ampersand, or &&&&&&&

I like using them when listing things, as it differentiates joint names (e.g. Belle & Sebastian) from the linking "and" between the list objects.

I love clefs.

I like writing dollars. But I'm not so good at Pounds, as I try to get two cross-hatches in, like a dollar is supposed to have.

I hate my pound signs (that's £, don't Americans call the # sign 'pound' or something weird like that) but I am quite used to writing ampersands. Mainly on cassette inlays.

Is it properly Belle & Sebastian or Belle and Sebastian?

It is very important to pronounce the "plus" in Baz Luhrman's "Romeo + Juliet."

I am a sans serif person, none of this high falutin popery.

(#=the 'pound key'in the us, not the 'hash' key)

I panicked recently when trying to catalogue the German film 'Aimee & Jaguar', which nowhere on the packaging used the full version. And I couldn't remember the German for 'and'. In fact I wasn't even sure what language the film was in at first. Duhh.

I've only seen '&c.' in old-fashioned printing, I think.

Question: is anyone else apart from me typing the full and proper '&' in all their posts? ;-)

Kate I grew up writing oblique-condensed; when I wrote ampersands my stroke goes straight up

Now of course I just write & in all written communications - the real fans know what I mean

On eBay, if you search for "belle and sebastian" using "and" instead of "&" then it doesn't come up with the results that include "&"; if you search for "belle & sebastian" you get everything, both "and" and "&".

These always give me problems when writing: B (I worry that it will somehow not be understood and also I just don't like it if it comes out ugly ie if the loops aren't sufficiently round or one ends up much bigger than the other), S (similar), R (ugly squiggle if not concentrating), U and V (possible confusion with each other), O (I like a nice near circle and will screw up and start again if it comes out as a blob), 1 (I often add the little diagonal at the top and the line at the bottom in order to differentiate from the I - these create additional problems because it looks best if you accomplish the diagonal and the downward stroke all in one movement and I find it's easy to go wrong; I also worry that the ornamentation may be considered an affectation by some), 3 (I find these really hard for some reason, hard to do so I'm pleased with the result I mean), 8 (I don't like it if it doesn't loop in a reasonably symmetrical way), 6 (ditto; hate it when it looks like a bit like a b).

Most satisfying and problem-free: 4, 7 (I add the 'continental' cross hatch which is really enjoyable...you just can't go wrong), Q, W, Y, P, K, Z, X, M.

Ampersandatory!

http://www.janbrett.com/images/cursive_q_queen.jpg

I'm sure I've mentioned elsewhere on ILE that my handwriting has vaguely German-style 1s and 7s (but not so much with the 9s). I went on a Youth Orchestra trip to Bonn when I was 16 and decided I liked German numerals so much I'd adopt them myself.

However this doesn't square with my feelings about the Euro way of writing the numeral "one", like an upside-down V. It's totally pointless, but I love it.

My next project should be to learn to write @ with a printed 'a'.

*shifts uncomfortably*

Italic Handwriting

*shifts uncomfortably*

*also shifts uncomfortably*

(who will help me with the double italicising required above??)

I find simple illegibility less annoying than illiteracy.

Felicity: go here.

The ampersand makes a very cute visual pun in the logo for Walter "Walt" van Beirendonck's Wild & Lethal Trash collection:

http://www.walt.de/walt/jpg/logo.jpg

I can't remember at what point I was allowed to not use joined-up writing, quite late I think.

caitlin:
> |s stupid? Are you saying you never use pipes when working at the command line?

y'know caitlin, i suspect he never does. that's mac users for you, slaves to the gui.

it's also very useful, necessary even, for logical ORs (||) and/or bitwise ORs (|) in almost every programming language i know. "i'd be lost without it".

also, when writing & did you have to write &?

i've also seen ¬s used but only ever in one maths text book - it's a logical NOT symbol in some logic notation or other. everything else just uses ~ or ! for the same thing.

there was some graffiti on a bridge in hemel hempstead once which said 'ralph & boaky' or something. only he'd obviously started his & in the wrong place and it had ended up perfectly formed but also perfectly upside down.

and, of course, & is simply . followed by an 8 on the text side when writing things in palm pilots. which i have been a lot recently, so much so that i've started using Graffiti characters when writing things on paper. most odd.

andy

My handwriting is joined up, but illegible. It was OK until I started my A-levels, at which point everything became numbers and diagrams. They called it Natsci handwriting at Cambridge and they weren't wrong.

Last week Helen (aka 'melen head' attn. Tico Tico) came over to eat dinner and watch the Adam Ant documentary with us, and I made her and Ed have an illegibility contest (Ed has already outed himself as a scrawler and H's phone messages at work always needed a follow-up translation service). They both wrote 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' and Helen went all graphologist, waggled her eyebrows at me and pointed out that Ed had deep g's and y's but wouldn't tell mixed company what that signified. Hmmmmm. But I still couldn't decide whose writing was most illegible. Next to mine, both were chicken scratches.

When I try to write in cursive I realize I've forgotten nearly everything. Ridiculous, really. My all-caps block print is faster by a long shot anyway, plus people can actually read it.

Actually, I never wrote cursive at all except when we were actively taught penmanship in the lower grades -- I did homework etc. on the computer, so it didn't matter and didn't come up.

My signature is just my name printed very quickly, so that the L's run together, and the lower leg of the K makes the apostrophe.

I find it weird that my writing is still evolving. In the last year, my 5 has grown an extra top stroke added after the main body of the number, and my g has lost any sphere in the top half and become like an extravagant 3 with the top curve lopped off.

Americans, being told off for not writing a perfectly good letter like a perfectly good number is mentalism gone mad. Heavens.

Anyone who's taken a drafting class before should know how to make an ampersand sign in writing. I know that's how I learned how to make an effective ampersand. It sorta starts out like a weird leaning capital S followed by a little swirled-up curl, similar to a lower-case c, at the bottom. I'll have to do one up and scan it in to show you.

In fact, drafting class is what's responsible for the way I form my numerals now. I have been almost obsessive over my nines looking like my sixes upside down, etc., since high school.

And I love cursive writing, though there are many cursive capital letters I just don't like. Ergo, I end up using the printed capital letters, but slanted, half of the time, and then using exclusively cursive lowercase. Er, or something like that. Whatever works the fastest, really. All I know is I've gotten a few compliments about my writing style.

*dashes back out due to time constraints*

Similarly, ampersands I do sort of like cursive E's/backwards 3's with the cross thing on the end. I used to do the actual "&" all proper like, but I couldn't get it down consistently enough to keep on keeping on with it.

I did do.

"Ampersands (&) are the work of Satan. You will be killed if you use them in any other context than A&R, or in the proper name of an artist, recording or club."