The colon: love it, hate it use it. Consider: the ascendancy of colons in web-writing, driven by its dramatic value for opinion pieces, not to mention its use in brief twitterlike media.
The Millions' Conor J. Dillon argues persuasively that a new kind of colon has entered common usage: the "jumper colon," which goes, "dependent clause + colon + just about anything, incorporating any and all elements of the other four colons, yet differing crucially in that its pre-colon segment is always a dependent clause."
For everyone else: its usefulness lies in that it lifts you up and into a sentence you never thought you'd be reading by giving you a compact little nugget of information prior to the colon and leaving you on the hook for whatever comes thereafter, often rambling on until the reader has exhausted his/her theoretical lung capacity and can continue to read no longer.
Colonoscopy: It's Time to Check Your Colons
(via Kottke)
