W
![W](/content/images/size/w960/2024/06/W-letter-small-1.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2024/06/W-drawing-small-2.jpg)
W is for Waldorf Salad
A curious fruity salad from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NY. Originally two separate places - The Waldorf and The Astoria. One for Waldorfians and the other for Astorians, they merged to yield a unfied Upper Crust.
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2024/06/image-2.png)
The Double U
The double U is a parvenu β like the single U it derives from. A straggler to the English alphabet, it waltzed in late, accompanied by the letter J . The letter gets its name from the original letterform. Sometime around the introduction of the printing press (and the end of the practice of burning witches) it was a pair of 'U's.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/WondersoftheInvisibleWorld-1693.jpg)
I can see it now... if you are going to have to mess up all the upper and lower case-work by adding the letter U, why not just double things up to make the letter UU and call it a day. WooWoo β The pub calls.
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2024/06/Shaw--Henry---Alphabets---Numbers-of-the-Middle-Ages--1845-.jpg)
The letterform eventually merged into the double V we know, but its name did not β at least not in English β at least not yet. Maybe in the future, it will become something else entirely.
There's a long history of the alphabetical evolution of English Letterforms, including how the letter Z got booted to last place.
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2024/06/alphabet-evolution.png)
A coda for the birders - the Warbling Vireo!
![](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/assets/og/75222441-1200px.jpg)
As always, thanks for reading and indulging!
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