I'd Like to Buy an Interrobang, Pat

[gnomi]

There's a new advertising poster I've been seeing all over the Red Line for the boston.com classified section. It has six icons on it: a blue circle with a white suitcase on it, a dark green circle with a car on it, a red circle with a white house on it, an orange circle with a white chest of drawers on it, a purple circle with a white doglike thing on it, and a lime green circle with an exclamation point on it. I have therefore decided that they're touting the ability to buy the following from boston.com classifieds:

-- Luggage
-- Cars
-- Houses
-- Furniture
-- Mutant pets
-- Punctuation

Seriously, though, the first five I can figure out, kinda: travel (or maybe it's a briefcase and it's for jobs), cars, houses, furniture, pets. Those all make some sort of sense. But I can't figure out what the ! is all about.

And I don't want to give Boston.com any satisfaction by going there to find out what they might be trying to sell with that exclamation point.

Comments

Maybe it's sex?

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

The ! could be the personal ads...

(This actually makes a bizarre kind of sense to me, especially since every other icon I could think of might not be too family-friendly.)

Re: Maybe it's sex?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Could be! Especially given that one of the many names for ! is "bang." ;-)

[madfilkentist]

Speaking of puzzling advertising on the transit system, there's an advertisement on the commuter trains which has a picture of a pretty woman and the words "Because ignoring a problem has never made it go away." The rest is in print too small to read from any distance.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I've seen that ad. I'm not sure what it's for, either.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

At a guess, something medical, or maybe psychiatric. Something they don't want to be too explicit about.

need vs. want

[bitty.livejournal.com]

I don't need any more userpics. I really, really want your userpic.

It bringeth pleasure.

Re: need vs. want

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I got it from the most excellent yin_again.

[xochitl42.livejournal.com]

I don't know why, but it has brought me endless mirth this morning, this idea of being able to buy punctuation.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Glad to provide you with morning mirth!

I sometimes joke about people having attended parenthesis sales or comma sales when they're using way more than I'd anticipate in an average sentence. So that's what started me down this path.

[farwing.livejournal.com]

I think the punk-folk-rock band in my head should be called The Interrobangs!?!? Would that not be awesome?!?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

It'll be the new punk-tuation wave of music! :-)

[farwing.livejournal.com]

Yay! Punktuation is totally going to be the title of our first album!

[plorkwort.livejournal.com]

Interrobang Cartel (http://interrobang.jwgh.org/mp3.cgi) is a semi-imaginary Usenet punk-folk-rock band which exists in many people's heads.

(pointed here by Universal Hub)

[michelel72.livejournal.com]

I use Boston.com for my midday news updates, so I could look there ... but they use the icons in the print version, too. To be a literalist spoilsport, here are the meanings (using the Globe's language):
- Briefcase icon: jobs
- Car icon: cars -- new, pre-owned listings
- House icon: homes -- homes for sale, commercial, rentals
- Chest icon: stuff -- items for sale, yard sales, yachts and boats
- Mutant dog icon: pets -- dogs, cats, birds, fish
- Bang icon: notices & more -- auctions, legal notices, business opportunities, services

So there you have it. A bag will get you ... ahem ... "services".

[michelel72.livejournal.com]

Feh. Dang typo. That last sentence should've said "bang", not "bag".

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Oh, I figured out what you meant.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

So there you have it. A bag will get you ... ahem ... "services".

::snerk::

[jeffclark.livejournal.com]

Mad props on knowing what an interrobang is in the first place.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Heh. Thanks. I've been fond of the interrobang for *years*.

[toonhead-npl.livejournal.com]

you got tagged on Universal Hub

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads-up!