An illustration from an 1885 issue of Harper's magazine.  The caption reads: "View East from Ampersand."

"I wanted to be a vice president at a place with an ampersand."
—Lee Nichols, Hand-Me-Down (2012)

For Gary Barwin.

Gary Barwin's "handpersand" reminded us that some handy ampersands are capable of grasping without fingers.

We're honored to have contributed a chapter to Edvin Thungren's new book, The Ampersand, viewable here.

Photo by Coulter Sunderman.

From her lips ampersands and percent signs
Exit like kisses.
—Sylvia Plath, "An Appearance"

Here's a photo of an ampersand kiss.

In this quotation about dual allegiances, the ampersand is likened to a geometrical diagram for squaring a circle:


Indeed, we see similarities between Archimedes' solution to circling the square and the design of an ampersand.

"The & is a possibility."
—Geof Huth

Avoid ampersands and thorns, suggests The American Archivist (Vol. 28, 1965, p. 363).

Geof Huth writes: Craig, now you're reading my professional literature too? (Though I've written but one book review for The American Archivist.) Prof. Oddfellow responds: Geof, you have indeed developed my interest in archivia.  (I'd ask you if that was a word, but I can already guess your answer.)  By the way, with fresh eyes I see that I should have done a "flip horizontal" on the thorn.

While decorative type ornaments are predominantly botanical in nature, punctuation marks betray bestial origins.  The ampersand, for example, descends from a snakelike fish.

Art by Marc Palm.

We celebrate Omegaword's invention of the amperbang and now realize we've seen amperbang facial expressions, as when someone nods enthusiastically, eyebrows raised, to prod us to reveal a seemingly inevitable and yet elusive punch line.

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Jeff writes:

A reviewer from Sydney, Australia says this of our book on ampersands:

If you are interested in the history of the ampersand and other interesting trivia about it, this is definitely the book to get.