Ampersand, etc

Found here (the blog also has pastry ampersands -- mmm, edible typography!). This ampersand looks particularly chirpy ... what is it about it??

In case you're wondering (as I was...) where the word comes from, I'll save you the trouble of looking it up and quote the derivation from Wikipedia:

'The word ampersand is a conflation of the phrase "and per se and", meaning "and [the symbol which] by itself [is] and".[1] The Scots and Scottish English name for "&" is epershand, derived from "et per se and", with the same meaning.
'Traditionally, in English-speaking schools when reciting the alphabet, any letter that could also be used as a word in itself ("A", "I", and, at one point, "O") was preceded by the Latin expression per se (Latin for "by itself"). Also, it was common practice to add at the end of the alphabet the "&" sign as the 27th letter, pronounced and. Thus, the recitation of the alphabet would end in: "X, Y, Z and per se and". This last phrase was routinely slurred to "ampersand" and the term crept into common English usage by around 1837.[2][3]
'Through popular etymology, it has been claimed that André-Marie Ampère used the symbol in his widely read publications, and that people began calling the new shape "Ampère's and".'

One thing leads to another, and the Wikipedia entry led to another - Tironian notes - a system of shorthand dating back to Roman times. The original system of 4,000 signs was extended to about 13,000 used by medieval scribes.

The pic is Vindolanda Tablet 122, about 90-130 AD (from here).

Digressing again, the entry on etc. goes into the niceties of grammatical usage of the word, inter alia:

'Some publishing house styles[who?] (particularly in Britain) no longer require either the preceding comma or the following stop.[citation needed] In general, writers are advised to use the traditional style unless circumstances dictate otherwise.
'Some pickier editors consider that “and the rest” implies a finite list thus distinguishing “etc.” from “and the like”, “and so forth” and so on. “Apples, bananas, oranges and so on” would be preferred to “apples, bananas, oranges, etc." unless the greengrocer supplies a list of available fruit.'

And that's entirely enough digression for now.