The Letter V
Sorry, every other letter in the alphabet, you’re fired. The letter V has completely dominated popular culture.
Vvvv vvv vv, V vvvvv, vvv vvvv vvvvvv vv’vv vvvv vv vvv vv “v.”
In the collage, roughly from left to right:
- Supermodel Anne V (Sports Illustrated photo), wearing a v-neck bathing suit, from her 5-year SI run.
- Actress Morena Baccarin as Anna in the new “V” series on ABC.
- The energy drink V.
- XKCD illustrating Valentine’s Day (V Day). (Notice that the bottom half of a heart forms a V.)
- The band Live’s album V.
- V logos for Virgin brands as well as the TV series “V” look similar.
- The annual music festival in the UK.
- The victory gesture with 2 fingers; Churchill (his arm, at least) and Nixon are demonstrating here. Nixon is really demonstrating three Vs.
- The graphic novel V for Vendetta, written by Alan Moore, drawn by David Lloyd, which later became a movie.
- In the HBO series “True Blood,” adapted from the Charlaine Harris novels, vampires are known as “Vs,” and their blood is a drug known as “V” (reminiscent of “X” for ecstasy).
- Visitors, visitors, everywhere. In addition to the current “V” series (where the Visitors are called “Vs”), there was the original two-part 1983 miniseries, a three-part 1984 miniseries, a short-lived 1984 TV series, and various novels and comics.
- Thomas Pynchon’s first novel, V.
- The V subway train, familiar in orange to residents of New York.
- The Gibson Flying V, made famous by Lonnie Mack and Jimi Hendrix.
- V Day (or V-J Day), and the world’s most famous photograph of a kiss in Times Square.
And there are probably a dozen more I could have included if I had thought of them.