JUNE 28 2019 – INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY! with Ryan de la Garza

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY! JOIN US AS WE ENTHUSIASTICALLY CELEBRATE THE BEST BUTTON ON THE KEYBOARD!! TODAY WE'RE CELEBRATING WITH FRIEND, MUSICIAN, AND OVERALL COOL DUDE RYAN DE LA GARZA (TWITTER: @OFTHEGARZA / TEESPRING)!! LET'S PARTY!!

Find Holiday Party online – Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM

Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / Instagram: lettertalkpodcast / alyssapants.com 

SHOW NOTES

History + fun facts about the holiday

 

• According to Wikipedia, the caps lock “is a button on a computer keyboard that causes all letters of Latin-based scripts to be generated in capital letters. It is a toggle key: each press reverses its actions.”
  • It originated as a Shift Lock key on mechanical typewriters. It was introduced so that the shift operation could be maintained indefinitely without continuous effort (i.e. having to press shift in conjunction with each letter). Because the two shift keys on a typewriter required more force to operate and were meant to be pressed by the little finger, it could be difficult to hold the shift down for more than two or three consecutive strokes, so the Shift lock key was also meant to reduce finger muscle pain.
  • A historical example of this invention can be found in the work of journalist and author Don Marquis, the creator of Archy and Mehitabel (styled as archy and mehitabel), who were a cartoon cockroach and cat, respectively, that appeared in Marquis’ newspaper column. When writing from Archy’s perspective (the cockroach), the text was always in lowercase, as Archy was a free verse poet in a previous life and would climb onto the typewriter and hurl himself at the keys, thus unable to operate the shift key. One day in 1933, however, Archy discovered the shift lock key, as evidenced in the chapter titled, “CAPITALS AT LAST”
    • http://donmarquis.com/home/2011/10/26/capitals-at-last/
  • Dailyinfographic.com created an infographic (go figure) for the history of Caps Lock: https://www.dailyinfographic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/CAPS-LOCK-640x3425.jpg
    • According to the infographic, “the idea of caps lock being considered rude or shouting originates in the early Usenet days of the Internet, where most conversation was text-only on message boards. Lacking bold or italic text, users created *emphasis* with asterisks and SHOUTING with capital letters
    • “The issue of people misusing caps lock on the web has increased as more users adopt social media.”
    • Some fun stats include:
      • The top 20 most CAPS LOCKED tweeted phrases are: CANT WAIT; JUST GOT; WANNA GO; HAPPY BIRTHDAY; JUST WANT; DONT KNOW; GOOD MORNING; THANK GOD; DONT WANT; HOLY SHIT; NEW FOLLOWERS; GO BACK; JUST SAW; DONT GIVE; OH GOD; DONT CARE; OH SHIT; AINT GOT; RIGHT NOW; CANT BELIEVE
    • In 2007, a woman in New Zealand was fired for sending coworkers too many caps-locked emails, including one that read: “TO ENSURE YOUR STAFF CLAIM IS PROCESSED AND PAID, PLEASE DO FOLLOW THE BELOW CHECK LIST.”
    • “Studies have shown that capital letters are harder to read than lowercase letters, particularly in large blocks of text, due to the equal heights of the letters. This makes it harder for your brain to distinguish the individual shapes of letters while reading.”
• Wwwh.com echoes the sentiment from the infographic, stating that the rise of the internet brought about the evolution of “netiquette,” “which dictates that writing in capital letters is considered shouting: boorish, rude, and aggressive
  • From a December 1999 posting by Chris Pirillo on The Internet Writing Journal: “This part of the chapter is not just for newbies; even if you’ve written e-mail for years, review this section carefully. Certain unspoken conventions are very important to keep in mind when you’re composing e-mail messages. If you were a novice before, you need to be a professional now.”
    • “ONE OF THE BIGGEST MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE IS TO TYPE WITH THEIR CAPS LOCK ON. All-caps might look cool to you, but experienced users will write you off as an idiot. It’s okay to use all-caps for headings and/or titles (THINGS ARE STARTING TO MAKE SENSE NOW) in your messages, or even to EMPHASIZE certain words, but anything beyond that is equivalent to screaming at someone. Do you like being yelled at?”
    • An unrelated nugget in this post: “You can attach items (documents, pictures, compressed archives, etc.) to an e-mail message. This feature is great . . . (he added a space after each period in all of his ellipses--I didn’t verify if this was part of “netiquette”) but don’t abuse it. Mailing a simple 30K attachment is harmless enough, but when you need to send files much larger than that, ask the receiver’s permission first. I was once locked out of my mailbox because a user mailed me a 7.2M attachment! I was livid because he wasted my time, stopped productivity, and sent something that large without my consent.” Relatable af
