heh

[Mark A. Mandel]

Larry sez:

>>>>>
At 2:14 PM -0400 6/22/01, Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM wrote:
>My 20yo son, who does A LOT of IRC-ing, uses single "heh" as a chuckle, as
>described above, when I send him something amusing. He often uses the
>string
>      ^_^
>as a smiley. He tells me that non-rotated smileys are common to standard
>among anime fans online.
>
Does this indicate something about the predilections of Doug Wilson
of our list, or is this smiley  enjoyed by non-animists as well?
<<<<<

(I don't *think* my son's an animist. A better nomen amatoris for anime
[Japanese animation] -- and maybe manga [Japanese comics] as well -- is
"fanboy", or, maybe even better because more specific, "otaku", which as I
understand it is a Japanese masculine 1st-person-sing. pronoun in origin
but is used in the USA among anime fen to mean themselves.)

(I have GOT to stop braiding and grafting my sentences! My prose is getting
much too topiary.)

My son adds that the upright type of smiley is also called "Eastern" and
the rotated type "Western", referring to the Japanese comics convention of
showing a smile mostly with the eyes, as opposed to the American convention
of showing a smile mostly with the mouth.

   Mark A. Mandel : Dragon Systems, a Lernout & Hauspie company
          Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Senior Linguist
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com