Question on "Sam as chief hero" issue in Tolkiens letters

On Sat, 07 Feb 2004 21:17:33 GMT, Odysseus
<odysseus1479-at.DeleteThis@yahoo-dot.ca> posted the following:

 >On a Macintosh, the "dagger" (Ý) is entered by typing option-t, the
 >"double dagger" (ý) is option-& (option-shift-7), and the "section
 >mark" (§), which is not from Greek but just a stylized or doubled
 >Latin S, is option-6. If you're using Windows, look in your Character
 >Map (by default under System Accessories in the Start menu, I
 >believe): I'm pretty sure all of these characters can be accessed
 >with escape sequences of the form Alt-####, the digits being entered
 >from the numeric keypad, or directly copied from the Character Map
 >window into the Clipboard for pasting into any text field or document.

These are not standard, though, as we can see here -- what you are
calling a "dagger" I see as an upper-case Y with an accent, and what
you call a "double dagger" I see as a lower-case Y with an accent. I
imagine that other Windows users see the same thing.

(If I had the Japanese support enabled for this group, I would see
Japanese characters instead of those).

 >The sequence you describe for indicating footnotes with miscellaneous
 >printers' marks is quite conventional; while I don't know its origins
 >I would guess it to have begun in the XVIII c. A fifth footnote would
 >be given a "paragraph mark" (¶, Mac option-7), which resembles a
 >backwards P with a doubled stem and often a solid bowl. (I don't
 >expect these non-ASCII examples I typed to be translated by most
 >newsreaders -- including mine when it uploads this posting. I'd be
 >interested to know if anyone *does* see any of them correctly displayed.)

The paragraph and section signs came in fine.

-Chris<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->

On Sat, 07 Feb 2004 21:17:33 GMT, Odysseus hunched over the
keyboard, flexed their fingers and thumped:

 > On a Macintosh, the "dagger" (Ý) is entered by typing option-t,
 > the "double dagger" (ý) is option-& (option-shift-7), and the
 > "section mark" (§), which is not from Greek but just a stylized or
 > doubled Latin S, is option-6.

<snip>

 > The sequence you describe for indicating footnotes with
 > miscellaneous printers' marks is quite conventional; while I don't
 > know its origins I would guess it to have begun in the XVIII c. A
 > fifth footnote would be given a "paragraph mark" (¶, Mac
 > option-7), which resembles a backwards P with a doubled stem and
 > often a solid bowl. (I don't expect these non-ASCII examples I
 > typed to be translated by most newsreaders -- including mine when
 > it uploads this posting. I'd be interested to know if anyone
 > *does* see any of them correctly displayed.)
 >

All special characters display fine and dandy using Xnews...


--

Simmo<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->