Posted on 06/05/2005 6:52:22 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
There are times when just signing your name at the end of an e-mail isn't enough to really represent who you are.
So more and more, people are adding taglines after their signatures and contact information. Taglines, or signatures ("sigs" as they're sometimes called), are small text files automatically attached to the end of electronic messages.
They might be a famous quote, a line from a book or movie, or something the writer made up.
Rick Rolfsmeyer, 54, a consultant and househusband from Hollandale in Iowa County, uses this one: "If a man can't be happy on a little farm in Wisconsin, he hasn't the makings of happiness in his soul." The quote is from the late Nick Englebert, a Wisconsin farmer and folk artist.
"I've always just loved that quote. It speaks to rural values. I love rural. I've always loved rural. I'm a hick," Rolfsmeyer said. "I consider myself an advocate for the quiet little place, and I use it out of pride."
Pick a quote
The concept of a tagline isn't new. "It's been around forever, basically since e-mail, essentially since the '70s," said Tom Lane, a co-owner of Geek World, a Madison computer repair firm. "It's more prevalent amongst those under 30 and college age, but we've gotten them from college professors. Signatures are also used in online forums. You'll see it in news groups and mailing lists." Advertisement:
People pick a quote from a famous person, from a literary work, a popular movie or TV show, or create their own aphorisms for taglines. Then they use them as a way "to lighten up their days," Lane said.
"It's like why do people have bumper stickers? It's the same principle. Some are serious, some are funny, some are appropriate and some are inappropriate. It's all a matter of taste."
A way to express yourself
Brian Rust, communications manager for UW-Madison's Division of Information Technology, said, "For as long as I've been around, people have been appending pithy quotes to their messages. People just want to express themselves, or where they're coming from, either in terms of their mood or their perspective on things."
Alta Charo, associate dean of UW Law School, uses serious taglines in her professional e- mails, including a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." From Henry David Thoreau: "Aim above morality. Be not simply good. Be good for something." And from Jane Addams: "Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics."
"I copied the idea from one of my former students who had really cool quotes at the bottom of his (e-mails)," Charo said. "I choose to sign things that in some way express my views about my professional work."
One for personal use, another for business
Madison School Board President Carol Carstensen uses one tagline for private e-mail and another professionally. "They're quotes I like and reflect things I think are important," Carstensen said. "Having started out life as a high school teacher, I often put a quote on the blackboard to give students something to think about. Today it's the Internet. Thirty years ago it was the blackboard."
She added, "I usually look at other people's taglines. Sometimes it gives me an insight into what they think is important."
Carstensen's private tagline is an African proverb: "Until lions have their own historians, the hunters will always be glorified."
"It's to remind people that we have to keep in mind those who aren't able to speak for themselves very well," she said.
For school district business, she uses this: "Parents are sending schools the best children they have. They don't keep the good ones at home." "This is something all of us in education should remember," Carstensen said.
David Shaffer, assistant professor of learning sciences in the UW-Madison educational psychology department, compares taglines to personalized stationery, in which "the font, color and design of the stationery says something about yourself. Taglines may serve the same function.
"Another analogy, at least in our office," Shaffer said, "is that people often put up comics or sayings on their door as a way of communicating something that they think is pithy or important or reflects something they care about. It's a way to make the messages we're sending somehow reflective of ourselves."
Taglines make the impersonal personal
Dr. Frank Byrne, a pulmonary and critical-care specialist who is president of St. Mary's Hospital, has been known to quote Albert Schweitzer, Winston Churchill, Gandhi and Maya Angelou in his taglines.
"E-mail has become so dominant a form of communication and it's, frankly, unemotional and impersonal," Byrne said. "I think (a tagline) is a way to express some emotion and add some depth to your communication. . . . It's also a way to make more of a personal connection to the people you're corresponding with, and a way to let people know a little more about who you are and what you stand for."
This tagline, "We seldom think of what we have, but always of what we lack. Be thankful and grateful for all that you do have!" is an anonymous quote used by Carolyn Destache, health and recreation director for a Milwaukee community center.
"I love quotes which make one think. I like to challenge people to think about things other than their everyday stuff," Destache said. "I have different sources. If I see something I like I usually write it down. In particular, 'Joy is when anticipation meets action' just rings true to me. It's like planning for an event - it is fun, but the real joy is to see it in action."
And Tanya Simon of Los Angeles uses this, capitalized signature: "WITH LOVE ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE."
"The signature I use is my own," Simon said. "I chose it because it's true (and) it never crossed my mind what people might think of me when they read my signature. I think everyone has their own impression of the world."
"WinDoze XXX-PP. It still sucks, but the sound effects are better."
I can't fit all that into my tagline, so I tried this one.
Sound-wise? "Space Odyssey Tootsie Pops" doesn't ring for me!
MM.. no.
Definitely we shouldn't.
End up sucked into and assimilated by the Tootsie Pops..
I like that one....and will steal it.
I still don't get the sound, never mind any sucking up.
Your tagline was well worth the wait. : )
What if you've run out of closet room?
;-)
So far 70 replies, and only 4 without taglines.
Verbally, it's clunky to have Bowman saying that the obelisk is full of dark chocolate Hershey Kisses.
It 'fits' much better for it to have Tootsie Pops in there instead.
In the movie, Commander Bowman is sucked up by the obelisk.
In the demented version I just thought up, the Tootsie Pops get him instead.
That needs to be on buttons, T-shirts and bumper stickers!
Don't leave me hanging, man! What happens to Bowman when the Pops get him?
Maybe it's make people drive faster - to get somewhere that sells chocolate. Then everyone would get fatter and start driving slowly again.
Anyway, I've got chocolate on my t-shirt now.
Been trying to brainstorm the end scene where Bowman meets an elderly version of himself.
Only Tootsie Pop related.
The more people I meet the more bullets I need.
You can tell what I like by my tagline. :) LOL
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
'La bonne cuisine est la base du véritable bonheur.' - Auguste Escoffier
(Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
The signature block says it all.
Il n'y a pas d'honte être français. Il y a seulement l'honte dans rester de français.
(There is no shame in being French. There is only shame in staying French.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Jamais reculez á tyrannie un pouce!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! Never give an inch to tyranny!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
I need to get myself a new tag-line.
:7)
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