Semi Colon Day

Apprentice Writer loves a well-deployed semi colon.

She is therefore grateful to Signor Aldus Manutius, an Italian printer who way back in 1494 invented the picturesque little symbol that still lends so much drama to sentence rhythm and so much frustration to grammar teachers who one and all feel it is used incorrectly, all the time.

Hooray for punctuation innovations!

And hooray for people who appreciate them, such as comment poster/poet Ozzie Maland over at emdashes.com who wrote

'Ode to a Semi Colon

Thou art the fairest mark of all;
Thy graceful curve and stellar dot
Would e'en the singing lark enthrall:
Who'd spurn thy use had better not.'

Apprentice Writer feels that half a century should not have to pass by before more punctuation is invented. For example, she thinks it would be great to have a symbol to deploy instead of a regular-type question mark in situations where the question is intended rhetorically, and another where the question is intended sarcastically.

Since the upside down question mark is already claimed by Spanish-speakers for standard issue questions, perhaps a sideways question mark? A reverse question mark followed by a regular one to form a question mirror image?

m/