can we have emoticons to add to our response/questions

[edit] monotonous: not mononous

YOU were lucky tonight!

You WERE lucky tonight!

You were LUCKY tonight!

You were lucky TONIGHT!

(Please imagine italics or underlining instead of the capitals.)

Four sentences with the same four words... and four different meanings.

Of course, we could follow Dan's advice and change the words, escaping the necessity to use emphasis:

You were lucky tonight: I had a rotten run. Nothing better than a pair of threes.

You were lucky tonight... but your luck's just run out. Put your hands behind your head and face the wall..

You were lucky tonight: it had nothing to do with skill, believe me, Bub!

You were lucky tonight, but you're bound to lose against The Bruiser tomorrow,

But do we NEED to spell it out?

@ Dan: An excellent plan! Let's get rid of emphasis entirely. If we change the words we use, all is solved!

Every time I hear one of Martin Luther King, jr's speeches, I cry uncontrollably. Do you realise that his famous "I've been to the mountaintop!" speech was given the night before he was killed? In it he said:

"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not CONCERNED about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've SEEN the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, AS A PEOPLE, will get to the Promised Land!

"And so I'm happy, tonight.

"I'm not worried about anything.

"I'm not fearing ANY man!"

+++

He KNEW that he was a "dead man walking": sentenced to death by those who wanted to silence his message. And I certainly hope that he knew that he was immortal. (And I don't mean that in the religious sense.)

Now, I'd like you to imagine that very moving speech being delivered by some bozo in a totally mononous voice. Absolutely NO expression in the recital. Do those same words move you?

Emphasis is ESSENTIAL!!!