Because a good franchise will never die, the Wikipedia Trash Can Series makes a comeback in 2011! It appears that a "serious" encyclopedia cannot show even the slightest attempt at humor and frivolity, not to mention neutrality, God forbid! Oops... too late. Well, without further ado, another Wikipedia entry nixed by Jimbo Wales' moronic rules:Green Ink
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In British journalism, green ink is used to describe written correspondence from self-aggrandising pedants, cranks, charlatans and eccentrics, or from the clearly mentally ill. The term derives from correspondents who enclose cuttings from the newspaper they are writing to, with contentious points ringed or underlined in coloured ink.
Regardless of the colour of ink used (there is little evidence of correspondence actually in green ink), it is common to refer to correspondence of any kind (including email and webpages) as being in "green ink", if it broadly fits the following identifying characteristics of Stridency, Impertinence, Unreasonableness, Unrealism, Fancifulness and Obsessiveness.[citation needed] Writers and correspondents who fit this general profile are referred to as "Green Inkers" or as members of the "Green Ink Brigade" (GIB). The term "Green Biro Brigade" is also used occasionally.
Common comorbid characteristics include irrelevant capitalisation, religious mania overuse of exclamation marks and veiled threats or warnings directed at the recipient. The "letters" guidelines for the British newspaper The Observer (semi-humorously) stipulate avoidance of green ink.
Contents
* 1 Possible origins
* 2 See also
* 3 Notes
* 4 External links
Possible origins
Sir Mansfield Cumming, the first chief of MI6, would only write memoranda and communications in green ink – a tradition that has been continued by all subsequent placeholders. Green ink was also the way in which the guardian of an underage Roman Emperor would sign his charge's correspondences.
See also
* Crank (person)
* Rant
* Thought disorder
Notes
1. "Northern Echo, 2006-05-29". Archive.thenorthernecho.co.uk. 2006-05-29. http://archive.thenorthernecho.co.uk/2006/5/29/227000.html. Retrieved 2010-09-01. 2. Mark Lawson (2007-09-13). "Mark Lawson, Guardian Unlimited". London: Blogs.guardian.co.uk. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/tv/2007/09/tv_matters_tragedy_and_fiction.html. Retrieved 2010-09-01. 3. "Irish News via Newshound". Nuzhound.com. http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/irish_news/arts2006/jan19_peace_process_pilots_heads_in_clouds__NEmerson.php. Retrieved 2010-09-01. 4. So, you want to write to the editor (Stephen Pritchard, The Observer, 3 February 2002) 5. UK Politics 286128 at news.bbc.co.uk 6. Alexander Allen, Ph.D, "Atramentum". A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D (ed.), John Murray, London, 1875.
The original entry had a much richer text than the one that appears here. More datacide brought to you by Wikipedia, because...
For a journalist it might be someone from the Green Ink Brigade, but for us is a blogger, for sure.
