Total Ellipse

There are some people who, if they can’t gesticulate, are unable to speak (or, at least, have their coherence seriously reduced). This has been tested through highly scientific and unbiased experiments like getting people to sit on their hands while talking, and watching them squirm (because, of course, it’s the inability to wave said hands about that must be causing the squirming, rather than the amused observation... nothing like being put on the spot.

However, there are also those of us with a more insidious affliction... the inability to talk in writing* without abundant (some might say excessive) use of parentheses, asterisks**, italics, and Capital Letters. But the one that has been sneaking up on me lately is the ellipsis... so useful when trying to continue a train of thought that you aren’t entirely certain belongs together. So handy when seeking to leave an idea open without being so direct as to ask a question...

It has started to occur to me that perhaps it might behove me to try sitting on my punctuation (rather than my hands) for a little while. Not sure I actually will, but it provided food for thought...

I do like this punctuation mark, though...

Picture: Keys And Memories on Etsy

An interrobang. It is, apparently, a combination of a question mark and an exclamation mark. So much more interesting than just using both.

These might be more appropriate for me, though. The only problem would be that I’d want to turn them round so they matched. Perhaps a backwards semi-colon could have some other sort of meaning

Picture: Nerd Goddess on Etsy

* Because in a lot of ways, blogging and emails and so on are talking written down; writing reports for (real) work doesn’t seem to produce the same effect.
** So that we can make extra notes at the end, and limit use of parentheses just a little.