Last Chance Idol - Week 2

[vik_thor]

I really should have something more to say about this topic, since I have been using fountain pens quite a bit recently, doing writing and doodling of various sorts. But crossing all the T's is just something we learned to do back in the day, when we were taught penmanship in school, rather than keyboarding, like those kids today.

Crossing the Ts and Dotting the i's just doesn't mean the same thing nowadays, when the letters you type are always the same. A T is a T is a T, the only difference can be if I try to use various fonts (which LJ doesn't allow. We are all limited to the same plain sans-serif font.) Though I guess we should be happy that Blackletter fonts have died out, as a major font family. Even more happy to not have to WRITE them!

Why is it "Crossing all the T's" rather than the other letter that has a crossbar, F? My guess, inasmuch as this type of thing has any type of logic, is that T is used much more commonly than F, being the most common consonant in the English Language. One wonders if the languages that use the Cyrillic alphabet have a similar saying, regarding the Т. And obviously the non-Latin / Cyrillic languages would have no use at all for the phrase. Google translate keeps the T symbol in other languages, like Chinese, which means they are literally translating it. I would like to know what the other languages use for a similar phrase.
The similar phrase, about Jots and Tittles from Matthew 5:18, let me to the fact that the tittle is actually the word for the dot over i's and j's.

Before I got into the literal meaning of T's i's jots and tittles, I was thinking of trying some type of fiction with rivers named T being on all continents, and it being a catchphrase for being well traveled, to have "Crossed all the T's". Something tells me as rough as this is, my ficlet would have been much worse.

Comments

[meridian_rose]

I believe it's (dot the i's, cross the t's) because a t without the crossbar and an i without a dot both look like a lowercase L (l) when handwritten. An f, being more curved, is less likely to be mistaken for another letter. Great word there, tittle, meaning what most of us refer to as the dot :)

[vik_thor]

:)

[kajel.livejournal.com]

I've leaned something new, tittle. It is definitely interesting to think if other languages have something similar.

[vik_thor]

:)

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

We have the same saying in Russian, just the second part of it. I think it comes from Latin to us and sounds more like "put all the dots over i's".

I am curious though. It is quite possible to cross the t's when writing quickly, without lifting your hand off the paper (even though if the result is ugly and messy). But what of the i's? Do you simply leave them undotted? :)

Also, it is quite possible to change fonts on LJ using the html-tags, <tt> </tt> for Typewriter and <font face="FONT_NAME"> </font> for all the other fonts the design supports, . It is just better to avoid being so fanciful, some designs make forced fonts difficult to read.

[vik_thor]

Thanks for the info about changing the fonts! I will have to look more into that!

and for the info about the Russian phrase!!

[crisp-sobriety.livejournal.com]

This was charmingly educational --I learned two new words! Crossbar (I'm ashamed of not knowing that one) and tittle. I...don't think I'll be using tittle, much.

[vik_thor]

*chuckles*
From what I get from the Wiki article, pretty much the only place it's used is in the quote from Matthew 5:18, and maybe some specialty typography articles…

[itsjustc.livejournal.com]

Very interesting read. I enjoyed it.

haha....guess what? I am that person who did write about the River Tees near to where I live!!!

[vik_thor]

Thanks!
*laughs* at the River Tees!

[jem0000000.livejournal.com]

You can use fonts on LJ, actually, you just have to use custom CSS to do it. I'm not really sure why the inline CSS doesn't work anymore -- it's somewhat depreciated, but it's still supposed to be supported.

What kind of font did you want to use?

[vik_thor]

Nothing specific, though having a Blackletter font would have been nice. :) (and it is now showing as serif font, rather than sans-serif…)

May look into the CSS solution, though I tend to be fairly plain in my journal. Thanks for the idea!

[jem0000000.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! It's somewhere in the journal style section, though you have to click between a few tabs to find it, IIRC. Although I've got the old-style layout still, so I'm not exactly sure how much has changed with the new.

It occurred to me somewhat belatedly that although I've not been able to get the font tag to work recently (I suspect they've gone to HTML5), the div tag does still work, and I believe you can use it to do inline CSS.

I'd try Bookman Old Style myself, as it's still available in both Word and Writer, so I'm assuming there will be other support for it as well. But don't forget to give it a type of font to default to at the end of your list, just in case -- you're right about Blackletter being rather uncommon these days.

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I never knew that dot was called a tittle. I have learned something today. :)

[vik_thor]

»grins«
always glad to be informative!

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

I actually think I would have liked reading about the rivers. Don't be afraid to follow your instincts.