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Green ink
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Green ink is a British journalistic term for the frothing of lunatics.[1][2][3] Back when letters to news outlets were produced in an archaic medium based on materials known as "paper" and "ink", the nutters would supposedly always write their IMPORTANT INFORMATION in green. It is not known just how many such letters actually existed, or if this is just urban legend, though there are occasional reports of physical manifestations.[4] Common comorbid characteristics include irrelevant capitalisation, religious mania, overuse of exclamation marks and veiled threats or warnings directed at the recipient. An article in The Observer about letters to the editor suggests avoidance of green ink.[5]
The term remains a useful metaphor for similar frothing in the electronic age, even though the pages are likely to include every colour rejected from the rainbow,[6] in a tasteful variety of fonts. Though the truly exquisite green ink often appears in carefully-formatted black and white PDFs.
One possible reason for people to use green ink to give them extra authority is that Captain Sir Mansfield George Smith-Cumming,[7] the first director of the British Secret Intelligence Service — SIS, commonly known as MI6 (Military Intelligence, Section 6) — used green ink and would sign documents with a green "C" (for "chief"), a practice that subsequent chiefs of the SIS have followed.[8] The guardians of underage Roman emperors used green ink to sign their charge's correspondence.[9]
See also[edit]
- Papyrus — a favoured font of crackpots
- Red letter Christians
- The Spirit Science
- Time Cube
- viXra
- Wake up
External inks[edit]
- ASK {{Tq}} for a classic example. It used to be "small gray" ink, though, until a RationalWiki editor complained that the gray was "insulting and intentionally dimunutiving," and another one changed it to green.
- Rants & Reason The colour problem in action.
- Barry Goldwater vs. the Religious Right Green ink highlighting sensible? Goldwater quotes
References[edit]
- ↑ Green Ink letter, World Wide Words
- ↑ "Oh for the days of green ink", Victoria Coren, Grauniad, 30 January 2011
- ↑ Bile from the green brigade (Northern Echo, 29 May 2006) — "I once had a letter from a green ink regular, signed Paul the Apostle, telling me I was "the spawn of the horned devil and a wicked whore from hell"."
- ↑ http://lesswrong.com/lw/1mm/advice_for_ai_makers/1gv2?c=1
- ↑ So, you want to write to the editor (Stephen Pritchard, The Observer, 3 February 2002)
- ↑ http://haigreport.com is the all-time champion here.
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Mansfield Smith-Cumming.
- ↑ UK Politics 286128 at news.bbc.co.uk
- ↑ Alexander Allen, Ph.D, "Atramentum", in: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D (ed.), John Murray, London, 1875. "But if the emperor was under age, his guardian used a green ink for writing his signature (Montfaucon, Palaeog. p3)."