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In his new book, The Semicolon, Thomas H. Thomason explores the functions of this controversial means of punctuation. The book, which sold seventeen copies, was 1352nd on the best-seller list for over a year. Thomason's mother bought eight of them.

First, Thomason questions the logic behind this instrument of puncuation. He wonders who would create such a device when a period might serve just as well. And what about the name itself? Semi-colon? What has it got to do with a colon, anyway? The other half is a comma, so why not call it a semi-comma? Thomason delves deep into the history of punctuation to answer these questions and more. Many of the answers to these mysteries may shock and surprise you.

Thomason deals with some of the problems with emoticons. When asked about this interesting, yet off-topic subject matter, he said, "Well, I was just going to write about how the semi-colon is used in emoticons, but, the more I studied them, the more fascinated I bacame. I finally decided to leave off semi-colons for awhile and just write about those ingenious little faces." When asked why he didn't change the title of his book to something more reflective of the content, Thomason said, "It was too late. The publisher had already started printing the book covers."

One of the key discoveries of Thomason's book lies not with semi-colons or emoticons, but with the engineering of the flag pole. Thomason claims that he has been fascinated by flag poles ever since his tongue froze to one in the second grade. He says, "While I stood there in the cold, waiting for the fire engine to come and listening to my peers whisper and giggle, I thought to myself, 'Someday, I'm going to study flag poles'. So, now I do."

All in all, this book deserved every bit of credit that has been given to it. An elementary school newspaper in the Artic called it a "breath of fresh air from the migrating patterns of seagulls." Other than that paper and, now, this one, no one else has anything to say.

 

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