complex comma situations

[John D]

Hi RonBee. :D .

That is a golden rule.

One of many.

Keep smiling. Have fun.

:D .

[RonBee]

With rules like that, English class must have been tough.

8)

[John D]

Hi Ron Bee :D ,

Not really, I was educated in the "It's ok to hit kids because they are all stupid and must have knowledge thumped into them" era.

Our teachers had to be tough in those days, we were a bunch of wrong-side-of-the-track hooligans and miscreants.

Miss Astley did have her good points though, because we were poor and could not afford nutcrackers, come Christmas she used to go all soft and crack walnuts with her eyelids for us kids.

Have fun, keep smiling.

[zippy]

I have a lot of trouble figuring out when to use a dash instead of a colon,
and vise-versa.
I have read several articles on the web but I am still confused. Is
there a "really good" article , with lots of examples, I can read ?
Or, better yet, is there a simple rule that tells me where
to use one over the other ?