#$*&^! = Grawlix February 1, 2012
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Pretty!, Punctuation, Spellcheck, The Ether, Typography, Wisdom, Words.Tags: Expletives, Grawlix, Punctuation, Typography
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>> A word for that: Grawlix
Until its OED entry is solemnized, we’ll have to settle for this definition on Wiktionary: “grawlix, n. A string of typographical symbols used (especially in comic strips) to represent an obscenity or swear word.” I don’t think I’ll ever look at a character set quite the same way again.
%^&*@ing glorious!
Read the whole thing at Hoefler & Frere-Jones (via @GrammarMonkeys and @mental_floss)
Ffffinding penguins January 23, 2012
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, books, Design, Etcetera, FFFFOUND!, Pretty!.Tags: books, FFFFOUND!, Penguin
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It’s been so long since I even looked at FFFFOUND!, let alone succumbed to the Gen-Y overshare impulse to repost everything that tickles my fancy.
{ The Pursuit Aesthetic, via FFFFOUND! }
Are some of those penguins Emperors, and others Adélies?
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Better than alphagetti*: edible gelatin typography January 19, 2012
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Pretty!, Typography, Words.Tags: alphagetti, American English, Food, gelatin, Typography
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{ via Colossal }
Current distraction: wondering about the mouthfeel. Chewy? Sticky? Sans-serifs-y? Alphagetti?*
(Subsequent distraction: the curious difference between American “jelly”, which is Australian “jam”, and Australian “jelly”, which is American “jello”.)
*If it’s named after what it clearly IS named after, shouldn’t there be an H after that G?
The Oxford comma: dead at the hands of serial killers July 1, 2011
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Grammar Attack, Ire, Pretty!, Punctuation, The Ether, The News, Videorama.Tags: Oxford comma, Punctuation, Richard Ayoade, Salon.com, serial comma, Vampire Weekend
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I give a #%*^ about the Oxford comma. I’m known for giving a #%*^ about the Oxford comma. But sadly, this sudden palaver over its threatened extinction (at the hands of its eponymous university, no less) is just a bureaucratic nail in an already-long-buried coffin. As a proofreader in Australia, I must (at least during working hours) adhere to the ‘current trends’ in Australian writing style, and that means NO SERIAL COMMAS EVER (except if absolutely needed for the sake of clarity, which isn’t any fun at all).
So as far as I’m (professionally) concerned, the Oxford comma has already been eradicated, or is at least seriously endangered, teetering on the brink of extinction. It lingers only as a ghost, destroyed by a gradual succession of serial killers*: style guides in ruthless pursuit of minimalist punctuation.
R, I, P.
Over at Salon.com, Mary Elizabeth Williams has already said almost everything else I would say on the topic. Most importantly, she a) clarifies the extent to which Oxford University is eliminating its eponymous comma (that is, no more than most institutions already have); and b) embedded the obvious Vampire Weekend video clip.
Now, two things about this video clip: Firstly, its total number of hits must have jumped phenomenally in the past 24 hours. Secondly, IT WAS DIRECTED BY THE WONDERFUL RICHARD AYOADE (of The IT Crowd, of course). And if that isn’t a joyful note on which to end a sombre post, I don’t know what is.
*Yes, I went there.
Unicorn ampersand (or, “I really do love you, Marc Johns”) June 1, 2011
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Blogging, Etcetera, Pretty!, Punctuation.Tags: Ampersand, Marc Johns, Unicorn
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Unicorn ampersand
(or, “I really do love you, Marc Johns”)
[From Everything wants to be a unicorn on Marc Johns's blog.]
Have I mentioned that I love Marc Johns? I’m pretty sure I have. Well, I also love that this is categorised as ‘serious drawings’.
Read (v.): This article is cooler than a frappawhatsit February 2, 2011
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Blogging, Laughing, Pretty!, The Ether, Words.Tags: Bagillion, Eleventy, Jargon, lexicography, OED, Spillion
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The Joy of Indefinite Words: Is a Spillion More than a Metric Buttload?
As a fan of “it’s eleventy bagillion hot outside”*, I adore this image and the accompanying article in equal measures.
Here’s an excerpt, if you need convincing:
“The Oxford English Dictionary traces “zillion” back to a 1944 quote: “I love him a zillion dollars’ worth.”…
These words are just the tip of the whatsit-berg. The lexical banquet of the web has produced more than a smattering of creative, bonkers words, many playing on “thingamajig.” Some are specific, like “tupperware-thingy-majigger,” “blog-site-location-amajig,” “twittermajiggy,” and “frappawhatsit”…”
See? It’s eleventy awesome.
