“Yes, you can see the bullet points here, here and here, sir; there are multiple back-slashes, of course. And that’s a forward slash. I would have to call this a frenzied attack. Did anyone hear the interrobang?”
“Oh yes. Woman next door was temporarily deafened by it. What’s this?”
“Ah. You don’t see many of these any more. It’s an emoticon. Hold your head this way and it appears to be winking.”
“Good God! You mean – ?”
“That’s the mouth.”
“You mean – ?”
“That’s the nose.”
“Good grief Then it’s – ?”
“Oh yes, sir. There’s no doubt about it, sir. The Punctuation Murderer has struck again.”
Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
Old-Fashioned Fruitcake