This morning I drove my kid to the bus stop, like I do every morning. It’s not because he can’t walk the however many blocks there – he walks back from the stop after school – but more that getting him to get there on time on foot has proven to be an impossibility on par with perpetual motion. So I drive him there. This morning, the bus didn’t show up, so I had to drive him to school, knowing that I hadn’t written a Cold Start the night before, and I had no idea what I was going to write today. But then inspiration came, as always, from the back of a Ford Bronco.
The inspiration from the rear of that Bronco came from the taillights, because as we all know, taillights are a constant source of inspiration. Specifically, the rear indicators on the current-gen Bronco – which are thankfully amber – appear to be in the shape of curly brackets.


You know, these things:
{ }
Seriously, look at them:
I mean, that absolutely looks like a curly bracket. They’re sort of oddly ornate for the Bronco’s overall aesthetic (I’d have assumed if Bronco rear indicators looked like any type of bracket, it’d be the square ones [ ]) but I do appreciate that bit of directionality in there, with that little hyphen-shaped middle bit pointing the direction. But there’s no question these indicators look like { }.
So, let’s talk a bit about curly brackets! I think for most people, they’re just kind of weird and rarely used, just hanging out there on the keyboard, seeming like a pair of parentheses that are just trying too hard. But curly brackets have all sorts of really specific uses!
Curly brackets likely exist on your computer keyboard at all because of the work of one man, Bob Bemer, who incorporated them into the character set of the IBM 7030 of 1961, also known as “Stretch,” which was the first transistorized supercomputer and the fastest computer in the world in 1961. This was the first machine to have an 8-bit byte which freed up room in the character set for more characters, including the curly brackets.
According to the Chicago Manual of Style and the AP stylebook, here’s how curly brackets are used:
“Braces ({}), also called curly brackets, provide yet another option for enclosing data and are used in various ways in ceratin programming languages. They are also used in mathematical and other specialized writing (see, e.g., 12.28). Braces are not interchangeable with parentheses or brackets.”
As you can see, these are also called “braces,” usually in British Commonwealth English-speaking places, like the inside of Matt Berry’s head. We’ll save the programming language part for a bit later, but in normal, prose English, it seems curly brackets are most often used to differentiate an example of something from the rest of the body text. An example might be
“There is one well-established and proven way to double the resale value of a Yugo {fill it up with gas}.”
There are, of course, other ways to cite examples in texts, but it looks like curly brackets can definitely fill that role.
In mathematics, curly brackets denote sets, which are just any collection of mathematical objects that form a group:
{1,2,x,11,42,8,6,7,5,3,0,9…}
As noted before, curly brackets are used in many programming languages, and there’s even a whole category of programming languages that use curly brackets called “curly bracket (or curly brace) languages.” Some very common languages like Java and C++ fit in this category, because their code uses curly brackets extensively to denote beginnings and ends of code blocks:
public void flagTest() { boolean flag = true; int i = 10; if (flag == true) { for( int i=0; i<10; i++ ) { System.out.print("flag sure seems true"); } } flag = false; }
Sticking to computer stuff, we may as well note that the Unicode for { is U+007B and } is U+007D, while the old ASCII values for them are:
In music, they’re used to group two clefs on a musical staff should be connected and played together, sometimes specifying what instrument should play them together:
There was also an archaic chemistry use of the curly brackets to show molecules, but we now just use a subscript number. For example look at these two ways to show the molecule that makes up water, with two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen:
Sometimes you see oversized curly brackets used to connect lines of text together or, informally in handwritten contexts, just group any set of vertically-stacked things into one category; the unique shape of the curly bracket, which includes a collecting element and a pointing element, makes them unusually well-suited to this task:
I’m sure there’s more to curly brackets and their history and use, but for the moment, I’m just happy to see them celebrated on the rears of Broncos all over the place, encouraging people to consider these hardworking and largely under-appreciated bits of punctuation.
These { } are only for the Bronco LED taillights, the halogen tails are a little different …
https://thebronconation.com/general-bronco-discussion-n.139/taillamp-comparison-led-v-halogen-t.3707/
Personally to me, the LEDs are Bs and the halogens are Cs.
Well, can’t unsee that.
Jeez. Again.
This is the most interesting bit of writing about/related to punctuation since I learned about Oxford commas years ago. I mean that sincerely and without even a trace of snark.
And it’s perhaps the most interesting thing I’ve read at The Autopian this morning (so far). Could I have properly used curly brackets here instead of parenthesis? I dunno!
Other than perhaps Mercedes’ item about the WiLL Vi for sale at BaT https://www.theautopian.com/how-the-most-boring-car-company-ended-up-building-this-extremely-weird-car/#comments which has finally prompted me to set up a BaT bidding account even though I suspect I couldn’t register this car in California.
So THANKS! 😀
Never change Torch. NEVER change.
The only thing that would make these indicators better is if the larger interior portion lit in a sequence that ended in the smaller vertical area, thus giving a sense of motion of funneling of the light to that small area, pointing left or right.
Are you trying to start an argument about The One True Brace Style? I suppose next you’re going to do an article about bike shed coloration. 😉
Those are programmer jokes, for those of you who actually possess social skills and have no idea what I’m talking about.