*No really, it is. Sydney has become trapped in the (fierce, sweaty) grip of a late-Summer heatwave. We’re dying. Send ice-cream**.
** Prompted by the recent acquisition of an ice-cream machine, I’ve been pondering whether it’s correct to hyphenate “ice-cream” even in its noun form (noting that hyphenation is a given when it’s used as a compound adjective). My eyePhone does so automatically, and I tend not to trust such ‘corrections’… but I’ve just checked the OED, and it too hyphenates “ice-cream (n.)”. I’m sold (though not cold).
Escape from Comic Sans: would you, if you could? January 31, 2011
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Etcetera, FFFFOUND!, Pretty!, The Ether, Typography.Tags: APOD, Comic Sans, FFFFOUND!, The Oatmeal, Women Laughing Alone with Salad
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{ Design Work Life via FFFFOUND! }*
IF ONLY.
Online publishing prefers sans serifs fonts for legibility and general easiness on the eyes. So if one, for some reason, determined (or was forced) to operate solely in the digital realm, the risk of encountering Comic Sans would always exist. That most aesthetically base typeface would always hover in the infinitely nearby ether, waiting to leap out and insult one’s intelligence and sense of sincerity.
If, however, one decided (or, in fairness, was forced) to remain solely in the world of tangible readables, maintaining daily contact with printed matter**, excluding all online readables, one MIGHT, in theory, achieve said escape.
Personally, I’d rather risk potential exposure to abominable web-friendly fonts than miss out on all the glory of the interwebs. Who in their right mind would intentionally shelter from that font of caustic, truthful wit The Oatmeal; NASA’s always-humbling Astronomy Picture of the Day; or, at the more frivolous end of the online gamut, Women Laughing Alone With Salad?
The enjoyment of these wonders might render impossible a guaranteed escape from Comic Sans, but it’s worth it.
* Also, how BRILLIANT is this faux-retro image‽
** (Proper printed matter like books and newspapers and magazines, not printouts of documents typed in Comic Sans.)
Because QWERTYUIOP isn’t a real word January 10, 2011
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Etcetera, Pretty!, Spellcheck, The Ether, Wisdom, Words.Tags: imgfav, nailing jelly to a wall, qwerty, tumblr, Typewriter, vague and nebulous
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{ Learn Something Every Day, via imgfav }
This is pretty fabulous. But I still think QWERTYUIOP should be a real word.
Unrelatedly*, I have returned to the tumblr fold, that I might post links to all the pretty things I find scattered throughout the ether. My tumblog is vague and nebulous**, in name and in purpose. Drop by if you wish to look upon naught but nice and/or pretty things.
*Also not a real word.
** “Vague and nebulous” is one of my favourite phrases, though I know not its origins. I frequently encountered it while reading law reports and parliamentary records at university, in reference to concepts so abstract that to define them would be like nailing jelly to a wall. Incidentally, “like nailing jelly to a wall” is another of my favourite law-school judicial phrases.
The book[ing] desk December 1, 2010
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, books, Design, FFFFOUND!, Pretty!.Tags: books, Bookshelf, Chromatic, Colour, FFFFOUND!, Information desk
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{ Information desk, via FFFFOUND!}
I’m not sure I’d trust information sourced from behind a desk made of books that clearly can’t be opened for information-sourcing purposes, but I would certainly trust the person who designed said desk.
It’s rather reminiscent of that favourite chromatically arranged bookshelf of mine:
{ from Periodic tables of everything, which is definitely a related post }
A bouquet of alphabetically sharpened pencils September 17, 2010
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Cinema, Design, FFFFOUND!, Pretty!, Typography, Words.Tags: Alphabet, FFFFOUND!, New York, New York City, pencils, Stationery, You've Got Mail
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{ by Dalton Ghetti, on Designers Go To Heaven, via FFFFOUND! }
“Don’t you just love New York in the Fall? Makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of alphabetically sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address…” — (a slightly altered) Tom Hanks as Joe Fox in You’ve Got Mail (which, I confess, I have seen at least 200 times).
I am going to New York in the Fall. Am very excited. Excited enough to buy a bouquet of pencils in celebration. If only I could get a set of 26 like this, it would certainly heighten the vacationary* stationery loveliness.
* No, not a real word.
