»In praise of the semi-colon

The New York Times writes in praise of the semicolon, as found on a placard on MTA trains.

It was nearly hidden on a New York City Transit public service placard exhorting subway riders not to leave their newspaper behind when they get off the train.

"Please put it in a trash can,” riders are reminded. After which Neil Neches, an erudite writer in the transit agency’s marketing and service information department, inserted a semicolon. The rest of the sentence reads, “that’s good news for everyone.”

Semicolon sightings in the city are unusual, period, much less in exhortations drafted by committees of civil servants. In literature and journalism, not to mention in advertising, the semicolon has been largely jettisoned as a pretentious anachronism.

This particular semicolon has aggravated me, perhaps because I prefer staccato sentences in advisory signs. This sign's exhortation becomes more of an admonition with the sentences split that way; the semicolon becomes a lengthier pause than a period, because the reader may have to read the following clause, and then re-read the entire sentence in order to parse it properly. The sign does have sophistication; I give it that. As for the New York Times: I am happy that they, despite their plummeting level of sophistication, printed this piece.