So I turned to graphics gurus at Maryland Institute College of Art, a place that spent a year pondering the comma in its name before ultimately giving it the boot. Could the O's be up to some "experimental typography" (an actual course of study at MICA)?
"I don't really see a design argument for it," said MICA professor Ken Barber.
But Bruce Willen of Baltimore's avant garde Post Typography studio was open to that possibility.
"Maybe there's a great conceptual reason behind having an upside-down apostrophe," he theorized. Yet even this outside-the-box kinda guy - Willen once rearranged a wall of books in his apartment so the colors on the spines formed the word "home" - couldn't imagine what that great conceptual reason might be.
I wonder if the flipped apostrophe is at the root of the team's problems, Curse of the Grammarians sort of thing. Baseball is rife with superstitions, and the team hasn't had a winning season in the four years since that "O's" logo came out. Then again, the team hadn't had a winning season for seven years before that.
Lukas, the Uni Watch blogger, thinks there might be a connection, if not a curse.
"I do think the same management approach that results in lousy baseball can also lead to lousy grammar and lousy typography."
Cashing in on Schaefer
Maryland tax refund checks have started arriving in mailboxes - bearing William Donald Schaefer's signature, my colleague Dan Rodricks reports on his blog.
"I'd like to say it was our homage to Mr. Schaefer in the week of the premiere of his documentary," said Joseph Shapiro, spokesman for the man whose John Hancock is actually supposed to be there, Comptroller Peter Franchot.
The real reason: during some routine server maintenance, an electronic signature file for the former comptroller got mixed up with the current one. The really important part: The checks are still good.
