# How many arms on your asterisk? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 7, 2025, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-arms-on-your-asterisk/1016722 "2025-04-07T04:45:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-arms-on-your-asterisk/1016722/41 "2025-04-07T19:11:20Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > I can’t recall ever drawing one by hand? You obviously never attended my kindergarten school. Mrs Clatworthy was pretty tough on us. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-arms-on-your-asterisk/1016722/42 "2025-04-07T19:24:10Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > You obviously never attendend my kindergarten school. You whippersnappers. When _I_ was in primary school, we had desks with actual inkwells! Steel nib pens. Fountain pens? Anathema! Rigidly taboo. I’m a little surprised they didn’t make us cut our own quills… but of course, it _was_ the 20th century by then… And by gosh you learned to calculate square roots by hand, or you wouldn’t stand a chance of getting into Grammar School… ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-arms-on-your-asterisk/1016722/43 "2025-04-07T19:27:09Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > When _I_ was in primary school, we had desks with actual inkwells You jest, but I spent most of my primary and the first few years of secondary school with actual inkwell holes drilled into the desk. We used normal pencils and ball-point pens.. I come from a weirdly different heritage. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-arms-on-your-asterisk/1016722/44 "2025-04-07T19:35:31Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > You jest, but I spent most of my primary and the first few years of secondary school with actual inkwell holes drilled into the desk. Actually I don’t jest: I grew up in rural North Wales, and the primary school desks really did have inkwells in the desk and we really did use steel nib pens dipped in to them. Probably makes me seem older than I really am, but some remoter parts of the UK lagged behind more developed areas quite a bit. My parents’ house didn’t even have electricity until I was about 10. I too come from an odd heritage… ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-arms-on-your-asterisk/1016722/45 "2025-04-07T19:40:36Z")
For what little it is worth, the realisation of what those weird holes in the desk were for made me interested in caligraphy, and then typography, and then… I dont know what the study of web-safe typefaces is. Nerdery? In the end, Fira code regular for the win! ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-arms-on-your-asterisk/1016722/46 "2025-04-07T20:20:40Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > In the end, Fira code regular for the win! I’ll have to look into that. Not terribly concerned about fonts myself as long as they are readable. Is there a unicode representation? ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-arms-on-your-asterisk/1016722/47 "2025-04-07T20:26:47Z")
Not really a unicode representaion. I mean, there must be, but I don’t study unicode - I am a nerd, but, gosh… As a coder, I often write things like “!=” (not equal).and firacode transforms them into a single glyph “≠”. I mean, it is trivial. But such things can make the code so much more readable. Also, I am a type nerd, so I like the glyphs. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-arms-on-your-asterisk/1016722/48 "2025-04-07T22:28:59Z")
NM, weird repeated post. ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-arms-on-your-asterisk/1016722/49 "2025-04-07T22:44:25Z")
Six. It’s easier for me to draw, I don’t want my asterisk to look like a pentagram, I like the symmetry, and six is my favorite number. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-arms-on-your-asterisk/1016722.md?page=2)