Introducing . . . the interrobang

We could still use the punch and nuance of the interrobang

I love words, I love punctuation, and I love writing. Putting the right words with the right punctuation to send just the right message in just the right way feels like getting a hole-in-one, a bullseye, or a slam-dunk. (OK, I admit I'm too short to have ever made a slam dunk, but I bet it feels great.)

Anyway, I recently learned about a sweet little punctuation mark that has somehow eluded me all these many years. Introducing my new friend, the interrobang! (Go ahead. Say it aloud. You know you want to. Saying it is almost as fun as using it.) You may think this strange-looking animal is new; however, truth be told, it’s been around since I was born in 1962.  Developed by Martin Speckter, the interrobang was created to help add clout to advertising text. But, for some reason, it never quite caught on.

Nowadays, instead of marking up all our writing with interrobangs, we use a combination of “?!” or the less common “!?.”  These alternatives are very popular, and they manage to help us get our point across just fine, but they don’t aptly combine the simultaneous surprise and confusion we might be trying to convey. In other words, the final punctuation mark gets the final punch —kind of like getting the last word in—whereas with the interrobang we get a real "bang" for our buck because both emotions are given equal weight. And besides, punching out one, simple punctuation mark has an economy of effort.

The toughest thing about using an interrobang isn’t finding a sentence that merits its use; the hardest part is finding out which keys on the keyboard will create the little bugger. After following all kinds of confusing online help instructions, I finally gave up hope of ever trying to type one on a Mac. In the end, I had to resort to using my PC where finding and using an interrobang is incredibly easy. Check it out:

1. Use the Wingdings 2 font.

2. Press “Shift 6.”

What the heck^ I spent days trying to do that on a Mac to no avail. This may just be the first good reason I can think of for not being an Apple aficionado. Get to work, Steve Jobs.