Came here for the automobile articles, stayed for the one describing the historical uses of the curly bracket.
Have you noticed that the Kia Soul taillights resemble old-school telephone receivers?
Ford PR Guy: It’s The Autopian again. Apparently the Bronco’s taillights look like curly brackets.
Ford Engineer: FOR THE LAST TIME, THEY ARE… wait, holy shit they do.
I look at those turn signals and I see Bender’s hands (Grabby and Squeezy).
If you’re a connoisseur of curly brackets you should watch Nanowar of Steel’s performance of HelloWorld.java
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yup8gIXxWDU
Have we not discussed that the current gen VW Tiguans say “GT” in the tail lights? A missed opportunity for Ford.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRbP_luW4AA7I2_.jpg:large
I’m getting FT more than GT, but hey that’s neat!
If you ever played Gran Turismo, you would know Polyphony could likely sue for how similar these are to the GT logo.
I always see two opposing machine guns…
Spy vs. Spy
This content is why I love The Autopian. Few minds work like Jason’s and the world is a brighter, better place because of him.
Perilously close to a { group text conversation on Signal }
Looks like we’ve found the SecDef’s Autopian handle.
Hopefully early enough in the morning that he’s momentarily sober enough to drive.
Curley Brackets played inside linebacker at LSU in the late 70’s alongside Feral Katz and Librarian Booker.
These appear to be inspired by those crazy Mini taillights that pointed in the wrong direction. But in this case, done a little more sensibly, so they point in the direction they should.
(Then again I don’t know {Union} Jack about taillight design.)
I’m waiting for the article about how the newer Hyundai Santa Fe headlights and tailights look like dog bones. Not actualy dog bones, but like a cartoon drawing of a dog bone.
I have an even MORE specific reference than that; maybe I’ll do that up tomorrow
Excellent, please do. I can’t see one of those now without saying ‘dog bones’ out loud. It’s funny, I’ve paid far more attention than I never thought possible to tailights as a result of your writing; they used to be a nice feature, now they’re the first place I look.
It’s the dog bones in Mouse Trap for the Atari 2600 isn’t it?
Shhhhhhhhhhhh and yes, dammit, yes
I see them as a big “H” and therefore trying way to hard to be clever.
I figured they were referencing Pueblo design patterns, pottery and blankets.
Petition to always call them braces because people have no idea how or when to say *curly* brackets and so just call them brackets but get cross when you type/indicate/semaphore/erotic tattoo actual brackets.
Fun additional fact, they can be used to indicate depth/ordinality in parenthetical statements:
“Torch likes Volkswagen Beetles (mostly the older [like 50-60 years {which at the time of this writing places them in the 1960s and 1970s} old] models).”
I used to be angry because my erotic tattoo braces weren’t curly enough, but after a few years of sagging and drooping they’re curlier than ever.
The world would have been better off if I never learned that there is a grammatically correct way to nest parenthetical expressions. I will definitely be abusing that and then smugly explaining why I’m right when people call me on it. 😛
Thank you kind sir or madam, because for years I have struggled on how to communicate that sort of ordinal thought or verbal communication in writing.
Isn’t Curly Brackets the sequel to Peaky Blinders?
Now you’re going to get the mathematicians all riled up because not all sets are groups. Only sets with certain properties are groups. Fortunately I’m a geologist, so, you know, whatever.
Rocks are rocks, right?
They’re minerals! Jesus, Marie.
You’re welcome.
What I like most about that scene is that geodes are, in fact, rocks, not minerals.
Blessed closure, finally.
And to think, all this time I believed that Curly brackets were put on the keyboard by Curly Howard.
There are families that are on time and families that make excuses.
Excellent work Torch as always.
“Braces are not interchangeable with parentheses or brackets.”
Good God, no self respecting Bronco would think of using the plebeian parenthesis for such a directional indicator. Ford takes all Amber-related illumination seriously.
Let Jeep keep their vulgar illiterate square taillights to themselves.
Those are the taillights that accompany the optional “Signature Headlights.” The standard Bronco taillight is a red incandescent brake light/turn signal bulb. There is a white lens for the reverse light that is more square bracket shaped.
And how much do these “Signature Headlights” add to the price of an already overpriced SUV?
Yes, Clem Fandango, I can hear you.
Temper, temper, Steven.
I was thinking last night that there’s definitely a trend of square-brackets in modern pickup truck running light design right now [8—8]
Somebody needs to get ahead of the trend and make sure that their turn signals (amber surrounding red) are proper angle/pointy-brackets <<>—<>> on some nicely angular sports car.
I could see something rounded and cheerful like a revised Beetle or Pao using nice, soft parentheses instead (0—-0)
Ugh that dumb dog bone shape on the Santa Fe. No thank you good day
Yah, not a fan of that one.
All vehicle lighting should resemble punctuation.
When will we see the first interrobang indicators?
Kia or Nissan – red ! for stop (caution!) and yellow ? for turn signal (might swerve this way, might not.)
(I say this as a driver of a Nissan pickup.)
Not soon enough.