Does a colon slow you down?

In response to last week’s imponderable question, “Does a colon slow you down?,” my birthday bud Jon observed, “No, but a colonoscopy does” while my sailing friend Norm countered, “A colon does not slow me down.  A colonoscopy speeds me up.”    

My temple friend Lesley recalled, “Absolutely, especially when running a race and pit-stops are unfortunately needed!”

When my equestrian friend Royce pondered, “It's according to if it's a colon or a semi-colon,” from temple friend Richard explained, “It depends upon whether you are referring to a colon as punctuation or part of the anatomy. In punctuation, a colon precedes a list, so reading the list will slow you down, whereas a semicolon is simply a break within a sentence to separate two ideas.  In anatomy, a whole colon would be considered a good thing, but a semicolon is probably not such a good thing.”

My production management friend Ray warned, “Only if it ruptures.”  Yet my cycling friend Ted observed, “Quite the contrary!! When it's misbehaving it can quite speed you up!”

My sister-in-law Lorrie replied, “I'm thinking that life without a colon would be particularly slow.”   And my dad’s beach buddy Bob concluded, “No, but it can store a lot of material before disposal.”

My cousin Greg called out, “Grammatically speaking it keeps you going.”

Please send me your thoughts about this week's "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ":

What is a pump kin to?

Life is too short for drama and petty things, so kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly, and forgive quickly.

Hal

Thank you to the people of many different faiths who wrote yesterday to condemn the hate-motivated violence against a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh.  When do we say ‘enough is enough,’ put aside political differences and have a respectful conversation about bigotry, xenophobia, hate of other religions, races, ethnicity, sexual orientation?  To quote our rabbi, “We see ourselves as Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, and other religions; G-d sees us all as G-d’s children.”  What does it take to have the conversation (and no, this is not a “Hmmm”)?   Please strengthen (y)our resolve to talk respectfully with others so that we can prevent these tragedies, which may in part be mental health related.

For my part of respectful conversation, save the date:  I’m helping plan the 14th annual Thanksgiving Ecumenical Celebration on Thu, Nov 15 at 7p.  Click here for details because this is an annual display of respectful conversation and reflection.

Thanks to Demetri Martin, Steven Wright and George Carlin for the inspiration for Hmmm.   I invite you to call or email me to catch up.