Interpreting Strunk and White: The Colon

[Carraka]

Rule Seven in Elementary Rules of Usage states:

Use a colon after an independent clause to introduce a list of particulars, an appositive, an amplification, or an illustrative quotation.
A colon tells the reader that what follows is closely related to the preceding clause. (etc)

Wrong
Your dedicated whittler requires: a knife, a piece of wood, and a back porch.

Right
Your dedicated whittler requires three props: a knife, a piece of wood, and a back porch.


When I first read this, I decided that in order for the first part of the sentence to be right, it had to contain some phrase that illustrated exactly what was to follow. So in this example, the added "three props" acts as a direct synonym for the following list.

So my question is ... for all lists that are preceded by a colon, does the preceding clause need to contain a phrase that says what the list contains, or does it merely need to be a related independent clause?

The punctuation of this sentence depends upon your answer:

Though the men who were after her were not in view, she could clearly hear them shouting her name: ordering her to retreat, promising their death, and assuring her brutal murder.

So, does anyone know?

Or does anyone care? xP

EDIT:

Thought it over, and I realized that the list in this sentence is essentially an extension. Her name is the first thing they shout, and the three things after the colon are also shouted.

But if her name is included in the list, the preceding clause becomes incomplete.

Then the question becomes whether it is possible to write a sentence with a colon, list, and independent preceding clause that still possesses flow. It's almost midnight for me here, so I have no idea.

[Bowie20049]

I'm guessing it's a matter of style, but that's just me ^-^;

[Mercy]

Yes, not everything in Strunk and White is completely correct, for somethings are simply a matter of style, like Bowie stated.

[Carraka]

But is it possible to break the rule in the first place?

[Bowie20049]

Depends on how well you disguise it.

[Carraka]

Okay, how do you disguise it? I only need one counterexample.

[Shaun]

All rules of writing can be broken from time to time, with rare exception. I would drop the colon from that sentence and simply have it extend. It's okay to break that rule.