Hoping to maintain some sway with both the young and those Upper East Side parents desirous to understand their children's IM conversations (that they're surreptitiously recording), Sunday Styles this weekend featured a guide to emoticons, those signifiers of emotional life expressed with punctuation marks that are so popular with the kids. How very dotcom and youthy! Our reactions started with I:-/ then a little %-( but finally ended up :I. Emily, on the other hand, was more like :) so we ('') (chatted).

Joshua: What's the emoticon for there is nothing to write about in the sunday styles section because all the rich people are out of town so we'll write about a story from the mid-1990's?
Emily: /8-P
Joshua: i hate these things! but that is exactly correct
Emily: i hate them too but sometimes they're useful if you accidentally got into a fight with someone or if you don't want someone to worry that you'll kill yourself
Emily: they come in handy when iming with the extremely literal-minded though i wish i didn't have to interact with the extremely literal-minded ever, though
Joshua: that's true because iM doesn't really allow for sarcasm to be clearly indicated.
Emily: i have said for a while that it needs its own font
Emily: sarcasm bold
Joshua: great idea
 Joshua: just kidding!
Emily: are you kidding NOW?
Emily: see, there's no way for me to know.
Joshua: ;)