Tom Maxwell
I heartily agree.
#SphinxOfBlackQuartz #JudgeMyVow
Nov 22, 2023 at 11:18pmWeb
Show threadTom MaxwellNov 23, 2023
I’ve learned much as a result of posting this. First, it’s “jumps,” not “jumped.” Noted!
Second, all pangrams are a delight — behold this #Czech gem (courtesy @samweingamgee):
Nechť již hříšné saxofony ďáblů rozezvučí síň úděsnými tóny waltzu, tanga a quickstepu. ("May the sinful saxophones of devils echo through the hall with dreadful melodies of waltz, tango, and quickstep"), a magnificent analog to @evannakita ‘s offering “Waltz, bad nymph, for quick jigs vex!”
What’s your favorite #pangram?
Show threadLukas VFN 🇪🇺Nov 23, 2023
@tommyyum @samweingamgee @evannakita There's also this one for a full set of Czech letters with accents: Příliš žluťoučký kůň úpěl ďábelské ódy / Too yellowish horse moaned devilish odes.
Show threadTom MaxwellNov 23, 2023
@animalculum @samweingamgee @evannakita Damn. What an evocative language.
Show threadPetr ViktorinNov 24, 2023
@tommyyum @animalculum @samweingamgee @evannakita Until you learn the language you can't fully appreciate how endearing the horse's yellowness is :)
Anyway, as someone who learned English consciously, I can see how the fox and dog beat the words that -- cool as they are -- you'd learn from this particular pangram.
Show threadPatrick O'BeirneNov 23, 2023

@tommyyum @samweingamgee @evannakita

Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz.

The strange symbols on the banks of a fjord in a valley puzzled the curious character.

Show threadDavid NashJan 25, 2024

@tommyyum @samweingamgee @evannakita

I’ve got two.

One, from a puzzle magazine years ago. Not super efficient (more duplicated letters than some), but almost completely natural sounding: “Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes.”

And another, one of the each-letter-just-once variety, all of which are pretty tortured: “Zing! Vext cwm fly jabs Kurd qoph”. (Zing! An annoyed fly from a Welsh valley stings a Semitic-alphabet letter written by a Kurd.)

Show threadJeff MooreNov 23, 2023

@tommyyum I agree about the coolness of #SphinxOfBlackQuartz! It's just a shame the original poster got the quick brown fox sentence wrong: it's "jumps", not "jumped", otherwise it doesn't achieve full alphabet coverage.

Sadly I'm incapable of not being bugged by that detail, it's a burr under the saddle.

Show threadTom MaxwellNov 23, 2023
@jbm
"Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail."
— Leonardo Da Vinci
Show threadWord of Mouth Nov 23, 2023
@jbm @tommyyum In this case, nobody can blame you for your pedantry.

Now that I see it, I regret my boost 🤣
Show threadDave SpectorNov 23, 2023

@jbm @tommyyum also, typically it was
“THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOGS BACK 1234567890 TIMES. “

And this phrase / characters, iirc, would test all angles of the type cylinder of a model ASR-33 teletype, including the numbers.

Show threadJeff MooreNov 23, 2023

@Dhmspector @tommyyum

Nice! Now I'm hearing the chug-chug-chug of a Teletype in the background in my head.

Show threadIrinaNov 23, 2023
@jbm @tommyyum Yes, exactly, me too.
Show threadBoxOfSnooNov 23, 2023
@tommyyum Less efficient but how can you not love “pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.”
Show threadTom MaxwellNov 23, 2023
@boxofsnoo 🙌🙌🙌
Show threadTom MaxwellNov 23, 2023
@boxofsnoo That’s a big box!
Show threadEvannakitaNov 23, 2023
@boxofsnoo @tommyyum I’m personally partial to “waltz, bad nymph, for quick jigs vex!”
Show threadTom MaxwellNov 23, 2023
@evannakita @boxofsnoo That’s a beauty!
Show threadPeter BindelsNov 23, 2023
@boxofsnoo @tommyyum Y?
Show threadBoxOfSnooNov 23, 2023
@dascandy42 @tommyyum it’s there 🙂 I always miss noticing “T” as well
Show threadearthtopusNov 23, 2023
@tommyyum the relative commonness of the words that make up the first one seems like more than adequate an explanation; merely relative esoterism doesn't actvively make the latter competitive within memespace
Show threadDDRNov 23, 2023
@tommyyum Harder to spell, but yes, agreed. :p
Show threadThe Apostle of Conscious DyingNov 23, 2023
@tommyyum I prefer quick-brown-fox specifically because of how boring it is, it’s a relic from a long time ago and I love it for that
Show threadWilhelm GereNov 23, 2023

@tommyyum

Hunting, I suppose.

