39 Comments on “It’s Friday! Time for Reminders!”

1. Psst – wanna buy some slightly used exclamation points to tide you over until Monday? They are going cheap!

2. I’ve had a quiet week on the internet, so I think I can spare a few exclamation points if you really need some.
   No need to resort to shady, used punctuation dealers.

3. If they take ‘!’ from you, can you stiil use ‘¡’ ?

4. WHAT?!!!!!!!!!!…..crap, ran out too. I’m really quite exclamatory over this. I really, really am. …sigh

5. Here! Have some extra exclamation points! I’m donating them to you!!!

6. When will people understand that the exclamation point is an unsustainable resource‽

7. Slightly bent Exclamation Marks for SALE????????????? All you need to do is straighten them?????? Get them while they are cheap???????

8. If I don’t use all my April exclamation marks, can I roll them over into May?

9. When exclamation points are outlawed, only outlaws will have exclamation points!

10. i’m feeling less emphatic somehow

11. 1st they came for my exclaimation points. What’s next? Question marks?????????????????????
    You can take my exclaimation points from my cold dead fingers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

12. Please accept this donation of exclamation points I do not have a use for.

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    There, that should do you until the next shipment comes in.

13. Here’s a bunch – we lawyers are emotionally crippled and don’t get to use them, so I have plenty to spare. Remember, don’t use more than three in a row.

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

14. @ Ruth

    Only your anytime exclamation points. Your prime time exclamation points are use ’em or loose ’em. Unless you started using exclamation points after the first of the month, in which case your emphasis will be prorated. But if you’re still on a legacy word processor, you’ll have to refer to the fine print that was in effect when you enrolled. If you’re on month-to-month emphasis, none of your exclamation points roll over, but you can sign up for a new agreement at the low low price of your soul, and get all the great restrictions benefits of a new plan.

    @ robin

    There are already over a billion trillion exclamation points in circulation in the United States. Outlawing them is unrealistic. Lower capacity pens would be ineffective…emphatic writers can carry 3 ten-mark pens as easily as 2 fifteen-mark pens.

    @ jimbot

    Exclamation marks don’t kill the message. All caps kill the message.

15. There is no “they”. If too many you use, stop seeing them people do. Take them only from yourself you do. Yes. Hmmmm. — Yoda’s Elements of Style

16. Django Unexclaimed — a reboot of the classic “punctuation” western. Winner of 3 Bang! awards.

17. I saw a snippet from a style guide one time that said, “Exclamation points should be used only in dialogue, and then only if the speaker has just been eviscerated.”

18. A cat video for our host. In French, with subtitles:
    

19. Excellently spoken, Your Science Fictitious Excellency!

20. I was once told by Carl K, an excellent writer and grammarian, that each of us is endowed at birth with but 12 exclamation points. They are expected to last us our lives, and we should use them accordingly. (I’m not sure if we die the moment they are gone, or if we just have to do without.)

    Sadly, texting has deprived every child in most third-world nations of THEIR supply….

21. @ gleonguerrero

    Agreed, I too love the Emperor’s new exclamation marks!

    However, my Scalzi seems to be malfunctioning. It’s wandered off to do work. How do I shackle reconnect it to the Internet?

22. [Deleted because not on topic, snipping out later responses – JS]

23. There’s always some prudes trying to stop people from playing with their exclamation marks.

24. Gulliver,
    Firstly, what a fabulous first name. There need to be more people named Gulliver. I’m serious.

    Secondly, it irritates that I wrote ‘spoken’ when clearly the proper word was ‘written’. Blame my mind for envisioning our Imperator seated upon suitable richly upholstered recliner with pink gamma rabbit t-shirt worn, Big Mallet clutched in right hand, and mysterious cat, Glgygghhhghlyghlyghghhhh, upon His most august lap whilst left hand slowly pets. Such words would most surely follow (or precede).

25. Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?

26. But we all know that the judicious use of exclamation points can help us seem more friendly,win friends and influence people.!

27. The transition from bang-path addressing to user@host addressing has had a great benefit in conserving our world’s diminishing supply of exclamation points. However, just as the demand for rare earth elements has skyrocketed with the widespread usage of RE magnets, recent developments in messaging have led to a global shortage of octothorpes.

28. This thread reminds me of this XKCD:
    http://xkcd.com/297/

29. I can take all this excitement, I’m goibg to go look at my miday cat picture.

30. I think exclamation points are like many other things. They get used more in our youth (little kids writing notes, teens texting) and less as we get older (when’s the last time you saw a 90 year old end a sentence with !!!! ?).

    I also think we need a recent photo of Lopsided Cat.

31. !!!!! Poor planning on my part. I won’t make the comic-con due to my arrival on Monday. Try to struggle along without me, please. !!!!!

32. Party on, dudes!

33. I’ve got some extra upside down ones I smuggled in from Nogales you could have for a small fee. The first one is free ¡

34. Jimbot and MVS:

    ::django kicks in door:: “Interrobang, motherfuckers!” ::reaps vengeance::

35. John, are you signing other books than The Human Division? I’m looking for a copy of The Ghost Brigades for my dad. It would be OK if it was paperback. (Although hardcover would be gravy.)

36. It’s OK as long as the exclamation points aren’t all in a row. If you use 4 or more in a row, they send someone to remove that key from your keyboard. And then you’ll also be unable to write the number 1…

37. John, off topic but your readers might enjoy a look at Charlie Stross’s place, here
    http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/04/grand-guignol-tropes.html

38. If you’re out of exclamation marks, I’d switch to the irony mark for the duration…

    Of course, once you switch, you may never want to go back. It’s quite a delightful piece of punctuation!

39. Brian DeLue:

    Happy to sign any book.