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Jan 2015
You know your alphabet, yes you do, all twenty six letters you say by rote.
Few know there once was Twenty- seven, one more of which you should take note.
It is the humble Ampersand; the character you see today
Used mostly as a linkage between two corporate proper names.
It does mean “and” it always did; its shape from Latin is derived.
Its name is a type of Mondegreen, by pronouncement it is described.
Back in Elizabethan time when schoolboys said their alphabet
They did not end with “X.Y.Z” but with “and per se &”
The Roman “Et” was anglicized and its usage codified.
In Elizabethan times the ampersand was the 27th letter. Today it must feel like the planet formerly known as Pluto
John F McCullagh
Written by
John F McCullagh  63/M/NY
(63/M/NY)   
426
   Weeping willow, ---, victoria and Helen
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