usenet asterisks (was "greengrocer's apostrophe")

[Arnold Zwicky]

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

some years ago i noticed that a colleague used lower case only
and asked her why.  she said that it significantly improved the
speed and accuracy of her typing.  i have an odd approach to
typing (something i devised myself at age 8), involving two
fingers on the right hand for all the ordinary keys, with one
finger on the left hand reserved for the shift key (and now
ctrl and alt as well).  it turns out that sticking to lower case
significantly improves *my* speed and accuracy.  now it's just
the way i do things in speed mode.  (writing manuscripts is a
much slower process, so upper case, emacs commands, etc. aren't
a problem.)

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)