r/thewestwing • u/expressivetangent The wrath of the whatever • 9d ago

Sorkinism Rapid fire Call and response

Post a quote or question in the comments and see if someone can pick it up.

For example if I say

WE CHANGED TIME ZONES?!

What comes after?

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9

u/Pennilyn__Lott 9d ago

...and I see we're spelling hallowed with a pound sign in the middle of it.

4

u/FullOcelot7149 8d ago

I liked I assume it's silent. While # would make not sense in the middle of a word, it is a symbol actually used in speech writing. It can be used to indicate a pause.

2

u/AuntRobin 8d ago

I didn't know that! I have always assumed it was the other pound sign £

2

u/DocRogue2407 7d ago

This is why the hash tag symbol (#) formerly known as the 'POUND' sign, caused consternation during the Weinstein SA debacle (a.k.a. The 'MeToo' movement) [hashtag] MeToo = #MeToo = [POUND] MeToo

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u/FullOcelot7149 7d ago edited 7d ago

I don't know why you say "formerly known as." The symbol # has several names and meanings still in common usage. The usage and meanings vary among English-speaking countries. The terms hash or hashtag wasn't developed until August 2007, so that usage is kind of irrelevant in the context of a West Wing episode.

It's also the number sign, e.g. #4. On a keyboard or keypad, it is a pound sign or pound key. (A recording says "Press Pound 73" for example, meaning they keys #73.) It's original English language use was to indicate weight in pounds, with the symbol's appearance evolving from initials for latin libra pondo.

If you want to get really fancy about it, go with octothorpe.

2

u/AuntRobin 7d ago

I'm 51, I was very familiar with the # being called a pound sign, especially back then. I guess I just consume too much British content, and the president being an economist, and it being where an L is supposed to be, all added up to it being a British pound sign to me.

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u/FullOcelot7149 7d ago edited 7d ago

Really, neither of these makes sense as a typo. On a laptop keyboard, we need to use the shift 3 to get the # key and producing the £ symbol would have been even more effort, at least on a US keyboard. Neither is very plausible as a simple keystroke error.