Solved: Mystery of the 'J' in emails! :) (02/10/11)

For years, I have received emails that end with a mysterious 'J' at the end of the letter. Sometimes it would even appear within a paragraph between sentences. I could never figure it out. I know that 'jk' means 'just kidding', so I didn't know if 'J' stood for 'joking'... and if it did, it sure didn't make sense on half the emails that ended with it. It was a mystery. I even asked about it, and no one knew.

I then started to believe it was a signature mark. Just like I use '~' before my name at the end of my messages. But then I noticed that it wasn't used all the time.

Well, this was starting to bug me. I wasn't loosing sleep over it, but not being able to understand it when it appeared was bothersome. It also has shown up more frequently. So, the other day, I decided to do a search... I'm proud to say, I found the answer!!!!

It's because the emails are coming from MS Outlook. When a person wants to put in a smiley face, Outlook uses the font 'Wingding' to put it in. Well, the key for the smiley face is 'J'! That means that whenever I receive an email with this in it, I just see the letter in a regular font, not the smiley face. Wow, that makes more sense!

So remember, if you see a 'J'.... just remember it's a smiley face!!!! (and that person is using Outlook for their emails!)

J = :)


~Matt