to italicize or not to italicize...

Liz Waterman lizwat@earthlink.net
Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:37:34 PDT
The × I use is Alt + 0215 on the keyboard. I'm not sure if it is the 
same as the multiplication x.
Does it (×) come through plain text?
What is _notholand_?
Liz W

Jim McKenney wrote:
> Roger Whitlock wrote " Now, wasn't that just as easy as pie?"
>
> If you say so, Roger, but I would like more sugar in mine, please. 
>
> And then he went on to say "I suspect that all of us use computers that have
> the multiplication sign handy."
>
> I still have not forgotten the day Jane McGary pointed out, in response to
> my then usage of the letter x, that the proper sign is the multiplication
> sign. I truly thought she was pulling my leg. I'm not sure what about this
> revelation floored me more, the fact that not only was Jane right, but that
> there are, on the one hand, people who think this sort of think is very
> important, and on the other hand, people who get paid to make these
> decisions. Hmmmm...I realize now that I made some faulty career choices. 
>
> And anyway, in my heart of hearts I believe the symbol in question is the
> Greek letter chi, not a multiplication sign. The meaning is "cross" (as in
> "I crossed species A and species B), not "times" in the arithmetic sense.
> Whoever says "I timesed species A and species B"?  
>
> Actually, in this modern computer world, x and × are different entities,
> unlike in the world of vision, where they seem the same. 
>
> Some of my friends, who occasionally criticize me for my “species snobbery”,
> fail to realize that I grew up seeing the x before plant names and thought
> that meant “cross that one off the list”. Now I'm much more sophisticated
> and know that the × means "entering notholand".  
>
> When I need it in windows, I make sure I’m in HTML mode, then click on
> Insert, Symbol, and the multiplication sign is there in the table of
> symbols. That’s the way I composed this message. I’ll convert to plain text
> now - and it's still there. Let's see if it makes it onto the posted form of
> this message. 
>
>
> Jim McKenney
>
>
>
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