At last! The quarter colon

We have waited long but not in vain:
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2004/05/quartercolon.html

"The International Grammar Standards Organization has approved the quartercolon for use starting in June of 2004. This is the first new punctuation mark added to the English language since IGSO approved the exclamation mark in 1914."
"IGSO also released guidelines for proper use of a quartercolon. Here are a few of the new rules:
a.. Between items in a list when the words are in alphabetical order, or one item is more than eight letters long. Like in the sentence: He ate apples bananas and pears.
b.. When a sentence already contains a semicolon, but another independent clause is needed.
c.. When quoting someone with a Cockney accent.
There are twelve other uses, but most would only be used in rare occasions, like in final exams and job interviews."

John Dean
Oxford
begin 666 quarter colon.gif
M1TE&.#EA!0`.`*(``!$1$=W=W8B("(B(LS,S ```/ R'Y! `` E+ ``%``X```,7>+K<%X H888:(Email Removed)%'6@7Vend