Here is an article that is, as the young folks say, very meta.
It is no surprise to readers who come here regularly that everything about Dr. Boli is a bit archaic. He tries to keep up with the latest trends, but T-shirts with printed slogans still strike him as a dangerous or depressing novelty, and he has not yet come to terms with the loss of the distinction between “may” and “might,” which confuses him but gives those young folks who say “very meta” no trouble.
This Magazine itself, even in its electrical form, is a relic of a bygone age. When the Magazine moved to the World-Wide Web, the WordPress software that runs the Magazine was four years old. The iPhone was six months old. “Blogs” were the new big thing.
The last time Dr. Boli did any serious design work on the site was when he moved to his own domain at drboli.com. At that time he decided the whole site needed a fresh look, so he turned for inspiration to the type and layout of general-interest magazines of the middle nineteenth century. That was fresh, in the sense that no other site had anything like it.
Because no other site had anything like it, Dr. Boli had to do the design himself. That required writing some code, and Dr. Boli is not suited for writing code. He did it, because no one else would do it. But he did not enjoy it very much.
That was in 2013, which a glance at the calendar tells us was twelve years ago. Since then, the design of the site—technically known as a “theme,” for connoisseurs of WordPress software—has been growing barnacles while the currents flowed around it. It will probably have to be replaced at some point, when the latest software updates finally bury it at the crossroads with a stake through its heart. But for now it still works, if we are willing to put up with some of its archaisms and patch it with pitch and duct tape every once in a while.
Most of the burden of those archaisms falls on the editor of the Magazine, who is willing to carry it. However, the comment system is primitive, and is likely to remain primitive. When Dr. Boli tried the experiment of installing a simple Markdown parser for comments, it broke the site so completely that nothing would appear but a blank white screen. Many readers would tell us that was an improvement, but it is not the intended look and feel of the site. The intended look has words, and the intended feel is something like the texture of fine linen stationery. Thus we are limited to plain text for most commenters.
However, there is a loophole for the pedantic and the stubborn. The comments will parse basic HTML markup. If you are familiar with some of the rudiments of the language, you can use HTML to add italics, bold, block quotes, and other typographic refinements to your opinions. Here is a very short list of formatting codes you can use.
Italics.
You can use italics for <em>emphasis</em> or to set off the title of a book, like <i>Pendennis</i> by Thackeray.
That will appear thus:
You can use italics for emphasis or to set off the title of a book, like Pendennis by Thackeray.
Note the two different codes for italics. They lead to the same result, but they are semantically different, and if you are pedantic enough to care about that, you probably do not need this list of HTML formatting codes.
Bold.
You can use bold text for <strong>strong emphasis</strong> or <b>other things that need bolding</b>.
You can use bold text for strong emphasis or other things that need bolding.
Once again, there are two semantically different ways to get bold text. They mean different things to anyone who reads your comment by choosing the “View Page Source” option in the browser. You have no one but yourself to blame if you are mocked for using the wrong one.
Links.
You can use <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlink">hyperlinks</a> to link to useful information.
You can use hyperlinks to link to useful information.
Links sometimes cause our whimsical spam-suppression system to toss a comment in the trash, but Dr. Boli always finds the comments that end up there within a day or two.
Blockquotes.
You can use blockquotes for extended quotations from another writer. (To use them for extended quotations from yourself suggests an enlarged self-esteem that may need to be lanced.)
<blockquote>
From what torments might the poor simpleton of a modern pietist be saved by remembering that Our Lord “spake not without a parable”! —<i>Coventry Patmore.</i>
</blockquote>
You can use blockquotes for extended quotations from another writer. (To use them for extended quotations from yourself suggests an enlarged self-esteem that may need to be lanced.)
From what torments might the poor simpleton of a modern pietist be saved by remembering that Our Lord “spake not without a parable”! —Coventry Patmore.
Small Capitals.
As a special benefit for readers of this Magazine, you can even insert <sc>small capitals</sc> in your comments. Can any other magazine on line offer you that privilege?
As a special benefit for readers of this Magazine, you can even insert small capitals in your comments. Can any other magazine on line offer you that privilege?
This list is not exhaustive. Ordered and unordered lists will probably also work, and if you delight in coding such lists by hand, go ahead and give it a try. You can even add a horizontal rule.
Or you can just write in plain text, and use a carefully crafted arrangement of well-chosen vocabulary to make your point. That might also work.
_(cropped).jpg)
