Italics Are Awesome

To keep the comments as fresh and outstanding as they've been up to this point, we've commissioned Commenting Guru Rob Iracane to write a bi-weekly Comment Ombudsman column. It runs every other week. This is that week.

Mr. Iracane is the guy who approves and deletes comments around here, and the fellow to whom you should address any comment account requests, and he will explore issues involved in commenting, what makes a great comment thread, what's working, what isn't, answer your questions, so on. We want the place to continue to be as much fun as it is every day, and it's not an execution thread like our friends at Gawker do. We like to be inclusive here, because if we're not, we'd be forced to rely on our own wit and knowledge, and that's a scary thought indeed.

So here's this week's column, about the fun of italics ... after the jump. Of course, don't be afraid to let him have it in the comments.

—————————

One of the best ways to express yourself in a Deadspin comment is to use italic type. According to Wikipedia, slanted letters are called italics after the way Italians would lean after they drank too much Barolo. We as commenters use italics when we want to emphasize one word as we would when speaking, such as in the following thought:

• Re: Paul Pierce's burgeoning soccer career Sh!tshow: Paul figured it was about time he got to take a stab at something.

See what he did there? Sh!tshow could have replaced the italics with uppercase letters but then he would have been shouting, and I don't like shouting unless it involves the eternal struggle between baseball's snake and mongoose, Yankees fans and Red Sox fans. He also could have used boldface type but that's downright audacious.

So how does one italicize? Simple. Surround the text you'd like to emphasize with the ol' italics tag and you're done. Try it for yourself below in the comments. Be sure to close your tags, however, or you'll create a Sussplosion.

And now, your Comments of the Fortnight:

• Re: Dane Cook, the new face of MLB Sean Salisbury Steak: I think I saw Louis C.K. wear that shirt first.

• Re: Allen Iverson getting an ESPY gift bag Biggie Smalls: We're talkin' about a bed & breakfast. Not a hotel. Not the hotel where I stay with my team on roadtrips. A bed & breakfast. A bed & breakfast. Not the hotel, not the hotel, not the hotel. A bed & breakfast. I stay at the hotel, breaking my neck for the mints on the pillow, & you're talking about beds & breakfasts? Really. We're talking about a bed & breakfast.

• Re: Tommy Morrison Chad Sexington: Anyone else's antivirus program acting up?