Subject: cases of ampersands<br/>
Date: Aug 05, 2004 @ 21:41<br/>
Author: aletheiak (&quot;aletheiak&quot; &lt;aletheiak@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-622645918">--- In <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="mailto:BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com">BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com</a>, Michael Kaufman <br/>
&lt;mikekaufman79@y...&gt; wrote:<br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt; How is an &quot;&&quot; upper or lower case?  It just is what it<br/>
&gt; is, an ampersand.<br/>
<br/>
 </span></blockquote>good question & both are true<br/>
<br/>
originally<br/>
when the ampersand was the 27th letter of the alphabet<br/>
it was only lower case<br/>
probabably because it was considered perverse or something to <br/>
begin a thought with the word and<br/>
<br/>
so there was never any block capital created for it<br/>
neither in manuscript nor in type<br/>
as there were for all 26 of the other letters<br/>
<br/>
here for example you see it at the very head of the lower case<br/>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://members.aol.com/alembicprs/ijdcase.htm">http://members.aol.com/alembicprs/ijdcase.htm</a><br/>
where it has more or less remained thruout most of written <br/>
history<br/>
<br/>
gradually however<br/>
its sheer size & stature have tended to force it into the upper <br/>
case<br/>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://members.aol.com/alembicprs/loncase.htm">http://members.aol.com/alembicprs/loncase.htm</a><br/>
<br/>
but only with the invention of typewriter keyboards<br/>
not to mention computers<br/>
has the ampersand migrated so heavily & seemingly irrevocably <br/>
into the upper register<br/>
<br/>
in my own mind<br/>
which prefers to think in the perfectly 3cubed shakespearean <br/>
alphabet<br/>
i had been deliberately sounding the ampersand <br/>
correspondingly<br/>
& therefore only in the lower register<br/>
<br/>
but now that i see the value of restoring it to the upper register<br/>
for readers who positively want & understand it there<br/>
of course i am more than glad to make that accommodation to <br/>
their normalcy<br/>
<br/>
& this without regard to whether it is ever actually shouted out <br/>
loud for being caps<br/>
for happily that will remain at the discretion of the reader along <br/>
with everything else</div>