A post from Shady Characters

Miscellany № 9

A very quick post today, but I thought Shady Characters readers might be interested to hear about a recently-aired BBC Radio 4 programme called “Ampers-Fan”. Narrated by the Daily Telegraph’s deputy art critic Alastair Sooke, the programme looks at the history of the ampersand from the Tironian et all the way through to today’s use in websites, delving into the history of type-cutting and typography along the way. It’s still available to listeners in the UK everywhere for another couple of days — have a listen!

5 comments on “Miscellany № 9

  1. Comment posted by An American on

    Actually, all radio shows on the BBC iPlayer are available to EVERYONE, not just UK residents. Only TV shows on the iPlayer are UK only. So Americans can listen to that program as well!

    1. Comment posted by Keith Houston on

      I had no idea! Thanks for letting me know. I’ll update the post accordingly.

  2. Comment posted by The Modesto Kid on

    Dear Mr. Houston, this may be of some interest to one with your predilections. I have no idea what to make of it but perhaps you will enlighten me: : ก็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็ กิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิ ก้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้ ก็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็ ก็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็ กิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิ ก้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้…

  3. Comment posted by The Modesto Kid on

    …after a little more research: apparently Unicode allows multiple combining diacritical marks to be appended to a character, and depending on what rendering software you are using (I am using Google Chrome on a Windows 7 machine), the stacked diacritics can overwrite text around the letter making for a confusing line of text. These are the Thai letter “ko” with different diacritics.

    1. Comment posted by Keith Houston on

      I thought that it might be a diacritic applied multiple times. Thanks for clearing that up, and sorry for the delay in replying!

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