No Miscellany this week, I’m afraid; the world of punctuation has been quiet of late. What I did want to do, though, was to share the photograph above, taken by Elizabeth Houston, my mum, at my wedding a couple of weeks ago to the beautiful Leigh Stork. The wedding took place in the Auditorium at Òran Mór in Glasgow, Scotland, under the shadow of Alasdair Gray’s fantastic mural, and we were lucky enough to celebrate it surrounded by a veritable army of our closest friends and family.
Most apposite to Shady Characters, however, were the names — and place cards — we gave each table. Unusual marks of punctuation! They were, in no particular order, the ampersand (&), the ellipsis (…), the manicule (☞), the asterisk (*), the dagger (†), the diesis (‡), the pilcrow (¶), the at-symbol (@), the asterism (⁂), the obelus (÷), and the octothorpe (#). I fervently hope that just a few guests went home pondering how best they might employ a pilcrow, manicule or asterism.
As you can see above, I couldn’t resist saving the interrobang (‽) for the top table — appropriate, perhaps, given the surprise expressed by many acquaintances when I told them that I was (finally) getting hitched!
Comment posted by Conrad on
Congratulations, many time over! welcome to the club of married fellows.
Comment posted by Carl on
Congrations on finding a wife who will indulge your type nerdery! May you have many years of orthographic bliss!
Comment posted by Annie Morgan on
Congratulations, and many many blessings.
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Thanks, all! I’m a lucky man indeed.
Comment posted by Rondina on
What a beautiful bride! You need a symbol to capture that adoring look on her face.
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Now that would be a tricky one! I think a good old smiley (
:-)) works for me — I don’t think I’ve ever been to a wedding where so many people were laughing and smiling all the time, and the two of us were very happy to see it.Comment posted by Becky on
This is awesome. I’m going to have to share this with my grammar friends.
Many congrats! Cheers from Texas!
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Thanks!
Comment posted by Mark on
Congrats to you both!
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Thanks!