X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f996b,9f6bb2970b56919,start X-Google-Attributes: gidf996b,public X-Google-Thread: f7789,9f6bb2970b56919,start X-Google-Attributes: gidf7789,public From: tlsmith@netcom.com (Terry L. Smith) Subject: ASCII symbol ..."poems?" Date: 1997/02/04 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 214378708 sender: tlsmith@netcom17.netcom.com organization: Netcom On-Line Services newsgroups: alt.ascii-art,alt.fan.mike-jittlov The following uh... *item* was forwarded to me yesterday by my pal Adam T. It did Evil Things to my mind, and made me pass it on. heh heh heh ~~~~~~~~ Begin Included Message ~~~~~~~~ The following poem appeared recently in INFOCUS magazine. The original authors were Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese of Calvin College & Seminary of Grand Rapids, MI. A poll conducted among INFOCUS readers had established "waka" as the proper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters < and >, though some readers held out resolutely for "norkies." The text of the poem follows: <> !*''# ^"' $$- (The ' in this line is *supposed* to be a !*=@$_ backward "tick," or apostrophe, sort of a %*<> ~#4 teeny \, but my keyboard hasn't that, so &[]../ imagine it, okay? MQS) |{,,SYSTEM HALTED The poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, to wit: Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash, Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash, Bang splat equal at dollar under-score, Percent splat waka waka tilde number four, Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash, Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH. ~~~~~~~~ End Included Message ~~~~~~~~ It sorta seems to me that if "<" is "waka," then ">" should be "back-waka." I think I will call it that. It also seems to me that if you combine these ASCII-symbol translation "words" with two-line ASCII "art," you could *really* have something. Like... < < ~ / __ > _|==|_ { ! - ~ ^ ^ ppp A | | >*x*< Which would be, of course: Waka waka tilde slash Back-waka hat, Curly-bracket bang dash "P's" a pi cat! (Pizza pie) [ In honor of Natasha Katski, Rose-Toes, Crazy Jennie, & Amazing Gracie, who really *like* pppA. :) ] Hmmmmm ... sounds a little like those "poems" that Kliban used to construct. "I'm Noko Marie. Don't mess with me." - B. ("Hap") Kliban (r.i.p.) - M.Q.S., "Official Bimbo" for Baltimore; (SCOoF) AKA C'mell; AKA The Lilac Fairy -- *--------------------------------------------------------------------* | M.Q.S. c/o T.L.S | "Don't play with that! You have no idea where | | tlsmith@netcom.com | it's been..." -- Speaker to Elevators | *--------------------------------------------------------------------*