The language of symbols has changed so much in my lifetime. It’s fun to think about re reading an article, book, closed-captioning, maps, calculators even older emails and blogs and using our current translations for the symbols. OR reading something written this year and read it with our translation of language symbols from 20 years ago.

   Not everyone knows this # as a number symbol or pound symbol. Some people that are alive only know it as hash tag. (which even has it’s own gang sign….or hand jive… I don’t remember having a hand gesture for the symbol before it was hashtag…which I would’ve called sign language)    Parentheses make my science report from 1988 look like there all sorts of results that made me happy or frowny winky. Then there are the emoticons in my old vcr manual that have no mouths to clue me in on the emotion being expressed so I don’t know if a direction is being smart or smug or winking with an embarrassed or happy or sad face. The @ symbol sure gets a lot more play than when I was a kid. There’s been a dip recently after social media changed the need for this @janedoe to just ‘jane doe’ which then could be modified to just this: ‘jane’. Anyway doesn’t a colon look like a staring emoticon?  I noticed a couple of days ago while I was texting my kid and now I see the emoticons even with just one symbol. This is a winky ; not a semi colon. ^ is an arched eyebrow. Even without the eyes / is an embarrassed face and somehow & has become a kid scootin’ across the floor on his booty. See:  ‘ & ‘

   Children reading older literature might think “man that Poe was a cheeky cheerful fella” or that the bible was being sarcastic or mischievous….They could see Ethan Frome as cheerful ..I got lots more to write including something I just forgot but my hand’s asleep…I will pause here and maybe continue this later…I have a whole list of things I need to finish but keep forgetting because I start something else. Like when I started this….so I might not ever make it back. Right now I can cross “Start Long-Ass Pointless Post” off my list. One less thing…but meantime :