On Monday (09/11/2017 at 08:57PM -0700), Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: > On 09/11/2017 08:35 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: > > Etaoin Shrdlu was most importantly one of Walt Kelly's characters in Pogo. > > > > ETAOIN SHRDLU ETA name > > On Mon, 11 Sep 2017, Chris Elmquist via cctalk wrote: > >> I was told that the name came from this string which could be found in > >> printed works and that people had always seen it but just read past it > >> because it didn't fit or make sense. > > > > That is canonically "loren ipsum", the filler "greeking" text used to > > set up layout. > > Although admittedly ETAOIN SHRDLU was also sometimes used for greeking. > > It also inadvertently crept into printed copy. If the Linotype operator > made an error in a line, it was common to just fill the line out with > ETAOIN SHRDLU so that the copy editor would know to discard the line.
Yes-- this was the basis of Lincoln's ETA story that the string appears in printed works because some editor missed it and didn't take it out. Chris -- Chris Elmquist
