Green ink
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In journalism, Green Ink is (humorously) supposedly the 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
- Obsessiveness
Common comorbid characteristics include IRRELEVANT CAPITALISATION, overuse of exclamation marks!!!!!!!! and veiled threats 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 [1][2] along with Green Biro referring to a popular source of green ink.
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[edit] Reported encounters with the GIB
| “ | THE "green ink brigade" is well-known to editors. It consists of people who send in copies of the paper, covered in scribblings and rantings. Every mistake, every contentious point, is ringed or underlined, more often than not in green ink.
Their letters go on for page after page in a tidal wave of green bile. I once had a letter from a green ink regular, signed Paul the Apostle, telling me I was "the spawn of the horned devil and a wicked whore from hell". I am, in fact, the spawn of an electrician and a postlady from Middlesbrough and I've thus far kept Paul the Apostle's letter from them for fear of causing a domestic incident. Don't ask me why these people choose green ink. They just do. |
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—Unnamed columnist, The Northern Echo, 2006[3] |
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| “ | Anyone who makes a living from broadcasting will get more than his share of GIB letters. Anyone who dares to write a book about the English language had better change his address if he’s not prepared to be swamped. Yes, it can be profoundly irritating. A Green Inker will always spot the mistake. So will many other readers but the GI will write to tell you about it. And if any GIs are reading, I know that the first edition of my last book awarded a distinguished academic the Noble Prize. What I don’t know is how it slipped past me, my editor, the proof reader and on into infinity. But it did. Thank you for pointing it out — but please, no more letters. | ” |
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—John Humphrys, 2006[4] |
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[edit] 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 [1]
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 underage Roman Emperor would sign his charge's correspondences. /Atramentum.html.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Mark Lawson, Guardian Unlimited
- ^ Irish News via Newshound
- ^ Northern Echo, 2006-05-29
- ^ Times Online, 2006-01-14
