"Vancouver has come into its own in the nineties," writes Paul Delany, "with three best selling authors--Douglas Coupland, Nick Bantock, William Gibson... who seem utterly globalized, stylized, and deracinated producers of a 'location-independent' literature." --review of City of Glass

" poll conducted among INFOCUS readers had established "waka" as the
proper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters < and >, though
some readers held out resolutely for "norkies." The text of the poem
follows:

<>!*''#

^"`$$-

!*=@$_

%*<>~#4
&[]../

|{,,SYSTEM HALTED

The poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, to wit:
Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number
four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH."
--found on the way

   "Wels Diamot

Rints grome of stoneted
Have se frow declart
Wries eve he storferst
Hass difird gapat

Luspeciestretwe
Beene namone encame
Sur ded clarearthe
Cumstly publingain

Itil that coureland
Havinernce I honse
Luserst mat paland
Wilarlich und conce."

--Jonathan R Partington