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.

Update: The winners!

The ghost of James Murray, patron saint of the OED, hovers over us tremulously as we offer you our poll of finalists from Emdashes' very own Upside-Down Question Mark Contest. Meanwhile, Pablo Neruda, who refused to use this form of punctuation, throws up his hands in a corner of that celestial Scribbler's Green where all writers go--a place that all deceased literary critics are barred from entering. ¿Will this stop us? We say, respectfully but firmly: ¡no!

We offer you these names, hand-picked from an Emdashes orchard of more than 60 great entries, so thank you to all who submitted! The winner of this poll will win our grand prize, which, as you know, is either dinner for two at the Spanish, Mexican, Ecuadorian, Dominican, &c., restaurant of your choice, or, if you prefer, a beautiful copy of Neruda's immortal The Book of Questions.

1. the qué mark--submitted by Liesl (our own Martin Schneider submitted a variation on this entry, but since he's an editor and judge, he's disqualified from prizewinning; sorry, Martin!)
2. splainu--submitted by John
3. quiggle--submitted by Carolita
4. interroverti--submitted by Nadine & Chris LaRoche
5. ¿nu?--submitted by Paul Shaw
6. Prask and Pre-Q--both submitted by J.D.
7. Askin--submitted by N.F.

We also want to offer you some etymological background and information on some of these entries. Note that ¿nu? reads the same right side up or upside down. (Turn over your computer--see?) "Splainu" derives from I Love Lucy, specifically from Ricky Ricardo's "Lu-seee, you haf some splainu to do!" The venerable interroverti is derived from the Latin components "interrogo" and "verti/verto/versum," meaning "to turn over," "to turn about," &c.

Thanks to all the witty, literate, and punctuationally minded people who entered our upside-down question mark naming contest, which was a great success: We got more than 60 entries, and we're still tallying up our picks.

In fact, we're at a bit of an impasse. So we thought we'd create a poll, with the Emdashes crew's absolute favorite entries, and let you determine the ultimate winner. In the spirit of the Democratic Convention's forest of ticker tape, your voice will be heard! Have a great Labor Day, and watch this space for the opportunity to vote well before November--and for something we can all believe in: giving mysterious marks a (satisfying) name of their own.

Above: A haunting dramatization of the dilemma in question. Click to enlarge.

The other day, Paul Morris, our "Wavy Rule" staff cartoonist, and I were questioning some punctuation: namely, the upside-down, Spanish-style question mark. After consulting friend and lettering expert Paul Shaw--who reports that "Bringhurst just calls it an inverted question mark, no special name"--we decided it was a real scandal that this character dare not speak its name. (Parenthetically, I wonder when the nameless mark will become a standard part of the computer keyboard, especially in America, where Spanish is rápidamente becoming our dual language?) So we decided to sponsor a contest. Paul wrote everything from here on--and, of course, drew the searing cartoon above.

The holiday weekend sparkles in the near distance, but I'm really excited about Monday. Not only is it the day I go see Kabluey at Cinema Village, it's also the day I'll have the pleasure of introducing you to our Emdashes summer interns: Sarah Arkebauer, Taylor House, and Adam Shoemaker. They'll be contributing in many ways beginning next week, and you'll see right away why we selected them: They're remarkable people, and talented as can be.

Also on Monday, we have a contest. The first of more. In cartoon form. My heart is racing as I type. It is. Get ready to be tickled, and if you've misplaced your thinking cap, time to dust it off (there's no unmixing these metaphors)--your creative time has come.

Happy weekend, and while I'm away, enjoy further installments of Paul Morris's Emdashes comic "The Wavy Rule," which will continue daily over the holiday weekend. Even Gawker can't say that.

Update: PRINT is closing an issue, so I introduced the interns on Tuesday, and will run the contest shortly. Old media still wins!