L weeks (weeks 21-22)

L is for Late.

 

I'd like to say I'm posting the start of L-weeks a day Late because Late starts with L but really I'm just Lazy. (Also starts with L)!

 

L is a confusing letter because in some fonts (sans serif) a lower case l (l) looks like a capital I (I).  This happens with hand-writing too.  People don't really think about it because when they are reading or writing they use the context of the word and sentence to figure out whether it is an L or an I.  You know it's ugly with an L not an I, mostly because capital Is don't appear in the middle of words.  And this process happens so quickly, because your brain is accustomed to doing it, that it is not a conscious process, until you come to a word or phrasing you don't recognize.  But for the most part, when you're reading an e-mail you know that your friend went to the concert last night (I didn't) and not the letter L, unless you're friends with the letter L, then it could be both.  Either way, l is/are a poorly designed letter(s) whether it is representing a vowel or a consonant.  I'm not sure who to blame because I don't know which came first the lowercase l or the capital I.  Forget chicken-egg, this is what we need to be researching.  I'm tempted to blame the L because it comes later in the alphabet and I is more important, being a vowel and all.  So lowercase ls really need to step it up and figure out a new Look.  Although, the designers of the capital I had to know that people would devolve into lazier creatures and ditch the hat and shoes on the I, so maybe I needs to change.  Maybe, just maybe, we should consider getting rid of the lowercase l altogether.  How difficult is it to write a capital L anyway?  Better yet, let's return to cursive.  We never had this problem in cursive.  Oh wait, we kind of did.  Damnit, L really wants to look like an I.  But why?  It gets used a lot.  Hell, it's found in the six letters they award you in the final round of Wheel of Fortune, that means it has to be pretty popular, right?  Top six maybe.  I almost never gets used, sometimes Y gets picked first before I.  I bet I is pissed that L keeps trying to steal its style.  I should change its lowercase version so that it looks like a capital L and fuck everything up.  L better hope I doesn't get 1 in on this shit or we're all doomed.  So get over it, L, stop trying to live in Is very straight and unembellished shadow.   

 

So here they are for clarification's sake:

Capital L: L

Lowercase L: l

Capital I: I

Lowercase I: i  soon to be L in 2011.  Look for Lt.  I wLll.

 

L isn't a word (unless you're speaking Spanish) but it is a magazine: Elle.

It's an above-ground (L-evated) railway system in Chicago as well: L/El/EL. 

And it's also a Roman numeral for 50: L.

which is just another reason it should leave I alone, it's already worth 49 more Romans.  Maybe L just wants to be #I.