Daveed Reviews

Smiley Face

OK, I saw Forrest Gump, so I know the origin behind the Smiley Face. What I don’t get is how casually ubiquitous it has become since, well, forever (note to audience: my “forever” is about 39 years and counting).

And, the Smiley Face is no passing fad, either. At least not in the frivolous way that, say, patriotism was for a year or 2 after 9-11, or how it was cool for 2 minutes for white guys that thought they were hip and somehow urban to slap each other on the back because they shouted “Whoop! There it is!” or “Who let the dogs out? Who? Who? Who?”. Nope, it was there during the first coming of low rise hip huggers (oh, how I love them!), hung on strong through the fashion abyss of parachute pants and is still here to see the second coming of low-rise hip huggers (please, god, not parachute pants again!). Yup, the Smiley Face has Staying Power like Santa has days off.

I don’t actually remember when I saw my first Smiley Face, but I imagine it was when I was in kindergarten and the teacher put it on my daily report sheet the first day I didn’t get in a fight or cry because the other kids made fun of my curly hair or teased me because I had a British accent (that’s another story). Sorry for the downer: this is supposed to be a happy story : )!

From that day on, the Smiley Face was a regular player in my life. Not there every day or even every week, but you could always count on him (it’s gotta be a dude, right? No hair!) making an appearance when you least expected it and with little fanfare. Birthday card; I-have-a-crush-on-you note; honey-please-get-this-from-the-store sticky; and now some of the manliest of men I know are throwing them into their emails.

Last week a fax came across my desk at work. Odd you say? Not really, tons of faxes come my way every day. This one was special though: the sender, a paralegal at a law firm, had handwritten the note “These look great! Please send formals” and then carefully, lovingly drew the arc of the smile, 2 vertical slashes for eyes and circled it. And what did I do? I started to smile.

posted by daveed @ 20.12.05