Fun_People Archive
31 Jan
Punctuary Poetry

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 97 14:21:57 -0800
To: Fun_People
Subject: Punctuary Poetry

Forwarded-by: Keith Bostic <bostic@bsdi.com>
Forwarded-by: "Steve Fraser" <stevef@healthcare.com>

The following poem appeared recently in INFOCUS magazine. The original
authors were Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese of Calvin College & Seminary of
Grand Rapids, MI.

A poll conducted among INFOCUS readers had established "waka" as the proper
pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters < and >, though some readers
held out resolutely for "norkies."

The text of the poem follows:

	<> !*''#
	^"`$$-
	!*=@$_
	%*<> ~#4
	&[]../
	|{,,SYSTEM HALTED

The poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, to wit:

         Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
         Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
         Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
         Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
         Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
         Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

[Sorry, but the pronunciation of "<>" is obviously "angle-brackets," not  
"waka-waka" or "norkies-norkies"...  What nerd would use the same word for  
two opposite symbols?  Sheesh!  -psl]
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