Don't Get Spastic About Using Colons

In case you just tuned in, a colon is that little punctuation mark that looks like two dots, one on top of the other. It looks like this:

The following examples show the two primary uses for a colon.

1. To introduce and direct attention to a list, as in
I told her to get three things: butter, eggs, and milk.

NOTE: The comma before the "and" is optional.

2. To introduce an explanation, as in

His reason for writing the bad check made sense to me: temporary insanity.