A post from Shady Characters

A Shady Characters Wedding

Captured in the middle of a middling speech. The text on the card is in the open source typeface Gentium, which doesn't have a native interrobang, so I cobbled one together from its exclamation and question marks. (Photography by Elizabeth Houston.)
Captured in the middle of a middling speech. The text on the card is in the open source typeface Gentium, which doesn’t have a native interrobang, so I cobbled one together from its exclamation and question marks. (Photography by Elizabeth Houston.)

No Miscellany this week, I’m afraid; the world of punctuation has been quiet of late. What I did want to do, though, was to share the photograph above, taken by Elizabeth Houston, my mum, at my wedding a couple of weeks ago to the beautiful Leigh Stork. The wedding took place in the Auditorium at Òran Mór in Glasgow, Scotland, under the shadow of Alasdair Gray’s fantastic mural, and we were lucky enough to celebrate it surrounded by a veritable army of our closest friends and family.

Most apposite to Shady Characters, however, were the names — and place cards — we gave each table. Unusual marks of punctuation! They were, in no particular order, the ampersand (&), the ellipsis (…), the manicule (☞), the asterisk (*), the dagger (†), the diesis (‡), the pilcrow (¶), the at-symbol (@), the asterism (⁂), the obelus (÷), and the octothorpe (#). I fervently hope that just a few guests went home pondering how best they might employ a pilcrow, manicule or asterism.

As you can see above, I couldn’t resist saving the interrobang (‽) for the top table — appropriate, perhaps, given the surprise expressed by many acquaintances when I told them that I was (finally) getting hitched!

10 comments on “A Shady Characters Wedding”

  1. Comment posted by Conrad on

    Congratulations, many time over! welcome to the club of married fellows.

  2. Comment posted by Carl on

    Congrations on finding a wife who will indulge your type nerdery! May you have many years of orthographic bliss!

  3. Comment posted by Annie Morgan on

    Congratulations, and many many blessings.

  4. Comment posted by Rondina on

    What a beautiful bride! You need a symbol to capture that adoring look on her face.

    1. Comment posted by Keith Houston on

      Now that would be a tricky one! I think a good old smiley (:-)) works for me — I don’t think I’ve ever been to a wedding where so many people were laughing and smiling all the time, and the two of us were very happy to see it.

  5. Comment posted by Becky on

    This is awesome. I’m going to have to share this with my grammar friends.

    Many congrats! Cheers from Texas!

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