usenet asterisks (was "greengrocer's apostrophe")

[Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM]

Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> writes:

>>>>>
for a while i was collecting examples from student
papers in linguistics courses at ohio state, but they were just
*too* frequent [note "usenet asterisks" for emphasis] for me to
cope with.
<<<<<

Not just usenet (aka newsgroups if I understand correctly), but in email
and elsewhere. Since the only formatting that is safely transmissible on
the Internet is whatever can be expressed in plain ASCII, and the use of
ALL CAPS is associated with shouting, *asterisks* or _underscores_ are
often substituted for italicization or underlining.

Speaking of capitals, Arnold, may I ask why you habitually eschew them?

-- Mark

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