From: Philip Hart <philiph at SLAC.Stanford.EDU> >> #I think emoticons are evil and encourage bad writing. >> >> Any device can be misused. > >Devices that exist to be misused should be restricted or banned. I hope that you take this philosophy to its logical conclusion and eschew the use of question marks and exclamation points. A truly skillful writer should be able to convey questioning or emphasis through word choice -- what are these marks but emoticons that have accumulated a little weight of tradition? You should dispense with quotation marks, too. Your reader should be able to tell when you're quoting or using dialogue without such artificial aids. -- David Goldfarb <*>|"The only thing better than messing with somebody's goldfarb at ocf.berkeley.edu | sense of reality is messing with a whole LOTTA | people's sense of reality...." goldfarb at csua.berkeley.edu | -- J. Michael Straczynski