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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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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I stumbled on Hurlingham's bookshop by Putney Bridge underground station while visiting London. What a treat! Stop by if you get the chance.
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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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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A rare sighting of the interrobang in its natural habitat.
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/!