A Semicolon Rule
Semicolons are rather like strong commas and weak periods. The rhino geek below makes a point that’s usually true. Semicolons are supposed to connect two independent clauses that are on the same topic. In other words, closely related sentences. Independent clauses don’t usually start with a conjunction.
The rule about conjunctions is a bit mechanistic, though usually it’s correct. Too bad for him.
I thought it was also correct to use semi-colons to separate parts of a list where one or more of the parts include commas.