the scriptorium

Wednesday, October 08, 2003

"#" Did you know that this symbol has a name? More than just "number sign" or "pound sign", this symbol has a real name, like "&" is called ampersand. I just found out this morning; it's called an "octothorpe", because it has eight points. This bit of knowledge came to me via the A Word A Day email that I recieve each morning.

Who cares, you may ask? I do, for a couple of reasons: one, I'm just geeky enough to want to know things like this that I'll have little opportunity to use; and two, I'm going to adopt the octothorpe as "my" symbol. Those of you who have ever recieved correspondence from Alan know that he usually signs it "+Alan". I've always thought that was cool, because "+" (as in "cross") is an appropriate symbol for him to use connected to his name. And it beats coming up with the appropriate closing phrase, such as "Sincerely" (wimpy), "Yours truly" (a little creepy if I don't know you), and so forth. So, I've been sort of subconciously on the lookout for a symbol that is truly "me". Why have I chosen the lowly octothorpe? Because of this one sentence in the AWAD decription of the word: "The "#" is also known as a pound sign, crosshatch, number sign, sharp, hash, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen, gate, hak, oof, rake, fence, gate, grid, gridlet, square, and widget mark." You see, in college my nickname was "Little Widget". There's kind of a long story involved as to how I got that name, having to do with me being a business major, and a guy that I hung out with at the time (in a sisterly fashion, of course). Some day I'll tell you the whole story, but if you've read this far, you're probably bored enough by now. :^)

So now I have my own symbol. Who knows, maybe I'll decide to become #--the artist formerly known as Debi. (Or maybe not.)

#Debi

posted by #Debi at 6:38 AM | permalink | 0 comments