bsat blog

Today is National Punctuation Day, a day to celebrate the workhorses of linguistics. But while the other losers are spending today raving about commas and semicolons, here at the BSAT we'd like to turn the spotlight on the lesser known punctuation marks. They're underused, undervalued, and just as awesome as a comma. And they're all real.

The Irony Mark (a backwards ?) -- This mark is soooooooo amazing. It lets the reader know when you're being ironic, sarcastic, or rhetorical. If more people used the irony mark, your parents would actually understand that e-mail you sent about loving your sister's dance recital tape.

Interrobang (!?) -- The interrobang is not just awesome because it is the most explosive-sounding punctuation mark. It's also the perfect marriage of WTF? and WHOA! in our language.

That Stupid Emoticon Your Friend Always Uses in Text Messages (:~) -- It's really creative and I love it, but, come to think of it, what the hell is it supposed to be, anyway? Is it just a sideways eyes and nose? Is it sticking out a snake tongue? Jesus Christ, what's wrong with :) or :P or 8D or :]?

The Double Dagger (‡) -- It's also called a diesis. It's like the third string of footnote marks, coming in just behind the single dagger and the asterisk. I mean, I guess we could have just told you about the regular dagger, but come on. This thing is the badass LARP kid of punctuation.