On the way to South Dakota for a glamping meet-up and greet-up with the lovely ladies of Glampers on the Loose, we began to notice a common element alongside the road during our trek.
Fences.
So many fences. Of all shapes, sizes, and shades of brown.
Some were old.
So maybe I am a little late on the trend … but these emoticon things are crackin’ me up like yesterday’s egg scramble. A quick way to show computerized emotion, these little push-button faces are the Internet equivalent of gestures, facial expressions, and body language. Surprisingly, these aren’t something new; emoticons (referred to below as typographical art) go back as far as 1881!
Emoticons printed in 1881 in the U.S. magazine Puck. Puck no. 212, p. 65. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Here are the more modern versions of “typographical art.”
Smiley face : )
Smiley face = )
Upturned smile :] …
Smiley face with nose :0)
Smile with sunglasses B )
Double-eyed wink >.<
Big smile! : D
Smile ‘n’ wink ; )
Sticking tongue out : p
I just received an e-mail from my book editor and noticed her tagline had a quote from C.S. Lewis: “We read to know we are not alone.”
For sure, but if you think about it, prior to that, we write to know we are not alone. When we write, we’re talking to someone, right? A letter is specifically TO someone, but a blog, manifesto, book, graffiti? Writing. Writing with the desire to connect. Even some of the highest profile anti-social people like the Unabomber weren’t really anti-social. He wrote. To you. To me. To anyone who would listen. Yes, he wrote with deadly anger, but he wanted us to know him. He craved witness to his life, his beliefs. If a person can’t engage someone in love, do they attempt to engage them in anger? As long as they’re still wanting to engage, can it be changed to love? Here’s a Newsroom piece we published in our magazine 10 years ago. With today’s news, I got to wondering this morning if …
At a political rally in Wonderland …
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland illustration by Jessie Wilcox Smith, Wikimedia
Our beguilingly befuddled heroine, Alice (who else?), was muddling her way through the hugger-mugger of a most unruly crowd of partisan expatriates.
She was feeling a tad topsy-turvy as a result of guzzling a gallon of green goo which had been labeled in a language of gobbledygook that she hadn’t even tried to decipher before drinking (a word to the wise: never wander into Wonderland thirsty).
While Alice fumbled amidst the fray of white rabbits slinging wristwatches at men primly dressed as playing cards, she struggled to …
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
