Ampersands are cool

Dear Hipster:

(1) What’s with the trend of local hipster places with two words separated by an ampersand? Like: Herb & Wood, Soda & Swine, Craft & Commerce, Ketchup & Vodka, etc.

(2) Are those of us here in San Diego hipsterland (down by the hills, heights, & parks) purveyors of trends that originate in, say, Williamsburg or Silverlake? Or do we successfully originate our own trends, like flights of lattes, quartyards, & artisan jackfruit pop pies? Are we missing out on anything new?

— D.J.

(1) Don’t focus on the two words. Focus on the ampersand. The ampersand is the second most hipster punctuation mark (the first is the interrobang, but I don’t have to tell you that) because it was the word “and” before the word “and” was cool, or even much of a word, for that matter. Plus, no matter what hipster font you render it in, the ampersand looks cool as shit. Whether it comes out looking like a trumpet from some crazy Dr. Seuss world or a two-tailed sperm; it’s super-duper cool and unmistakably hipster.

(2) Whatever an artisan jackfruit pop pie is, if we’ve got that, we definitely aren’t missing out on anything worth keeping up with. Existentially speaking, is it possible to miss out on something you don’t know about (since you can’t miss something you don’t know exists)? Or is it only possible to miss out on stuff you haven’t heard of?