From the Shady Characters archive: what exactly are we supposed to call this mark: “#”? Read about the long history of the octothorpe (or maybe the pound sign), and its many names, at shadycharacters.co.u....

Our next live show is happening 🔜 ! We're talking to @keithhouston.bsky.social about his new book "Face With Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji". All patrons are invited, including free. If you're not a patron, click through and sign up! www.patreon.com/becauselangp...

Live show: Talking emoji with Keith Houston, 2026-08-15/16 | Because Language

Live show: Talking emoji with Keith Houston, 2026-08-15/16 by Because Language on Patreon. Join Because Language's community for exclusive content and updates.

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A quick thank you to Rob Watts for inviting me to talk about sarcasm and irony marks on his YouTube channel, RobWords! There's a lot to like about his whistle-stop tour of the interrobang, ironieteken, and other symbols. Watch here:

Why we don't have a sarcasm mark

Explore lost punctuation‽ Yes please. And see how language shapes perspectives with Ground News. Use my link to get 40% off the Vantage plan: https://ground.news/robwords Why is there no punctuation mark for irony? Or to flag up a rhetorical question? Well, the fact is: there once was. Numerous in

youtube.com

Birds! Books! Bots! Bathrooms! (Okay, that last one is a stretch, but I'm going to say that a 13th century latrine still counts.) Miscellany № 112, which takes in all this, is now up at Shady Characters: shadycharacters.co.u.... Enjoy!

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... if you′re interested in ordering a copy! 1/2

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. shadycharacters.co.u... 1/2

I forgot to take a picture this year, so here's one from last time round. Don't forget to vote! #BikesAtPollingStations

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.′” (fortworthreport.org/...)

Independent bookstores in Fort Worth begin writing new chapter as customers return 

Retail trend shows growth as bookstores emphasize service, human interaction and a genre focus.

fortworthreport.org

I stumbled on Hurlingham's bookshop by Putney Bridge underground station while visiting London. What a treat! Stop by if you get the chance.

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: staging.shadycharact...

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....

The Em Dash - 99% Invisible

Last summer, Bryan Vance found himself in an argument with a stranger on Reddit. Vance, a Portland-based journalist who runs Stumptown Savings, a newsletter covering local grocery deals, had been accused of using ChatGPT to write his content. The evidence? His use of em dashes. “A Reddit user accused me of using AI, pointing to

99percentinvisible.org

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!

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 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 '👍'!

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...!

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

If you're a cyclist in West Lothian, do yourself a favour and lay your hands on Spokes' excellent cycling map: www.spokes.org.uk/2025/08/spok.... There's a new edition out soon, so the current one is going for a song.

CAE 53's great reads include: - @royinori.bsky.social on worm hunters in S. Ontario - @keithhouston.bsky.social on emoji language - @clearwing3.bsky.social on the history of @theonion.com - @birdhistory.bsky.social on feather beds of the 1800s & more! jodiettenberg.substack.com/p/fifty-three

“Empire of the Sum” in paperback is my third book this year! 🤯 Read more about it here: shadycharacters.co.uk/books/empire...

W. W. Norton & Company @wwnorton.com · last yr.

Check out Norton's new releases for the end of July! Some of the best books of 2024 are now available in paperback. Don't forget the exciting new titles to add to your reading list: wwnorton.com/reader

Do emoji constitute a language? If so, what are its rules of grammar? @keithhouston.bsky.social dives into the linguistics of the pictograms that decorate our digital conversations in a new book, excerpted at @longreads.com longreads.com/2025/07/01/e...

The Emoji Tongue - Longreads

If 😂 was a word, would that make emoji a language?

longreads.com

Keeping track of numbers has always been part of what makes us human. So at some point along the way, we created a tool to help us keep count, and then we gave that tool a name. We called it: a calculator. 99pi's Lasha Madan has the story 99percentinvisible.org/episode/empi...

Empire of the Sum - 99% Invisible

Whether or not you’re a fan of math, we’ve always had a need to count things. Maybe it’s to figure out the maximum weight an airplane can safely hold, or the appropriate amount to tip after a meal,…

99percentinvisible.org

Lastly, some credit where it is due: Keith Broni at the mighty https://emojipedia.org/ reviewed the site, and Zach Leat’s 11ty (https://www.11ty.dev/) made it a pleasure to build. Thank you both! #emojipedia #11ty 4/4

If you want to learn even more about emoji, you can pre-order my book, “Face with Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji” (shadycharacters.co.u...), which will be published next month. Not long now at all! 3/4

I really enjoyed making the site. Some programming, some thinking about emoji, some website design; I’m happy with how it came together! If you agree, please share emoji.shadycharacter... here or elsewhere. You can also reply here with your thoughts or leave a comment at shadycharacters.co.u.... 2/4

The Periodic Table of Emoji, presented by Shady Characters

The Periodic Table of Emoji

emoji.shadycharacters.co.uk

I have made a thing! Visit emoji.shadycharacter... to see the Shady Characters Periodic Table of Emoji and read about how it came together. There’s a lot of detail in there, although you can read shadycharacters.co.u... to get a shorter intro. 1/4

Why does the percent sign (%) look the way it does? It’s probably not why you think. Learn more in this post from the Shady Characters archive: shadycharacters.co.u... (Public domain image from archive.org/stream/r....)

From the Shady Characters archive: scribbled or scrawled, how do we write ampersands, and is there room for a new ampersand design? Designer Rebecca Kirch dives into the unregulated world of the handwritten "&". shadycharacters.co.u.... (Image courtesy of Rebecca Kirch.)

Read more at shadycharacters.co.u..., listen to the episode at 99percentinvisible.o..., and follow 99PI at @99pi.org. 2/2

If you've enjoyed any of my books, it's a fair bet you'd enjoy “99% Invisible” too. It's a smart and wide-ranging podcast with a focus on design, and this week it looks at emoji in the courts. I tag along to talk to host Roman Mars about the ‘💩’! 1/2