Emdashes. Modern Times Between the Lines.
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A Web Comic: The Wavy Rule
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¿Winners? We've Got Winners! And Coming Soon, a New Contest!
Filed under: Letters & Challenges Tagged: Carolita Johnson, contests, food, Liesl Schillinger, punctuation, Spain
Paul Morris, who also drew the triumphant illustration above, writes:
In a village of La Mancha, the name of which we have no desire to call to mind, a lone upside-down question mark polishes off his newly granted escutcheon. He had been invited to appear at the royal palace at Aranjuez the night before. There, he had jostled with his worthy and eminent rivals: second-place winner The Qué Mark, submitted by Liesl Schillinger, and third-place winner Quiggle, proposed by Carolita Johnson.
With a sultry clickety-clack of Sevillean castanets, the strumming of veteran vihuelas, and the Mediterranean thumping on the adufe, the upside-down question mark received his name: Interroverti, proposed by Nadine and Chris LaRoche. The Spanish kings smiled gracefully at their faithful servant, who was treated to a glass of sherry and a display of fireworks that illuminated the Tajo on the hot September night. Interroverti’s rivals were also bedecked with medals hammered from fine silver and cinnabar from the mines of Almadén.
The newly named punctuation mark will now sit proudly on his lean hack, and tilt at grammatical windmills with lance and buckler.
We here at Emdashes would like to thank all who submitted entries to our contest, and we invite you all to participate in our upcoming contest, to be announced soon. It, too, has a punctuation theme!
And, as before, there will be prizes. For their winning entry in this contest, Nadine and Chris LaRoche will enjoy either dinner for two at the Spanish, Mexican, Ecuadorian, Dominican, &c., restaurant of their choice, or a beautiful copy of Pablo Neruda’s immortal The Book of Questions. Nadine and Chris, let us know your choice, and we’ll get it to you by something faster than the existential-pony express.
About us
Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker fan blog, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Reviews: theater writing (for Time Out Chicago)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
Blogroll highlights
- The Beautiful Sentence
- Box Office Boffo
- World of Pollux
- Jonathan Taylor
- Carolita Johnson
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Comments
Hi Emily:
Just wanted to inform your readers that the Westfield Library in Westfield, NJ. is devoting much of October to Charles Addams Month. For special events, readers can go online for the library web site, and they’ll get the latest event info. If you’re traveling from NY Penn Station, take the Raritan Valley Line to the Westfield Train Station stop. You change at Newark for that train; the ride is just under an hour each way. The Westfield Library is about a 10 minute walk from the station. The Charles Addams biography published recently has very well researched chapters on the artist’s early years in Westfield; his old house on Elm St., I believe, is still there.
Paul: your narration of the ceremony is, literally, fantastic and very funny. Cervantes would be proud of your wit and imagination.
Congratulations to Nadine and Chris for their ingenious and erudite entry: it is a worthy winner.
Thanks, Carmen!
I’m still going with the interro-mark.