Get this new symbol and youll pay for it - Emphasis

Get this new symbol and youll pay for it Get this new symbol and youll pay for it If you have an aversion to emoticons and their ilk, you may want to look away now. Introducing an entirely new symbol to express heavy-handedly what your words apparently cant: ladies and gentlemen, the Sarcmark. As you might already have guessed, it can be handily popped at the end of a sentence to signify when youre being sarcastic. Actually, its probably meant to be an indicator of irony, but presumably the Iromark didnt have quite the same commercial appeal. Thats right: youll have to pay to use it. Its makers, Sarcasm Inc, will charge you a mere 1.20 for the privilege. So will we be downloading it? Of course. (Darn, now we need one. The irony!) Ok, sometimes the lack of tone in email can be a problem. But sarcasms a tricky one to pull off at the best of times, particularly in business dealings. Insert one of these and you run the risk of either offending your reader for using sarcasm at all, or by assuming theyre too dim-witted to recognise it if they see it.