Keith Houston
@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'm going to make the brash (I say BRASH!) assumption that everyone and their mother has already told @shadycharacters.co.uk about Tom Scott's latest video, where he gets a little too excited about ampersands youtu.be/8IsbKH-EsAY?...
I get excited about &.
YouTube video by Tom Scott
youtu.be
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
It's World Emoji Day! 🍾🎉 I was wondering what to post about today when I came across this incredible post on Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/peo.... 10/10, no notes, as they say. The poop emoji's time has come. 1/2
Steve Held@peoplesfabric.bsky.social · 3w agoPutting this page in a time capsule
I am once again begging Hollywood to stop using the Greek alphabet for an Ancient World movie, if they can't afford to even throw a couple of quid at anyone with an inkling of the language. Unless they really think audiences are dying to see THS THDPSSSSPS
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!” 1/3
Take a trip to the south of France at the height of summer courtesy of the Shady Characters archive: shadycharacters.co.u....
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: www.change.org/p/the.... 1/4
Sign the Petition
The World needs a Traffic Cone Emoji to celebrate Boston & Glasgow Twinning
change.org
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
Inventing a new punctuation mark turns out to be very hard. Mostly, they fade away, never to be seen again - but the “quasiquote” does not deserve that fate. Read more about this ingenious but precarious mark at the Shady Characters archive: shadycharacters.co.u... (Image courtesy of Ned Brooks.)
Miscellany № 111, now up! Catch up with goings-on in the world of punctuation, starring ‘<’, ‘>’, ‘‽’, ‘.’, ‘,’ and ‘¶’, at shadycharacters.co.u.... .
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
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 shadycharacters.co.u...!
The new version of the Shady Characters blog is now up! It's been a long time coming, but I'm finally happy (and by "finally" I mean "after four long years") with how it looks and works. A few details at shadycharacters.co.u....
I stumbled on Hurlingham's bookshop by Putney Bridge underground station while visiting London. What a treat! Stop by if you get the chance.
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 shadycharacters.co.u... if you'd like to learn more.
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...
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!
Shady Characters
The secret life of punctuation
staging.shadycharacters.co.uk
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
waoh waoh wah une Monotype entièrement controlée par ordi (y c. la transmission entre les deux machines, originellement par carte perforée)
Keith Houston@shadycharacters.co.uk · 6mo ago3D 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....
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....
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
Some new year's resolutions for me and for Shady Characters, up now at the blog: shadycharacters.co.u....
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!
🎄 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.
