast existed. The Interweb is awesome! Isn’t it!?

Regards,
Parker

PS. You can find my poetry on Facebook if you friend me or here: http://parker.wikidot.com if you’re curious.

By: kim

kim — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:29:00 +0000

As soon as I saw your pic, I thought to myself ‘Nice. I’d love to get an interrobang’. Imagine my delight when I read onwards. Fab idea, I say do it :)

By: andrea

andrea — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:57:59 +0000

Wonderful tattoo and thank you for introducing me to the wonderful new mark, the interrobang! I had never heard of it before this and i think it is a lovely idea.

By: stacey

stacey — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:19:01 +0000

Hey, I recognize this. I’m pearls over at HitRecord, and weirdly enough, yesterdays tattoo is mine. HitRecorders takin’ over the web.
P.S Kickass semicolon

By: Bekka

Bekka — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:24:20 +0000

@Jools, I too have a special fondness for the ampersand, even if mine usually look like it had a few too many the night before. It’s for the sophisticated sloth in everyone I think.

By: Jools

Jools — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:35:34 +0000

Dumble thumbs up on the semicolon AND on the interrobang idea. The interrobang is a poor grammatical beast ignored by evolution. Personally, I have a lot of fondness for the ampersand, too.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:22:24 +0000

Ah, what an honor to be on Contrariwise! Someday perhaps I’ll have a real literary tattoo that’s more worthy of this collection, but until then…

Thanks, Jen!

By: sara

sara — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:49:10 +0000

this is brilliant. last year my friend did a series of artworks for a foundation class, and they were all based off the semi – colon. which made me love it even more than I already did. anyway, this is fantastic. and your idea for your other wrist is equally awesome.

By: Bekka

Bekka — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:56:38 +0000

thumbs up. semicolons are amazing.

By: christine

christine — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:14:15 +0000

WTF?