If you type an ampersand then a right parentheses, you get the semi-colon + parantheses smilie. But it leaves the ampersand instead of replacing it. It must be a conspiracy!
-
- 
- &) -
Damn! He’s cracked the code! He must be stopped. Sabertooth, on your way…And–do not fail me this time…
That ampersand smilie is holding his hat instead of wearing it.
------&
----:p/ x o x o
----///\\
The only thing I can think of is that it might have something to do with the html escape sequences, which all begin with an ampersand and end with a semicolon, which is optional in IE. The ampersand is probably transformed into & instead of a simple ampersand, which in IE would display as an ampersand and a winking smilie.
If I’m right, greater and less than symbols should do the same thing next to parantheses, since I know those are transformed to html escape sequences to prevent us from using html.
>) <)
Then I bet there’s another one
**&j
&j
Yep!