# punctuation

*The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 07 Jan 2003*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3748>

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### David Duffy
*07 Jan 2003, 01:59*

> On Mon, 6 Jan 2003, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
> 
> It's a pity we're limited to ASCII here ... in the old days
> of mimeo'd fanzines and such, we had a way cool bit of 
> invented-for-the-purpose punctuation called the "quasi-quote," 
> formed by typing the double-inverted-comma character, 
> backspacing, and typing a hyphen in the same place: meaning, 
> "I'm quoting this from memory, so the exact wording may be 
> wrong." Almost as useful as the interabang (? typed over !)
> for rhetorical questions and the often-discussed but never
> quite created "irony mark."
> 
> --Blattid

I can't resist pointing out that these are used in chess notation:

"!?" interesting and speculative
"?!" bold but unsound

Lots of use for them on this list ;)

David Duffy.

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