That usage is much better; the Saints beat the Lions.

You need some loving?

I do indeed. I'd love to find love.

I think of it as a development of the idea.

The colon is flexible: think of it as loosely equivalent to an equals sign.

Did you know that Eskimos really have about as many words for snow as the English language?

sure, but I was referring to the semi colon

Isn't it better to say Inuits?

btw those little chappies in your avatar are quality, sir.

I get lots of compliments on my avatar. Mostly from TTI. This is the only thread I use punctuation and proper caps in.

Yeah I don't care too much as long as I'm making sense. One thing I'd like to eliminate, though, by extermination, is the 'more then' thing. That makes me at least as upset as a queen on the river when you get 150bb's in with ak v drooler's aq.

Depends on how much Taco Bell you've eaten.

It's almost always spelled bosun if used in this way.

They must put a lot more cheese on yours than they do mine, PJ. (That stuff induces hyper-peristalsis in my colon.)

The colon is flexible = think of it as loosely equivalent to an equals sign.

Nah, doesn't work. I hope you're not an English teacher, sending out a new generation to misuse the colon in their writing.

Damn I thought it should be "equal sign" but after google I was saddened to learn that I was wrong.

Yes, but still better to say Inuit, which is already a plural form:

Other than a flat denial of my statement, followed by an ad hominem attack, do you have any support for your stand?

More on the Inuit-snow-words misconception (relevant stuff in green).

Love being a grammar nit, but it does give me migraines when I have to endure office notes stating that if the fire exit is blocked people will 'loose' their lives.

No support other than the fact that I have never heard any such description of the colon. Equivalent to an equals sign? That really seems to me to be a poor way to describe the colon and its use. Please cite your reference.

And it wasn't an ad hominem attack; it was merely a deeply held desire that you're not spreading this viewpoint to impressionable minds. An ad hominem attack would be something personal, e.g. "you're a moron." And, btw, this is just an example of such an attack. I am not directing this slur at you; I don't even know you. I simply disagree with your statement.

I have written a letter of intent to a residency program and would greatly appreciate if one of the grammar nits itt would proof read it.

It's an old rule that I learned in high school, but here are two examples I found on the web without much difficulty:
1: 2:
Thinking of the colon as a kind of equals sign is a useful rule of thumb but it should be understood as no more than that. Using that rule of thumb means, of course, understanding that such things as "He said" followed by everything that he said are logically equivalent.

In practice the use of the semicolon and the colon is a very nuanced subject, and there a number of exceptions to almost any rules that have been fashioned to govern their use. Trying to formulate a set of rules is not helped by the fact that the conventions of punctuation have changed over time: Victorian use of colons and, especially of semicolons, is quite different from today's use.

I teach my students to think of the colon as logically analogous to an equals sign because it helps them judge if they are misusing it. It's a place to start.

If you'd clicked through to my public profile you'd see that I am described as an English prof.

Are you an English professor?

I think you may have made an error in your post, professor.

would have + past participle imo