• According to the top definition on Urban Dictionary,  submitted by user kendellkendellkendell on November 22, 2007, CAPSLOCK is “cruise control for cool.” “Even with cruise control, you still have to steer.”
• We discovered this holiday via worldwideweirdholidays.com, however it was originally created by Derek Arnold in October 2000 “to bring attention to those who abuse the caps lock key, and by extension, everyone who receives their emails, texts, and internet screeds.”
  • Arnold claimed he had a higher purpose in mind, stating, “International Caps Lock Day is, in fact, a testament to the small mindedness of certain Western individuals: the majority of the world’s population writes in scripts which have no concept of letter casing. Therefore it is advised to laugh at anyone who invokes this day as an excuse to dismiss local typographical conventions: they are simply making an ass out of themselves.”
  • The holiday was at first celebrated on just October 22, but the second iteration on June 28 was added to honor Billy Mays, “the beloved pitchman who said everything in capital letters,” who sadly died on June 28, 2009 (10 years today!) at the age of 50
  • Billy Mays was the spokesperson for many cleaning, home-based, and maintenance products including Fix-It, OxiClean, Orange Glo, Kaboom, and Zorbeez
    • He was described as “a full-volume pitchman, amped up like a candidate for a tranquilizer-gun takedown.”
    • An initial autopsy stated that Mays suffered from hypertensive heart disease and that this was the likely cause of his death. However, according to a toxicology report released in August 2009, while heart disease was listed as the “primary cause of death,” cocaine was listed as a “contributory cause of death.” 
    • According to subsequent reports, the toxicology tests also showed levels of painkillers hydrocodone, oxycodone, and tramadol, as well as anti-anxiety drugs alprazolam and diazepam. He apparently suffered from hip issues and had been scheduled for hip replacement surgery for the day after he was found dead.
  • So, great news, you can listen to this episode twice!
• According to Mental Floss, there are numerous ways to make use of capital letters, other than starting sentences.
  • “EMPHASIS--internet vernacular uses all-caps for emphasis, often excitement or anger”
  • “MONUMENTS--our alphabet actually used to be all-caps, all the time, since the earliest written forms of Latin didn’t have lowercase at all. That’s why uppercase tends to be boxier: It’s easier to carve straight lines in a monument, whereas lowercase is more rounded because that’s easier to shape with a pen”
  • “ESCALATING CAPITALIZATION--escaLATING CAPITALIZATION. you know, when you start out calmly in lowercase BUT THEN SOMETHING EXCITING HAPPENS”
  • “GETTING STUCK IN AN ALL-CAPS WAR--You might have started out EMPHATIC, but sometimes that sticks around too long and you’re left awkwardly shouting WHY ARE WE STILL TALKING IN ALL-CAPS; I DON’T KNOW”
  • “JOINING A SOCIETY FOR THE BANNING OF THE CAPS LOCK KEY--The caps lock key dates back to typewriters, when it was a lot harder to hold down shift for an entire word or phrase. With modern keyboards, people have proposed using its prime real estate for something else.”
  • “STUDLY CAPS--That possibly-retro style where you alternate caps with each word. Pair with sparkly unicorn punctuation. 
    • ~ * ~ cAuSe I gOt A bLaNk SpAcE bAbY ~ * ~ aNd I’lL wRiTe YoUr NaMe ~ *~ “
    • This style has recently come to denote sarcasm or parody over text
  • “CAMELCASE--CamelCase is the tamer cousin of studly caps, where you add a capital in the middle of a compound word to make it rise up like a camel’s hump. Common in brand names (PowerPoint, MasterCard, LinkedIn) and speculative fiction (RejoovenEsense in Oryx and Crake)”
  • “CAPITALIZE ALL YOUR NOUNS--In standard English, we capitalize proper Nouns, but that hasn’t always been the Convention. Until the 19th Century, English used to capitalize all Nouns, just like modern German still does. You can see this in old Documents like the Declaration of Independence”
  • “IRONIC CAPS--Sometimes used with ™, ironic capitals indicate that something is a Very Important Idea”
  • “ILLUMINATED MEDIEVAL CAPITALS--If you’ve got a lot of time on your hands, why not channel your inner scribe and adorn the capital at the beginning of your manuscript with a detailed illustration like this?” (image included in shownotes)
  • “SMALL CAPS--Technically speaking, small caps are supposed to look slightly different from just capital letters in a smaller font. Real small caps are a little thicker and further apart than small-font capitals, to make them flow better with the rest of the text”

