What is thisJ
August 2, 2012 8:33 AM Subscribe
A person I correspond with ends every email with the letter J. At first, I thought it was just a typo, but now I see it's consistent over dozens of emails. Now I'm curious if it's a thing, or if maybe it's some artifact of some unencoded character, or what.
This is generally how it will occur:
It looks like her (work) email gets routed through gmail (to my gmail address, which I check on gmail). The font of her emails appears to be the default outlook reply (blue text, whatever non-gmail font that is), but nothing really special.
As soon as I realized it wasn't an errant typo, I thought maybe she was using it to sign off, since my name starts with a J. But she does it on other emails that are sent to multiple folks who don't have J names.
For what it's worth, I've met this person in real life and she has both of her hands and all of her fingers and appears to have all of her mental faculties.
Anyway, I'm very curious. Any ideas what might be going on here?
This is generally how it will occur:
Hi myname,Capital J, no space, no ending punctuation.
Thanks for the blah blah blah! I will let everyone know about the blah blah blah. I'll be in touchJ
Best,
hername
It looks like her (work) email gets routed through gmail (to my gmail address, which I check on gmail). The font of her emails appears to be the default outlook reply (blue text, whatever non-gmail font that is), but nothing really special.
As soon as I realized it wasn't an errant typo, I thought maybe she was using it to sign off, since my name starts with a J. But she does it on other emails that are sent to multiple folks who don't have J names.
For what it's worth, I've met this person in real life and she has both of her hands and all of her fingers and appears to have all of her mental faculties.
Anyway, I'm very curious. Any ideas what might be going on here?
Best answer: Sweetie Darling has it. When i send an email from Outlook and include a happy face it gets translated in to a capital J.
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 8:35 AM on August 2, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 8:35 AM on August 2, 2012 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Well, that was easy. Thanks!
(Also, holy balls does this lady use a lot of smileys.)
posted by phunniemee at 8:37 AM on August 2, 2012 [13 favorites]
(Also, holy balls does this lady use a lot of smileys.)
posted by phunniemee at 8:37 AM on August 2, 2012 [13 favorites]
Wow! I always wondered this but never thought to look it up or ask. Thanks!
posted by k8lin at 8:44 AM on August 2, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by k8lin at 8:44 AM on August 2, 2012 [2 favorites]
That's exactly it -- which I discovered when someone replied to me and I was all, "I didn't put a J there?" It shows up properly in the e-mail itself, but is a J in the pop-up preview.
posted by mgar at 9:04 AM on August 2, 2012
posted by mgar at 9:04 AM on August 2, 2012
It it actually caused by Outlook using AutoCorrect to change ":)" into a Wingding font character that then gets converted into a J. You can fix it if you use Outlook.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:10 AM on August 2, 2012 [5 favorites]
posted by Rock Steady at 9:10 AM on August 2, 2012 [5 favorites]
hmm, this answers a question I never thought to ask. Does anyone know what, if anything, translates to z? Or to jz?
posted by peep at 9:16 AM on August 2, 2012
posted by peep at 9:16 AM on August 2, 2012
According to this table, a z could be either a Mac Command-key symbol, or a star and crescent, depending on capitalization. No idea why those would appear in an email.
posted by vasi at 9:42 AM on August 2, 2012
posted by vasi at 9:42 AM on August 2, 2012
Is there a way to fix this in GMail? That is, when an Outlook user sends an email to me, is it possible to have the smiley rendered in some discernable fashion, rather than as a J?
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 10:12 AM on August 2, 2012
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 10:12 AM on August 2, 2012
According to this table, a z could be either a Mac Command-key symbol, or a star and crescent, depending on capitalization. No idea why those would appear in an email.
I could see the star and crescent, under the right circumstances. An old acquantaince from college used to end his emails with "xp", long before Windows XP came out. I eventually realized it was the Greek letters chi and rho, the beginning of the word "Χριστός" ("Christ" in ancient Greek.) I only guessed because a superimposed chi and rho show up frequently on Episcopal altar dressings (and in lots of other denominations too, I imagine).
posted by McCoy Pauley at 10:33 AM on August 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
I could see the star and crescent, under the right circumstances. An old acquantaince from college used to end his emails with "xp", long before Windows XP came out. I eventually realized it was the Greek letters chi and rho, the beginning of the word "Χριστός" ("Christ" in ancient Greek.) I only guessed because a superimposed chi and rho show up frequently on Episcopal altar dressings (and in lots of other denominations too, I imagine).
posted by McCoy Pauley at 10:33 AM on August 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
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posted by Sweetie Darling at 8:34 AM on August 2, 2012 [25 favorites]