A snout-fair is a “good-looking person,” a throttlebottom is an “inept public official,” and ejectamenta is “material spewed from a volcano.” Each month, members of a Facebook group for calligraphy enthusiasts receive a list of around 30 such words...
Poet and teacher Frances Klein reports that a friend refers to the “overemphasized voice people use to read poems” as spoken Garamond. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Declamatory Font” I saw a tweet I really liked from poet and...
Mudlark: In Search of London’s Past Along the River Thames (Bookshop| Amazon) relates the amazing tale, told many places, of Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson, a bookbinder who developed the famous Doves Type. To prevent the moveable type from falling...
A Montreal, Canada, woman wonders why sometimes in old manuscripts the letter s looks like the letter f. A great resource on this topic is Andrew West’s blog Babelstone. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Why Did They Write the...
Why does everyone hate the Comic Sans? Well, maybe not everyone, but a lot of people dislike it. In fact, graphic designer David Cadavy gave a whole Ignite Chicago talk on the topic. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Comic Sans”...
How do you indicate sarcasm in a text message or an email? If winky emoticons aren’t your thing, try left-leaning italics, as recommended by sartalics.com. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Sartalics” There’s a new movement afoot...
