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Looked Into
Contest: Write a letter to a punctuation mark. Deadline: August 15. (continued)
Daily Comic: Air Question Mark
Filed under: The Wavy Rule Tagged: comics, Pollux, punctuation, question mark
Contest: Write a letter to a punctuation mark. Deadline: August 15. (continued)
Triple Star: Typography's Asterism
Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: Alexander Humez, asterisk, asterism, César Cui, Nicholas Humez, Pollux, punctuation, Richard Taruskin, typography
Pollux writes:
You don’t see the asterism very much. Three asterisks in a triangular or linear formation, the asterism is used in typography to indicate minor breaks or subchapters in a text. (continued)
Since We're Obsessed With Punctuation at the Moment
Filed under: Little Words Tagged: controversies, punctuation, Slashdot
…or, to be frank, always, we’d like to note this Slashdot story about the war between the sarcasm symbols. Yes, the sarcasm symbols. It sounds like a dirty fight for a low form of humor, but still, it’s correct that punctuation controversies should be in the news, at the top of the hour, above the fold (if not the fray).
—Emily Gordon (continued)
Daily Comic: Air Quotes
Filed under: The Wavy Rule Tagged: comics, Pollux, punctuation, quotation marks, quotes, The Wavy Rule
“Contest”: Write a letter to a punctuation mark. “Deadline”: August 15. (continued)
Daily Comic: Air Semicolon
Filed under: The Wavy Rule Tagged: comics, Pollux, punctuation, semicolon
There is a contest; the contest involves writing a letter to a punctuation mark. There is a deadline; it is August 15. (continued)
Daily Comic: Air Colon
Filed under: The Wavy Rule Tagged: colon, comics, Pollux, punctuation, The Wavy Rule
Contest: Write a letter to a punctuation mark. Deadline: August 15. (continued)
Daily Comic: Air Parentheses
Filed under: The Wavy Rule Tagged: comics, parentheses, Pollux, punctuation
(Contest: Write a letter to a punctuation mark. Deadline: August 15.) (continued)
About us
Hello! We are media enthusiasts and culture addicts—not to mention classically trained (as we like to say) professional journalists. This is our collection of generally civilized conversations about magazines, movies, politics, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
You'd like to read more about us individually? That's so nice! Here you can learn a lot more about the Emdashes team, the mysterious-sounding names of our daily and non-daily columns, and our guest contributors.
We welcome tips, questions, and comments, and are always looking for ardent new contributors who care about letters (postal, typographical, admiring, literary, and tough-love). Here's how to contact us.
Occasionally, we host book giveaways, and review books here as often as we can. Publishers, please e-mail us and we'll send you an appropriate mailing address.
Tell me more
They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is currently written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. (Unsigned posts through October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.)
The site is designed and maintained by House of Pretty and illustrated by Jesse Ewing for Inkleaf Studio. Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (who also draws our daily comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The kissable Emdashes logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World; PDF, p. 20)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, man about town, and New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Report: Learning to read with comic books--that are edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
- Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Review: 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)
- Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
- Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
- Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)
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