In article ,
jls , with his colon so full, it nearly rectum, wrote:

"Robert Bonomi" wrote in message
ervers.com...
In article ,
Jim Weir wrote:
Are you kidding? The people around here lay awake at night worrying
about
whether anal-retentive should be hyphenated.

Bah! *Everybody* knows that the mark-up is a full colon. Or, as our
Brit friends would say, "Full colon, full stop."


Not a full colon, but a semi-colon with a polyp.

Damn! I have having to explain the anatomy of a joke:
1) The semi-colon is -not- an anatomical feature.
2) Enough retention upstream of the *ssh*le causes the
referenced ('non-"semi"-named') anatomical feature
to be incapable of holding any additional material.

Otherwise you would have
observed and noted the improper use of a transitive verb where an
intransitive one should be.

Appendix: What I observe, and what I deem 'worthy' of comment are not
congruent sets.

One does not "lay" awake.

One _better_ be awake when/while laying. She'll get *really* upset if you
fall asleep 'during'.

Admittedly, contemplating grammar/spelling/punctuation at such a time may
also entail risks.

One *lies* awake
at night. Lie, lay, lain ---weak verb. Lay, laid, laid -- strong verb
taking an object.