ACTIVITIES TO CELEBRATE

• Baptiste Candellier designed a Chrome extension so that, on each holiday, you’ll be unable to type in lower case and will display almost every page you load in upper case
  • https://dev.outadoc.fr/projects/caps-lock-day
• You can also download Billy Mays Caps Lock, created by John Haller. When you hit the Caps Lock key, you’ll hear Billy Mays say: 
  • “Hi, Billy Mays here!”
  • It’ll make your whites, whiter!”
  • Order right now and we’ll double the value!”
  • “Here’s how to order!”
  • https://johnhaller.com/useful-stuff/billy-mays-caps-lock
• From checkiday.com: “CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY BY PUTTING THE CAPS LOCK ON AND LEAVING IT ON ALL DAY. SEND TEXT MESSAGES AND EMAILS IN ALL CAPS. IF YOU HAVE MORE IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS YOU NEED TO WRITE TODAY, YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO TYPE THEM IN ALL CAPS AS WELL. BESIDES ANNOYING MANY PEOPLE, YOU MAY RUN INTO OTHER PROBLEMS AS WELL. FOR EXAMPLE, IF YOU HAVE PASSWORDS IN WHICH LETTERS ARE NOT ALL CAPITALIZED, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO LOG INTO SOME OF YOUR ACCOUNTS. THIS IS A SACRIFICE YOU HAVE TO MAKE ON INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT TAKING OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.”

SOURCES

• https://www.worldwideweirdholidays.com/international-caps-lock-day/
• https://www.writerswrite.com/journal/dec99/e-mail-etiquette-netiquette-12995
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caps_Lock
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/53297/today-international-caps-lock-day
• https://www.checkiday.com/f3882f5952a0738725f007a3ee9071b5/international-caps-lock-day
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archy_and_Mehitabel
• https://www.google.com/search?q=caps+lock+meme&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS806US806&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiF19WtveXhAhX9wMQHHdGFAVwQ_AUIDigB&biw=1707&bih=816&dpr=1.13
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mays
• https://www.dailyinfographic.com/the-history-of-caps-lock
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/68376/15-interesting-things-you-can-do-capital-letters
• https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=CAPSLOCK
• SEXY MEHITABEL:
  • https://www.rashmee.com/2015/10/24/how-an-evening-at-gerrys-made-me-long-for-a-21st-century-archy-mehitabel/
  • https://io9.gizmodo.com/mel-brooks-co-wrote-a-musical-based-on-the-archy-and-me-1684098007
• MR. COOL ICE:
  • https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mr-cool-ice

PHOTOS

The first illustration of Archy, seen in an advertisement in the New-York Tribune on September 11, 1922