@shadycharacters.co.uk
Keith 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/).
I had fun talking to Ian Chillag, Mike Danforth and Schuyler Swenson for an episode of NPR′s “How To Do Everything” in which they tried to answer a question from a listener called Autumn′s Hope. No, that isn′t a typo, and yes, the apostrophe is the key! Have a listen here: www.npr.org/2026/03/...
I've been working on a non-WordPress version of the Shady Characters blog for a while now, and I'd love to get your feedback on it. There's a preview at staging.shadycharact...; if you find anything unexpected, please leave a comment here or at shadycharacters.co.u.... Thanks!
Square promotional graphic for the Grammar Girl podcast interview. A pale green background with a courthouse façade features large headline text: “Why do we SHOUT in ALL CAPS?” At left, a woman with brown hair rests her chin on her hand and looks thoughtfully at the viewer. At right, the guest, a man wearing glasses, looks off to the side under pink-purple lighting. Labels identify “Grammar Girl” and “Glenn Fleishman.” Icons at the top indicate listening on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, with a QDT logo in the corner and an “Interview” tag.
When you're a tech historian, you wonder about a lot of interesting things, and @glennf.com wondered about the history of "shouty caps."
And of course, he found a surprising answer!
This week, we talk about that and more. Check it out:
APPLE: bit.ly/4aWLqnA
SPOTIFY: bit.ly/4tL9v8n
It's an amazing bit of adaptation, isn't it? I didn't see Hand & Eye's system in action but I did get to see Harry McIntosh's system at work, and it was fantastic. Such a neat piece of work.
waoh waoh wah
une Monotype entièrement controlée par ordi (y c. la transmission entre les deux machines, originellement par carte perforée)
Three views of a computerised Monotype typecasting machine, showing pneumatic tubes and electronic components connected to cast iron machinery.
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: shadycharacters.co.u... and shadycharacters.co.u....
On @99pi.org again! This time round I spoke to Will Aspinall about the storied em dash (‘—′, that is, rather than ‘–′ or ‘-′, but you knew that). Listen at 99percentinvisible.o..., or read my own earlier piece on AI and the em dash at shadycharacters.co.u....
Some new year's resolutions for me and for Shady Characters, up now at the blog: shadycharacters.co.u....
I wrote a bit about it, but unfortunately nothing very conclusive about its origins: shadycharacters.co.uk/2025/12/adve....
Day 10, and it's the final day of the 2025 Shady Characters advent calendar. Thank you for sticking with me! And on the subject of gratitude, here's my final post for the year, on PERSON WITH FOLDED HANDS (🙏): shadycharacters.co.u....
Check out shadycharacters.co.u... for all previous entries!
💻 Ebooks are at bookshop.org (uk.bookshop.org/beta...) and Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk/sto...). "Shady Characters" is just £1.99 at the moment! Again, though, you'll need to navigate to the appropriate Audiobooks or Audible domain for your country.
👂 You'll find audio editions at audiobooks.com (www.audiobooks.co.uk...) and audible.com (www.audible.co.uk/au...). You'll need to be careful to navigate to the appropriate Audiobooks or Audible domain for your country.
🎄 If, like me, you still need to find a few more Christmas gifts to give, may I humbly propose the ebook and audio editions of my books? They're perfect as last-minute gifts! Follow the thread for links.
Day 9! Home stretch, and you would be forgiven for being a little tired of the Christmas rush by now. A good time, then, to examine FACE WITH BAGS UNDER EYES (): shadycharacters.co.u....
Check out shadycharacters.co.u... to see previous entries, including '😂', '👍', '✨' and '🕴️'!
Day 8 of the Shady Characters advent calendar! Some lucky kids might expect Santa to bring them a water pistol (🔫), but the corresponding emoji is anything but playful: shadycharacters.co.u....
Check out shadycharacters.co.u... to see previous entries, including '🍔', '✨', '🏳️🌈' and '🕴️'!
On day 7 of the Shady Characters advent calendar, why, precisely, do we have an emoji called PERSON IN SUIT LEVITATING (🕴️)? The story is here: shadycharacters.co.u...
Check out shadycharacters.co.u... to see previous entries, including '😂', '♨️', '🍔', '👍', '✨' and '🏳️🌈'!
Day 6 of the Shady Characters advent calendar! Time is flying. Today's entry looks at RAINBOW FLAG (🏳️🌈) - an emoji so potent it once left crashed iPhones in its wake: shadycharacters.co.u...
Check out shadycharacters.co.u... to see previous entries, including '😂', '♨️', '🍔', '👍' and ''✨!
It's day 5 of the ✨Shady Characters✨ advent calendar! And what better way to mark the occasion than to take a look at the SPARKLES emoji's controversial new job? Read more at shadycharacters.co.u....
Check out shadycharacters.co.u... to see previous entries, including '😂', '♨️', '🍔' and '👍'!
We're at day 4 of the Shady Characters advent calendar! Fun, right? Whether you mentally replied with a '👍' or recoiled at the idea of doing so, you'll want to read today's entry: shadycharacters.co.u....
Check out shadycharacters.co.u... to see previous entries, including '😂', '♨️' and '🍔'!
Day 3 of the Shady Characters advent calendar! An unassuming emoji today, in the form of the HAMBURGER (🍔), but one which can teach us a surprising amount about how the emoji sausage is made, so to speak: shadycharacters.co.u....
If you missed day 1 or day 2, check out shadycharacters.co.u...!
It's day 2 of the Shady Characters advent calendar! Today we're taking a look at this guy (♨️). Care to guess what it is? shadycharacters.co.u....
If you missed day 1, where we looked at the faded icon that is FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY (😂), you can find it here: shadycharacters.co.u....
I'll be posting a new entry every two days until December 25th. Enjoy!
It's time for the 2025 Shady Characters advent calendar! I'm counting down to Christmas with ten of the most interesting, controversial and odd emoji to have appeared on our screens. We're getting started with FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY (😂), which you can read about here: shadycharacters.co.u....
These are amazing! (And, of course, I have a related book to sell! Check out “Empire of the Sum” for the story of how calculator watches got started in the first place: shadycharacters.co.uk/books/empire... .)
Ten years ago, the OED’s word of the year was “😂”.
If this is a word, is ‘emoji’ a language?
@keithhouston.bsky.social’s interesting exploration of the question takes us along a literary translation (Emoji Dick), the challenge of universality and more:
buff.ly/D00WGXr
Hi Oskari - thanks for getting in touch! I'll email you.
Happy World Linguistics Day from Linlithgow, Scotland!
I was browsing the Emojipedia blog archives this evening for a forthcoming project, and I was reminded of a conversation Keith Broni and I had earlier this year (blog.emojipedia.org/...) about the history of emoji. It's a great companion piece to "Face with Tears of Joy" (shadycharacters.co.u...)!
Impossible how good reading is. You mean I just point my face at the paper for a bit and it does a whole update on my brain?
Really? That's pretty wild. Could the switch be down to mistaken identity between 'f' and 'ſ' (he asked without a shred of evidence or conducting a moment's research)? That is, did the word change because its typography changed?