mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Keith Houston's blog about unusual marks of punctuation. Author of SHADY CHARACTERS, THE BOOK, EMPIRE OF THE SUM and now FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY: A NATURAL HISTORY OF EMOJI (https://shadycharacters.co.uk/books/).
So, I’m walking down to the canal today with my youngest so he can ride his bike along the tow path, and what do I see but two clumps of reeds which have floated into the canal basin from somewhere farther along the canal. And I think to myself: “This is how papyrus arrived in Egypt!”
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I stumbled on Hurlingham's bookshop by Putney Bridge underground station while visiting London. What a treat! Stop by if you get the chance.
The Japanese translation of “Empire of the Sum” was published last year by Hara Shobo, but my own copy arrived in the post only the other day. What a nice edition! Many thanks to Hara Shobo for sending me one. Take a look at http://www.harashobo.co.jp/book/b658358.html if you′re interested in ordering a copy!
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It's World Emoji Day! 🍾🎉 I was wondering what to post about today when I came across this incredible post on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/peoplesfabric.bsky.social/post/3mqsebxph4s25. 10/10, no notes, as they say. The poop emoji's time has come.
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RE: https://lingo.lol/@abdalian/116342329264289767
A rare sighting of the interrobang in its natural habitat.
When I was writing “Face with Tears of Joy”, I got very little response to my questions from Google, Apple, Meta and so on. Recently, though, I managed to speak to a real, live Apple emoji designer - Ollie Wagner, who helped design Apple′s very first set of emoji. https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2026/06/ollie-wagner/
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The calculator renaissance starts in Fort Worth, Texas! “Independent bookstores have been on the rise since the pandemic ... A surprising number of people come in looking for books on the history of the calculator, such as author Keith Houston’s ‘Empire of the Sum.′” (https://fortworthreport.org/2026/04/24/independent-bookstores-in-fort-worth-begin-writing-new-chapter-as-customers-return/)
Apropos of the Tartan Army's friendly invasion of Boston for the World Cup ⚽🏆, consider this: do we need a traffic cone emoji? Andrew Dobbie seems to think so, and has started a petition to right this wrong: https://www.change.org/p/the-world-needs-a-traffic-cone-emoji-to-celebrate-boston-glasgow-twinning.
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A reminder: the new version of Shady Characters will be launching soon! Comments, email notifications and WordPress integrations will all be changing, so take a look at https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2026/03/reminder-new-shady-characters/ if you'd like to learn more.
3D printing is cool. 3D printing in the nineteenth century? Even better. Computerised 3D printing with 19th-century hardware? 😎 Read about two different approaches to modernising the Monotype system in the Shady Characters archive: https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2012/06/shiny-characters/ and https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2013/11/hand-eye/.
Take a trip to the south of France at the height of summer courtesy of the Shady Characters archive: https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2023/07/narbo-martius-field-trip/.
Were you ever put through a slide show of someone’s holiday snaps? Well, I visited Egypt in February and have been telling anyone who will listen how fascinating a trip it was. Lacking a Kodak slide projector, I’ve written a few words about our experiences: https://staging.shadycharacters.co.uk/2026/03/egypt/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fedica-shadychars
Miscellany № 111, now up! Catch up with goings-on in the world of punctuation, starring ‘<’, ‘>’, ‘‽’, ‘.’, ‘,’ and ‘¶’, at https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2026/05/miscellany-111/. .
Miscellany № 110, now up! It's been a while since I've had a chance to do one of these, but this should be the first of many. Read more at https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2026/04/miscellany-110/!
