Smile at This News

I read this on the World Wide Words Newsletter:

Smile, please: Wednesday 19 September was the 25th anniversary of the invention of the smiley character in online communications, also known as the emoticon. The :-) symbol, necessarily created from standard ASCII keyboard characters, was invented on 19 September 1982 by Scott E Fahlman in a post on a bulletin board at Carnegie Mellon University. It formed part of a thread on the way humorous remarks could be tagged to avoid misunderstandings. His message was brief, though a trifle ungrammatical: “I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers: :-) Read it sideways.” Scott Fahlman is these days Research Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.

Well, I think I will mark my calendar for future observances. Does anyone know who invented LOL? And can I call that day "Black Tuesday" or whatever day of the week that occurred??

I survived the football game, though Lee got an injury from stomping on the stands too hard. Still no apology from Intolerant Woman. But she spoke to me. I was politely distant. And our team won, without the wonderful Aaron Williams. Neither team played exactly "well," however. I never saw so many spectacular fumbles and interceptions.

We're off to watch Beccano bang on a cymbal shortly! Back to Belton High School! Which reminds me. I always get sort of nervous being near military bases, like, dang, if they start bombing, I am near a major target. My mind does work in odd ways at times.