Semicolon: Semiawesome.

As you well know, the semicolon is like the delicious, tart kiwi fruit: underused, and often when it is finally used, the results are atrocious: kiwi-strawberry juice, anyone? When the semicolon is used properly; however, the results can be majestic. Want to join a pair of sentences but not use a conjunction? Our friend the semicolon can join those clauses together beautifully; it rebels against the tyranny of "and." To this end, one Dictionary Evangelist is in the process of forming the Semicolon Appreciation Society. Of course, the Times has a beautiful piece on the mark, as well as the readers' eloquent comments.

Obviously, due to the stylistic standards (constraints?) of newspapering, the semicolon is often relegated to parsing out of lists, especially in the description department. If you're a magazine writer, as I aspire to be, the semicolon (kids call it the SC) gets into the action a little more. I find a particular magic in the one sentence, semicolon joined paragraph, preferably laid in between a pair of larger paragraphs. The nature of the full, joint clauses creates an incredible pleasing and poetic symmetry to the prose; the section becomes greater than the whole of its parts.