:-ß

I found this in the February edition of Harper's and found had to pass it along. For nerds only. On so many levels.

STET OFFENSIVE
From questions posted on the website of The Chicago Manual of Style, answered by the University of
Chicago Press manuscript-editing department.

Q: Is there any standard for the usage of emoticons? In particular, is there an accepted practice for
the use of emoticons that includes an opening or closing parenthesis as the final token within a set of parentheses? Should I incorporate the emoticon into the closing of the parentheses (giving a dual purpose to the closing parenthesis, such as in this case :-); simply leave the emoticon up against the closing parenthesis, ignoring the bizarre visual effect of the doubled closing parenthesis (as I am doing here, producing a double-chin effect :-)); or avoid the situation by using a different emoticon (some
emoticons are similar :-o), placing the emoticon elsewhere, or doing without it (i.e., reword to avoid awkwardness)?


A: Until academic standards decline enough to accommodate the use of emoticons, I'm afraid
CMOS is unlikely to treat their styling, since the manual is aimed primarily at scholarly
publications. And the problems you've posed in this note give us added incentive to keep
our distance.