- Green ink
In
journalism , Green Ink is (humorously) supposedly a major identifying characteristic of written correspondence from self-aggrandising pedants,cranks ,charlatans and eccentrics.Although no psychiatric equivalence with the preceding terms should be inferred, it is also used to refer to unusable correspondence originating with readers who are mentally ill.
Regardless of the colour of ink used, it is common to refer to correspondence of any kind (including email and webpages) as being in "green ink", so long as it broadly fits the following identifying characteristics:
* Stridency
* Impertinence
* Unreasonableness
* Unrealism
* Fancifulness
* ObsessivenessCommon
comorbid characteristics include IRRELEVANT CAPITALISATION, overuse of exclamation marks!!!!!!!! and veiled or warnings directed at the recipient.Religious mania is a frequent characteristic of green ink communication.
Writers and correspondents who fit this general profile are referred to as Green Inkers or as members of the Green Ink Brigade (GIB). The term Green Biro Brigade is also used occasionally [ [http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/tv/2007/09/tv_matters_tragedy_and_fiction.html Mark Lawson, Guardian Unlimited] ] [ [http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/irish_news/arts2006/jan19_peace_process_pilots_heads_in_clouds__NEmerson.php Irish News via Newshound] ] along with Green Biro referring to a popular source of green ink.
Reported encounters with the GIB
Possible origins
"Green Inkers" are (in popular imagination) frequently obsessed with supposed conspiracies and plots, so it may be no coincidence that Sir Mansfield Cumming, the first chief of
MI6 , would only write memoranda and communcations in green ink - a tradition that has been continued by all subsequent placeholders [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/286128.stm]There is a tradition the Royal Navy that Admirals use green ink.
In harmony with the frequent
megalomania exhibited by green inkers, green ink was also the way in which the guardian of an underageRoman Emperor would sign his charge's correspondences. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA* /Atramentum.html] .See also
*
Color psychology
*
*Crank (person)
*Rant Notes
External links
* [http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gre5.htm Origins?]
* Guardian "letters" guidelines (semi-humorously) stipulate avoidance of green ink [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,649653,00.html]
* On the ubiquity of green ink as a sign of possible insanity [http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/11-13-2002-30254.asp]
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