Thursday, May 29, 2008
Review Thursday: On the ampersand
In movie credits, the ampersand is a code. It means: John Doe & Jane Smith duked it out in a room over this script, one choking the other with second-hand smoke and the other spitting in the other's coffee. The dreaded "and" means different writers were employed at different times: John & Jane got sacked and Quentin Tarantino was called up for a punch up job. As a device to help me remember the difference, I think: tied together, the ampersand means the writers were tied together.
With it's curving sweep, the ampersand is a saucy shorthand for "and," which is why it surprises me that it's so common in the British writing I see at work.
Wikipedia notes the growing use of the ampersand due to text messaging.
And if you enjoy this seductive bit of punctuation as much as I do, you may want to check out the Ampersand blog, a treatise on all things, and only things, ampersand-related.
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3 comments:
I use a plus sign for my and, unless it's next to a comma, in which case I write it out. This is handwriting. While typing, I just write it out because using the shift key is such a bother.
The ampersand, like the semi-colon, is under-appreciated & overused. Thanks for shining a well-deserved spotlight..
Great photo, here. Cell phones shoud make the ampersand more accessable. I have to scroll through a separate page of symbols on my phone to get one.
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