How to Tell a Joke on the Internet

[Dave Monroe]

"Nabokov wanted 'a special typographical sign for a smile—some sort of
concave mark, a supine round bracket.'”

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/05/how-to-tell-a-joke-on-the-internet/309293/

"The next time someone rails against emoticons as illiterate garbage,
you are now obligated to point out that Vladimir Nabokov thought they
would be useful."

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/25/it-took-us-centuries-to-invent-the-emoticon