Show threadLeslie 🇺🇸🌻🌈 🌊Nov 23, 2023
@tommyyum too funny 😂
Show threadAlexandra LanesNov 23, 2023
@tommyyum @garius Bankrupt jilted showmen quiz convex fogey
Show threadTom MaxwellNov 23, 2023
@ajlanes @garius That’s very nearly sublime.
Show threadAlexandra LanesNov 23, 2023
@tommyyum @garius Blame @simontatham who came up with it iirc to demonstrate how different shapes of glyphs sat alongside each other in different fonts
Show threadSimon TathamNov 23, 2023

@ajlanes @garius @tommyyum yes, the 'jilted showmen' pangram is used in the custom font selector in GTK PuTTY. So the font you select will be used in a fixed-width terminal grid, even if it's not actually a fixed-width font.

The point is that 'jilted' has all the narrow letters j,i,l together, and 'showmen' has the wide w,m, so you get early warning if either of those is going to look ridiculous.

Show threadAlexandra LanesNov 23, 2023
@simontatham @garius Oh, does it not appear on Windows?
Show threadSimon TathamNov 23, 2023

@ajlanes @garius no, Windows PuTTY uses the standard OS font selector.

I wrote a custom one for GTK because I wanted users to carry on being able to use trad X11 bitmap fonts like 'fixed' as well as newer scalable ones, and GTK 2's standard font selector wouldn't do that for me.

Windows's font selector does let you select bitmap fonts alongside vector ones, so there wasn't the same motivation for me to write my own.

But yes, that does mean Windows users miss out on the custom pangram!

Show threadSam at BLAGNov 23, 2023

@tommyyum That is a much better pangram, and significantly more efficient at just 29 letters.

A personal favourite is 'pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs'.

https://bl.ag/playful-pangrams-for-sign-painters-plus-other-languages/

#pangram #wordplay #pangrams

Playful Pangrams for Sign Painters (and Other Languages)

Power up your sign painting practise with these playful pangrams. And then try to write your own.

BLAG Magazine: Adventures in Sign Painting Craft, Community & Culture
Show threadDr. Samuel WeinNov 23, 2023

@tommyyum
Well that led me down a rabbithole
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangram has some really cool ones in different languages.

My favorite's are probably:
"Waltz, bad nymph, for quick jigs vex."
And the #Czech:
Nechť již hříšné saxofony ďáblů rozezvučí síň úděsnými tóny waltzu, tanga a quickstepu. ("May the sinful saxophones of devils echo through the hall with dreadful melodies of waltz, tango and quickstep.").
Which is just a wonderful curse in general.

Pangram - Wikipedia

Show threadTom MaxwellNov 23, 2023
@samweingamgee Wow! That last one is especially resonant because I wrote this song: https://youtu.be/gFw5japDG2U?si=-F0EnXsCS9Tcpkvg
Hell (Remastered 2016)

YouTube
Show threadPeter BindelsNov 23, 2023
@samweingamgee @tommyyum Viktor jagt zwölf Boxkämpfer über den großen Sylter deich - my favorite German one, from memory (am not German)
Show threadÓsQar🔻🇵🇸Nov 23, 2023
@tommyyum I would like very much to have a similar cool phrase for Spanish. The current one we have in the font manager in Windows translates to «The quick Hindi bat happily ate thistle and kiwi. The stork played the sax behind the wicker palisade» WTF does this even mean?
Show threadTom MaxwellNov 23, 2023
@osqar7 😍 I don’t know, but it’s a gorgeous bit of nonsense!
Show threadMinaraNov 23, 2023
@tommyyum I just want to say, the first sentence lacks the "s".
Show threadMycamsNov 23, 2023
@tommyyum You’ve met professional press printers (as opposed to inkjet types)?
Show threadTom MaxwellNov 23, 2023
@mycams Not sure I’ve had the pleasure.
Show threadMycamsNov 23, 2023
@tommyyum They are fans of the quick and dirty solution for typesetting! :-)
Show threadJason Robinson 🐍 🍻 🚴Nov 23, 2023

@[email protected] TIL that is why "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" exists 🤯

Though obviously it falls apart really quickly when going out of the UK/US, so a bit meaningless in the end.

