A Review of the Letter C

It may not be as educational as Sesame Street, but what do you expect without the help of puppets?

I should just get this off my chest before we start because I don’t want to lie to you: C is, and has always been, my favorite letter. Therefore, I can’t promise that this will be an unbiased and professional review (as all the previous reviews have clearly been).

Things I like: I definitely think one of the letter C’s best qualities is that you get to go up a note higher when you get to it in the ABC’s song (try it out, it’s true, the first note change). I don’t know anything about music so I can’t tell you about how wonderful the actual note C is, but I’m sure it is just as cool as the letter’s cameo in the ABC’s song. And the letter is also very powerful, I know this because just by saying the letter, it can mean actual full words (see, sea…ok I thought the list here was going to be a little longer).

If you know me at all, than you know that all of my favorite foods start with the letter C. If I could only eat foods of one letter, I’d certainly pick those of the C variety.

Cake (regular and of the pan), candy, cereal (if this was the only C food I liked, I’d still pick C because I love cereal that much), club soda, cheese, cherries, chicken, chicken noodle soup (I don’t know if that needed its own label), chocolate, coffee (iced), cookies, corn (popped, cobbed, and kettled), cottage cheese (oh, double C, if this was Scattergories I’d be scoring big points), crab, croissants, and the list could keep going.
(I don’t know if you noticed, but I alphabetized the list, because the alphabet has clearly been on my mind). But think about it, do all of your favorite foods start with a certain letter? Maybe it’s genetic.

On a hockey jersey, a C signifies that you are the captain. Just another reminder of how much a leader, but also a team player C is. Think about other letters on your clothes, if you’re going with A it might look bad (circa 17th century The Scarlet Letter). C is a safer bet.

Things I would change: I’ll be honest, it comes a little too early in the alphabet. By the time you get to Z it’s been forgotten and overshadowed by X, and the LMNO group. Another problem is that a lot of gross words start with this letter, like one real bad one I won’t say. And curd, crusty, callus, and cowabunga (dude). Another thing that starts with the letter C that I’m not okay with is Car, and clearly driving isn’t one of my strong suits (6 accidents later, we’ll C how long they’ll let me keep my license).

Also, if I could change the shape of the C a little, I might help it out and give it a little tail in the back or something so that it has a shape all its own, not just that of a half a handcuff or a sickle cell. But I’ll just say, the most unfortunate letter shapes are that of l and o (one’s a cheerio and the other is a stick). How uninspired our letters are, Chinese and Japanese letters must look at G (maybe our best work) and the others and think we’re lame.

What it makes me think/feel: I’m happy that I know how to read, and proud to have such a commanding, confident, and caring letter in my name (look at that alliteration). What if you didn’t have to capitalize the first letter of your name and instead you could choose your letter of capitalization? aliCia. Your initials could be anything, and might change depending no your mood (your monogrammed towels would get so confused).