I agree. And I think that the notion that using periods makes you sound angry is nutty.
I once suggested to a young woman with whom I was having an email exchange that she would make herself stand out from her peers by abjuring the exclamation marks.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Oops, sorry. I hadn’t read the whole thing, and didn’t realize that most of it was paywalled. But if you subscribe to the Dispatch (as I don’t), I’m sure it’s an interesting read.
Enough seen to see the histogram.
In American English it must have been the Westward Expansion! That they found GOLD in California! We MUST END SLAVERY!! NOW! WAR! Against the rebs!!! VICTORY! END OF CIVIL WAR!!! LINCOLN ASSASSINATED!!! !!!!!!
It was all downhill from there apparently, well except for the blip around the Spanish/American war….
“Listen carefully! We are a group of individuals that represent a small foreign faction.”
Who wrote the Ramsey “ransom” note was never conclusively determined, but I am certain that the author must have done their grocery shopping at the Whole Foods store in Boulder, Colorado.
Tom Wolfe was the only writer good enough to be trusted with exclamation points.
Does anyone question that??????
Interrobang?!