Wingdings. Find a word processor that contains the Wingdings (or Webdings) font, and begin typing out the characters. Write a 100 character “story” based on the images. How do you convey a picture with only symbols? What can using only visual symbols teach you about storytelling?
There are many wishing to take credit for dingbats. The literary tug-of-war reminds me of how the term “ham” came to be used in the world of amateur radio.
Back in the days when communications with trains was done by the means train orders passed to the speeding engineer by a telegrapher/station agent. Would be telegraphers were not born with American Morse knowledge. It had to be learned. And once the characters were memorized and understood they had to be put into practice. Young telegraphers often gathered in a railway station and once a student had permission to use an idle Western Union or railroad wire he sent the words “HAM HAM”. Whomever was at the other end, whether he might be in an adjoining city or state, responded with the same. Then they began practicing with messages, train orders, or whatever.
How the amateur radio world came to use the word HAM is still in question. But it is recognized the world over.
Microsoft would probably like to take credit for originating wingdings. But in reality, it came from the printer’s world. The were spacers used when setting type. The spaces were called wings. After putting the wings in place they were dinged in tight with a small mallet.
Perhaps I should retract that last statement. The final characters of the top line are mail boxes. Third from the end could mean you don’t have mail. Second from the end: there is mail to go out. The last one: sorry, somebody already got it.