<> !*''#

[RAV TUX]

The following poem appeared recently in INFOCUS magazine. The original authors were Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese of Calvin College & Seminary of Grand Rapids, MI.
A poll conducted among INFOCUS readers had established "waka" as the proper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters <> and, though some readers held out resolutely for "norkies."

The text of the poem follows:

<> !*''#
^"`$$-
!*=@$_
%*<> ~#4
&[]../
|{,,SYSTEM HALTED

The poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, to wit:

Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

Contributed by: Nick Mathis
http://www.comedycorner.org/49.html

[M$LOL]

That's actually brilliant, but since when were "!" , "*" and "<" pronounced "bang", splat" and "waka"? Isn't "|" also known as a pipe?

[RAV TUX]

That's actually brilliant, but since when were "!" , "*" and "<" pronounced "bang", splat" and "waka"? Isn't "|" also known as a pipe?

good questions, did you Google it?

[red_five]

I've known ! (exclamation point) as bang for 15 years. I had always thought of # as splat, not *. | is certainly a pipe or vertical bar, as in the poem.

[RAV TUX]

I've known ! (exclamation point) as bang for 15 years. I had always thought of # as splat, not *. | is certainly a pipe or vertical bar, as in the poem.
Interesting

[lisati]

I always thought that punctuation marks were pronounced "blankety blank", "unprintable" or "expletives deleted". And there's also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waka

[M$LOL]

good questions, did you Google it?

No I didn't :P

[happy-and-lost]

I always thought # was a "she" (as well as hash) as in #! = "shebang"

[smoker]

i'd like to see a sestina, or a sonnet, done this way!

[jclmusic]

where i come from:

< = greater than
> = less than
! = exclamation mark
* = star
# = hash

[DoctorMO]

<> !*''#
^"`$$-
!*=@$_
%*<> ~#4
&[]../
|{,,SYSTEM HALTED

chevron less than, chevron more than, exclamation mark, asterisk, apostrophe, apostrophe, hash
carrot, double quote, quote, dollar, dollar, dash
exclamation mark, asterisk, equals, at, dollar, underscore
percent, asterisk, chevron less than, chevron more than, tilde, hash, four
ampersand, square bracket left, square bracket right, period, period, forward slash
pipe, group bracket left, comma, comma, es, wy, es, tee, iy, em, space, haych, ey, el, tee, iy, dee

hmm me thinks they use a different language down in MI