wingdings

you know how sometimes you start thinking and you go off on a tangent and one thought leads to another and pretty soon you're miles from where you started? i was looking at my tomtom last night and looking at the little street sign icon for the next turn and thought they did a pretty good job of matching the font on the screen to the font they use on the highway signs. then i remembered reading about how they were changing the font on the highway signs. then i thought about what font they might use. then i thought about where new fonts came from and imagined the following conversation occurring at a cocktail party somewhere in new york:

"Hi Jim, nice to meet you. What do you do for a living?"
"I'm a font designer."
"No kidding, really?"
"Yeah, you know Tahoma? Not to brag, but that was me."
"I love that font!"
"Thanks. I know it's no Times New Roman, but I do my best."
"Any other fonts I know?"
"Probably not, but you may have seen some of my editorials in New Font Monthly magazine if you've ever picked up a copy. I do a little freelance work for them on the side."
"Can't say that I have. Say, what the hell is the deal with Wingdings?"