woosh

been meaning to post about that missing and oft needed emoticon of the blogosphere, and the blogospherical commentary - the whoosh. boynton recalls that it was Gummo Trotsky who first proposed the need for the whoosh sign - meaning: something has gone over the head. In RL conversation there is of course a common gesture to indicate this phenonmenon, which also acknowledges our common fallibility.Our universal vulnerability to the whoosh. You're never so smart that the next moment won't whoosh you. Perhaps the whoosh is complementary to the wink. ;) which is much used round here even to the point of abuse. Still, if the wink is missed, a whoosh may well occur. boynton remembers the old ads from her collection of Ladies Home Journals that read You hear a bigger whoosh as hapless people open an explosive coffee jar (their smiles indicate more thrill than fear is anticipated at the spring-loaded surprise). The magazines are elsewhere and not yet scanned. But the other day via Twists and Turns we saw a detail from one of the ads at Tack-O-Rama. (see number six) And we won't steal the image. But we at least could trace the brand - and find another example here. Disliking the tacky smiley range of emoticons which may well include a whoosh variety, boynton wishes this retro whoosh was public domain enough to exploit wholesale.