In Love with Norma Loquendi by William Safire

Author:William Safire [Safire, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-79975-3
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-10-19T00:00:00+00:00

On the origin of the “#” or “pound” sign: It is a scribal variant of the abbreviation of the Latin for pound, libra, and is thus a cognate to the British monetary pound sign, “£.” Originally, the weight name was shortened, as it is today, to “lb.”; but as was the calligrapher’s habit, the abbreviation was marked with a horizontal line through the ascenders of the “l” and “b,” (standing for the “r” of libra, as it did in the abbreviation of per, “p”) yielding the sign “.” Eventually this was written “” with a quick loop for the bowl of the “b,” which was yet later omitted entirely, “#.”

Gary Munch

Stamford, Connecticut

L. L. Bean has equipment that will read handwriting and convert it into computer language. Why can’t the Post Office?

If 600,000 Avon salesladies’ written orders can be read by the computer with no human intervention, the Post Office should be able to do the same thing.

Leo R. Yochim

New York, New York

By now, computers are smart enough to accommodate themselves to people, and people should not be stupid enough to let themselves be accommodated to computers. (Kind of like governments, don’t you think?) Only those who haven’t updated their computer knowledge since their mother was scared by a mainframe in 1948 would miss the crucial fact this is one of the main points of the computer revolution (are those darn computers marching in the street—again—?).

I say this not as a computerphobe—quite the reverse.

The Post Office (oops, Postal Service—talk about your oxymorons) Doesn’t Get It, as usual—which is why I’m not bothering to decide precisely how to show my independence by means of a really Luddite envelope address, but instead am cutting the Gordian Knot and sending this to you by fax.

Paul Bogrow

Glendale, California

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