Anyone remembering the magazine that went by the same name as this article will recall that Upper and Lower Case was a magnificent publication. It used to be pricey, and with its glossy cover and A3 size - like a standard newspaper - it was an experience non pareil to lug your issue to a cafe, order a doppio, light up a Djarum, and bask for an afternoon in the conversation between a type foundry and the professional layout artist. These people expected you to know what weight and color and serif meant, and the sublime prose waxed eloquent on subjects like ligatures and descenders. It's nice to be treated like an adult every now and then.

U&LC Online is what's left of the magazine, and while in a slightly different format as part of the ITC foundry, it's still a good read and a link to font resources. I've had scarce luck finding typographically oriented blogs, as Lines & Splines and Webtype.org are now moribund, and this is a serious matter because most bloggers at some stage get serious about designing their sites and typeface decisions loom large in the process.

One of the best texts on the subject is Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style, which explores the history of the essential fonts, their application, and has chapters on punctuation, leading, you name it. One of the funny things about good design is that when you do it right, the effect is extremely subtle. Consider the basic business card. The clown with his cell-phone sales gig has a glossy card with his photo on it, logos for Nokia and Motorola, a half-dozen phone numbers to reach him at, his three job titles, and the whole thing is printed in six colors on glossy stock. He thinks this is classy. The lawyer who bills $400 an hour has his name and number in Garamond on Crane's Crest bond. Yet the understated look projects feelings of reliability and elegance while being extremely readable.

Which brings me to this page. The Raven is too hard on the eyes in my opinion, and if you've been reading it I thank you for your patience. Expect a major color and font overhaul in the next week which should make it far more legible.
11:52:06 PM       

NYT's "On Language" column is often amusing reading but this week's stand-in for Safire, Erin McKean, can't seem to wrassle her topic of "neologizing" into the boat. F'rinstance:

Invented the perfect word yesterday and want it in the dictionary tomorrow? Be patient. It can take years or decades for a new word to be accepted.

Rattling Saber Teeth (and other weird metaphors)

Seems like the push to win popular support for a police action against Iraq is failing. The man in the street appears to be smarter than General Dynamics and Lockheed figured, and isn't buying the White House line. Here's Kenneth Pollack, a former C.I.A. analyst suggesting that Saddam is trying to avert an attack by making the US "think twice" about the costs of an invasion:

And one way to do that is to make us believe that we are going to face a Mesopotamian Stalingrad.

The Free World

According to a Justice Department report just released, 3.1 percent of America's citizens are moving through the labyrinthine bowels of the criminal justice system:

One in every 32 adult residents were on probation or parole or were held in a prison or jail, the report said.

8:50:22 AM