* #I TnR ETNhD eI N GK n o w
This is hard to put into words
A long march for King January is known for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a celebration of the civil rights leader. But much like the progress of that movement, the road to King’s holiday was long and arduous, taking 18 years before final approval. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan introduced legislation to create the federal holiday just four days after King’s assassination in 1968 at the age of 39. In 1973, Illinois became the first state to adopt a state holiday for King. Ten years later, Congress finally passed and President Ronald Reagan signed legislation creating the national holiday, which was first celebrated Jan. 20, 1986. This year, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Jan. 15, his birthdate, and communities throughout the region will honor King. In Leesburg, for example, the fifth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Parade is scheduled to start at 11am Saturday, Jan. 13. The multicultural parade and march of walkers, floats, and groups will travel on West Main Street in downtown Leesburg. Call 352.552.7540 for information.
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lakeandsumter
.com
Here’s deeply disturbing news for anyone reading these words and for the people who write them: Emojis are the fastestgrowing “language” on the internet, with almost a third of global internet users classified as “emoji super-users,” according to Foresight Factory, a business that analyzes consumer trends. This number is predicted to double to nearly two-thirds in 2018. For people who still communicate in words, emojis are the small digital icons used to express emotions in electronic communications. The use of these icons extends beyond millennials and across age groups and demographics. A Foresight Factory web post states that emojis aren’t just providing a means of emotional expression that resonates—humans respond to them in a similar way to human facial expressions, a 2014 study found—they also quantify those emotions in a manner that’s ideal for data analysis that helps marketers and businesses. What does all this mean for the written word?
