Every so often, particarly here on the HB, I get a Eureka moment.

Hang on. Sorry. I don't mean that I suddenly conceive a brilliant concept (although, obviously, that does happen frequently). What I mean is that I suddenly "get" something or, more often, suddenly realize that something I thought was simple and mundane is actually subtle and fascinating and interesting.

Writing "Aha!", or even "aHA!" or "I see!" doesn't really cover it. The exclamation mark is an expression of surprise, anger, intensity or humour, but works poorly as an indicator of personal revelation.

I'd therefore like to clutter our language* further by adding the Eureka mark. It would consist of an outlined inverted teardrop (pointy-bit downward) on top of a period.

This shape would look a little like conjoined-twin question marks, or perhaps like an obese exclamation mark (but with an empty centre). These two affinities make it appropriate as a punctuator which denotes revelation and wonderment.

It would also, by good fortune, look somewhat like the proverbial lightbulb.

[*I say 'our'; obviously the French would be required to devise their own symbol, if they found they had a use for it.]
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 02 2011

Who is this mysterious and profligate autobunner?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 02 2011


//Every so often,[...] I get a Eureka moment.//

"Yes, Edward, all the way to the front gate, and down the street!"
"Of course, sir; would you like to put something on, or shall I darken the windows?"
-- lurch, Nov 02 2011


I thought this might be some kind of bathtub plimsoll line for potential geniuses.
-- xenzag, Nov 02 2011


[lurch] - never EVER address staff by their first name. It is discomfiting for them, damaging for discipline, and you only have to learn a new one when their children inherit their role.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 02 2011


Your staff don't name all of their children after you? How forgiving of you to overlook such blatant acts of disloyalty.
-- swimswim, Nov 02 2011


They often ask to, but having a junior under- pantryman called "M'lud Henshaw" would just be confusing.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 02 2011


// something I thought was simple and mundane is actually subtle and fascinating and interesting. //

Like flenting and associated flenting mediums, for instance.
-- Alterother, Nov 02 2011


I was thinking more of the example that provoked this - the question of how a planet's surface gravity relates to the maximum surface atmospheric pressure it can sustain, and the realization that it's a complex and (by me) yet-to-be explored puzzle.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 02 2011


How would you know when the reader would "get it"? E.g. where to place the eureka mark?
-- phundug, Nov 03 2011


Ah, no. It's more for the getter. In other words, I might say "Ah - I see ø" (where "ø" is having to stand in for a real eureka mark), but it would be difficult to justify "So, that's how it works ø"
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 03 2011


<blink>Eureka!</blink>
-- swimswim, Nov 03 2011


There should be an analogous mark for jokes, indicating the point at which you "got it." As when part of the audience anticipates the payoff, and laughs early, and then the rest of them laugh after the punchline's delivered.
-- mouseposture, Nov 03 2011


I have seen a similar suggestion for rhetorical questions. It was sort of an exclamation mark superimposed over a question mark. As in "Are you kidding me!?" or "What the...!?"
-- AusCan531, Nov 04 2011


Thanks [21 Quest]. Why didn't I know that ?!
-- AusCan531, Nov 04 2011


Could there be a political version called Eureka Marx? This would feature a little bearded head of Karl Marx instead of the full stop component.
-- xenzag, Nov 04 2011


Would work nicely in the Bible. "And God said '@!,' and there was light."
-- RayfordSteele, Nov 04 2011


I would think a *Eureka* mark should be shaped like a bath tub.
-- xandram, Nov 04 2011



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