Tom Maxwell (@[email protected])

5.6K Posts, 1.13K Following, 798 Followers · Platinum-selling #musician then (author of the Squirrel Nut Zippers' hit "Hell"), #writer now (bylines in The Oxford American, Longreads, Al-Jazeera America & others; currently scribbling A Really Strange and Wonderful Time for Hachette, 2024). The other half of Audible's upcoming Shelved #podcast. Loves #music, #science, #culture, #cooking, and #HighStrangeness. Left of lefty. He/him.

Mastodon 🐘
Show threadTom MaxwellNov 23, 2023
@jaywink I’ve been getting schooled on international pangrams, and am loving it.
Show threadBrian MacDonaldNov 23, 2023

@tommyyum I've always been partial to "Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz," which is very efficient, but a bit less objectively cool.

My typing teacher (yes, I'm old enough that I had a typing teacher) preferred "A quick movement of the enemy will jeopardize six gun boats."

Show threadImpossible Umbrella   Nov 23, 2023
@tommyyum My favourite pangram has always been “A wizard’s job is to quickly vex chumps in fog”. 🧙🏻‍♂️
Show threadTom MaxwellNov 23, 2023
@ImpossibleUmbrella Magnificent.
Show threadÉibhear 🔭Nov 23, 2023
@tommyyum It's also worth noting that "sphinx ..." is more efficient that "the quick ...", as the latter repeats more letters (7) and more times (up to 4) than the former (only three letters repeated, none appearing more than twice).
Show threadRyuno-KiNov 23, 2023
@tommyyum Can we popularise the alternative in Wakamai Fondue, @pixelambacht ? 🥺
Show threadRoel NieskensNov 24, 2023
@RyunoKi @tommyyum I *am* looking to replace the recipe with a pangram... 🤔
Show threadPeter BindelsNov 23, 2023
@tommyyum The first one is wrong, lacks an S
Show thread@ NovaNaturalist HAS ALSO MOVEDNov 23, 2023

@tommyyum I prefer this 26 letter pangram, a hypothetical headline:

"Quartz glyph job vex'd cwm finks"

Show threadAknorals⚑Ⓐ 🏴Nov 23, 2023
@tommyyum Holy shit, this belongs in a fantasy novel. @magnetmagician
Show threadDevilCrayonNov 23, 2023
@tommyyum I've always been partial to "Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz". It flows almost like a naturally spoken sentence and it references one of the lesser known corvids.
Show threadLeigh GarlandNov 23, 2023
@tommyyum I'll just leave this here...
https://lrg.io/quick-fox/?charset=abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz&userstring=Cwm%20fjord%20bank%20glyphs%20vext%20quiz#quickfox
Quick Fox

For when you just absotively posolutely need to check what letters you've used in a sentence

Show threadKo Simon toku ingoa Nov 23, 2023
@tommyyum also, “jumped” makes it into a sentence that doesn’t contain “s”.
Show threadChris BohnNov 23, 2023
@tommyyum Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.
Show threadAlan Clifford 🏌️‍♂️🦈 📷Nov 23, 2023

@tommyyum
The quick, brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

We had punctuation in my day but I'm not sure about the upper case 'T'.

Using the rhythm of the Wiiliam Tell overture.

Show threadEllen 🎈Nov 25, 2023
@pitchingniblick @tommyyum I'm trying to scan the phrase with William Tell and only getting "la-zy dog" to fit.
Show threadAlan Clifford 🏌️‍♂️🦈 📷Nov 25, 2023

@Starry1086 @tommyyum

Just one keypress per note. It was probably a special, simplified version of the tune to make you use the same amount of time to press each key.

Show threadEllen 🎈Nov 25, 2023
@pitchingniblick @tommyyum Ah ok. Got it.