Semicolons block evil! Use a battered copy of the Elements of Style next time you're attacked by a bloodsucking vampire or a Bible-thumping Republican! (same difference, inasmuch as both try to < ghetto > get up in your business < / ghetto> ven you just vant to be left alone...)

"I am not trying to be petty here, but it is a big deal ... That semicolon is a big deal," said San Francisco Superior Court Judge James Warren.

The Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund had asked the judge to issue an order commanding the city to "cease and desist issuing marriage licenses to and/or solemnizing marriages of same-sex couples; to show cause before this court."

"The way you've written this it has a semicolon where it should have the word 'or'," the judge told them. "I don't have the authority to issue it under these circumstances."

Judge Warren, you're my hero today. Grammatically and otherwise.