Word division and computer lockouts
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Random storefront in Taiwan:
Sorry this is belated. I've been having computer problems — passwords, user names, codes, etc. Once you're locked out, you can't try again for a specified period of time. Each time you try and fail, the amount of lockout time is punitively increased until it's an unconscionably long period. When you try to start all over, they want your new password to be long and complicated and arbitrary, but won't let you see what you're typing in — just a bunch of dots.
Woe was me!
Selected readings
- "Words in Vietnamese" (10/2/18)
- "Homophonophobia" (2/7/15)
- "Words in Mandarin: twin kle twin kle lit tle star" (8/14/12)
- "Words, morphemes, collocations, characters" (7/3/25)
[Thanks to Neil Kubler]
Barbara Phillips Long said,
December 31, 2025 @ 11:15 am
Arbitrary grids and spacing can be useful in graphic design. I wish I could recall the actual title, but there was some one-word title where the word in all caps looked odd when traditionally kerned — maybe an A followed by a V or something similar. The designer’s solution was to space the letters more widely.
An editor I once worked with received a Christmas card from a graphic designer with the following alphabetical grid on the front:
A B C D E
F G H I J
K M N O P
Q R S T U
V W X Y Z
We puzzled over this for a while before realizing the message was a pun — “no L.”
Philip Taylor said,
December 31, 2025 @ 12:34 pm
I like the "No L", Barbara, but am ashamed to confess that it was only after attending Midnight Mass this year, where the priest stressed the meaning of "Emmanuel" that I finally learned what it meant, which then motivated me to investigate what "Christ" means. Two new meanings added to my mental lexicon, and it's not even 2026 yet !
But as regards the Taiwanese CHR-IST-MAS word-division, that did not strike me as anywhere near as bad as the inconsistent kerning/letter-spacing in "MA S".
cervantes said,
December 31, 2025 @ 12:53 pm
When I lived in Boston, an educational institution in my neighborhood advertised itself as the
MASS
ACH
HUSE
TTTS
College of Art.
Not sure what the point was supposed to be.
Philip Taylor said,
December 31, 2025 @ 1:30 pm
An extra "H" and an extra "T" ? Weird … But glad that it was a College of Art and not of Spelling.
Daniel Barkalow said,
December 31, 2025 @ 1:33 pm
It's a good thing they include the ruby on that unusual character; it's pretty unfamiliar and surprising that it's pronounced "Merry". (I assume that's what they're trying to evoke with that arrangement, although not seriously.)