On Mon, Feb 17, 2003 at 10:09:23PM -0800, Steven Brust wrote: > An artifact of the typewriter. Words or phrases "struck out" with a slash > so they could still be read, the humor coming from the idea that the author > had first written something and then changed his mind, but you could see > his original thought. > > "You'll be at Westercon? Great! I look forward to s/e/d/u/c/i/n/g/ meeting > you." This artifact is used sporadically in the computer world, where in some cases a redefining of keys occurrs such that the backspace key does not backspace, but instead send a control-h, which when viewed on a certain type of terminal as ^H. As an example, you could be completely full of shit^H^H^H^H yourself. [1] It is, at times useful. Nearly all of them as either sarcastic or sardonic humor. -Jot [1] An example only, not an expression of my opinion of Steven. -- Jot Powers <books at bofh.com> http://www.bofh.com/books/ "I'm upping my standards, so up yours!" -Pat Paulsen (1927-1997), Presidential Campaign Slogan