How can we readers know how to ‘take’ the article when he didn’t use emojis?
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To be fair, it’s an old-timer thing to realize Barney is often joking. I can see why new folks wouldn’t be hip to it.
I should have made my question more specific. I was referring to the author of the Slate article and his omission of any emojis to guide the reader.
Him and that Mark Twain guy!
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Mark Twain this guy definitely is not.
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Odd that you would mention Mark Twain. After my post last night I was thinking I should add a new project to my bucket list that would add emojis to older books to help guide readers. I was trying to decide between Huckleberry Finn or Slaughterhouse - Five, or, The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death. I guess I will start off with Huckleberry. I will try to sell the idea to Amazon Books. They could offer it as a variation of their Kindle ebooks.
But wait, just like all my great ideas I will find out that books with emojis are already ‘a thing’.
I found an old thread on this forum titled something like ‘You know you are old if’. I was going to post ‘You remember when vacuum tube testers were in all the hardware and grocery stores’. Then I found out that they are still making amps with vacuum tubes from another thread - so I just shut up. Like I will do now.
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Try that with a book of Kafka. You will only need one emoji: 
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True. We read Verwandlung in my 4th year German class in high school.
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This is the most High School German Teacher story ever. “Now ist die zeit when we read from Kafka and feel gloom.”
Ours was cool, she took us to a really nice German restaurant.
Mine was about 24 years old and a looker so the class was easy on the eyes. Up until she went from Fräulein to Frau between my Junior and Senior years!
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I was too hasty in my first response. I think Kafka could a perfect example of how to help out readers. A few 
s and some 
s and a sprinkling of 
s would be sure to lighten the mood of any Kafka story.
I can feel a song coming on:
First Verse
There was a time in this fair land when computers did not rule.
We learned to read and write longhand and spell inside our school.
Long before the Bluetooth, and long before the Nerd,
When two point four gigahertz was too silent to be heard.
Now if I just come up with a melody. Hmm
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Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference. - mark twain
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Also, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience 
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There are only two ways to know that, @Mike_NL.
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My favourite Twain quote was “Politicians are a lot like diapers. They should be changed frequently, and for the same reasons”
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One of my favorite Twain quotes
Familiarity breeds contempt—and children
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Buddy, I’m just the bass player…
That is hard on my brain… 
Yikes - I get it.
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