An old symbol, a loopy home, a wee dram & Zumzy-zan
Where I go down a type rabbit hole, swirl in 3D, and thirst for a fancy drink.
1.
And, per se.
A distant memory of mine is discovering what the ampersand symbol actually was. Amper-wha, you say? That’s ‘&’, the symbol for the word ‘and’.
I say distant, because it is one of those things that brushes against our daily lives and, almost in the same breath, slips away. This is true of so much in our age of infinite information and stimulation. At least, it is for me.
So. The ampersand symbol is a ligature that comes from the latin word et, meaning ‘and’ (also in French). Yes, as in, “et tu, Shakey”? [A ligature, in typography, is a combination of two or more letters or ‘graphmemes’, joined to form a single glyph (or symbol, or mark).] So this was formed as a combination of e & t. Its origin is fascinatingly traced all the way back to Roman times, and while it does not have a known creator, its often attributed to coming from the earliest recorded appearance by a first century ‘graffiti artist’ who left it on a wall in Pompeii.
Here are a series of ampersands, collected brilliantly together in the mid 20th century by Jan Tschichold, a graphic designer born in Leipzig (who, amongst other things, wrote an influential book in 1928, was arrested for being a ‘Cultural Bolshevik’ by the Nazis in the 30s, then abandoned the principles in his earlier book as now representing fascism). His 1953 booklet Formenwandlungen der &-Zeichen, or ‘The Ampersand: its origin and development’ has this lovely collection:
The first here is the original Pompeiian glyph, and if you look at #13, thats from the 8th century, but already recognisable as the modern symbol.
Say What?
But the other interesting nugget besides the typography, is the etymology- the name ‘ampersand’ has a rather curious origin. It would appear that in the 19th century, the ampersand was taught in schools as as the twenty-seventh letter of the alphabet. It followed Z, and because ending the reciting of the alphabet with ‘and’ would be the equivalent of “you’ve left me hanging”, they had to amend it. So it was prefixed by the Latin ‘per se’, which means ‘by itself’.
(tangent- it does not, as I see per se often used, mean ‘specifically’ or ‘only’. Much like et al, which means ‘and others’, not and all, which I often see it used as, nor etcetera- end of tangent).
Back to And. So schoolchildren would recite “X, Y, Z, and per se and”, to clarify the final symbol being recited. Presumably between the phonetics, the tedious nature of this recitation and other unknown factors, the final syllables slurred to eventually leave us with ‘Ampersand’.
Amazingly, I also stumbled upon this entry from Farmer & Henley’s 1905 Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English, which recorded some of the other variations that said slurring resulted in:
Variants: And-pussy-and; Ann Passy Ann; anpasty; andpassy; anparse; apersie (a.v.); per-se; ampassy; am-passy-ana; ampene-and; ampus-and; am pussy and; ampazad; amsiam; ampus-end; apperse-and; empersiand; amperzed; and zumzy-zan.
I personally am a fan of zumzy-zan, because how can you not be?!
There were even nursery rhymes about the alphabet including ampersand; one about an apple ended, “X, Y, and ampersand / All wished for a piece in hand.” . Read the fruity full version here.
I have always like this symbol, it has an ability to be both graceful and dynamic, gentle or bold, depending on what you do with it. So this rabbit hole was an enjoyable one to go down.
A enjoyable multi-part read on the Ampersand featuring Cicero here, on shady characters.
2.
Friday Find:
‘Apartament’, a beguiling, smooth and lush 3D creation from Joan Garcia Pons, is well worth two of minutes of your watch time. Or very possibly more, if you feel compelled to keep staring at it- there is much to be drawn into, between the mesmerising camera movement, rich environments and fine detailing.
Joan is an Art Director & designer working with 3D, based out of the Mediterranean island of Minorca.
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And here is a bonus find for the week; this finely crafted spot for Wimbledon 2024.
This was created by The Mayda Creative Co, with slick VFX by Daydreamer.
3.
A wee dram.
A plush looking & promising collaboration between House of the Dragon and India’s Indri whisky. Indri makes some wonderful single malt whisky ( I can attest to this), winning multiple awards globally since 2022.
This comes after Game of Thrones previously did this quite memorable collection with Diageo back circa 2018, preceded by the White Walker Johnnie Walker edition, which- I can also attest- is a fine easy drinking blend.
Maybe the whisky lover in me just combines well with the GoT fan, but I feel like these are strong collaborations with a rich, stylish fit for franchise IP and product.
Now - where’s that Shogún Sake and Peaky Blinders Pale Ale?
4.
Peanut Masala
(where I share some stories or tidbits I find interesting)
"My Comments Are In The Google Doc Linked in the Dropbox I Sent In Slack.”
Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s CEO, in a candid conversation with Colin & Samir. Amongst some interesting nuggets for users and creators alike, he notes that around half of all video impressions are viewed with sound off, and this:
One of the most important things to look at if you’re trying to evaluate how your videos, or anything is doing on Instagram, is definitely the sends. I would look at sends per reach. So of the people who saw it, how many of them sent it to a friend? Because that tends to be the content that does the best, because it tends to drive the most value for the overall community.
Well wrapped here.
Here’s this week’s coy absurdity in ‘AI’ use, courtesy First Horizon Bank, “First Horizon is using artificial intelligence and such video "resets" to bring a state of calm and well-being to the people who talk to customers on the phone all day”. Taken down on Blood In The Machine by Brian Merchant.
“If this showed up in the b-plot of a Black Mirror episode, we’d consider it a bit much. But it’s not just the deeply insipid nature of the AI “solution” being touted here that gnaws at me, though it does, or even the fact that it’s a comically cynical effort to paper over a problem that could be solved by, you know, giving workers a little actual time off when they are stressed to the point of “losing it”, though that does too. It’s the fact that this high tech cost-saving solution is being used to try to fix a whole raft of problems created by automation in the first place.”
Off for my brew!