SHIGETOMI, Takuhiko wrote:
> greetings, Jim. :-)
> 
> thanx to your quick reply.
> oh, it's authorized name is... 'Berkeley shebang hack' / 'Berkeley #! hack'.
> and the name of the followings to the #! is called 'interrupter'.
> good, good, that' much more than I'd like to know. thank you.
> 
> let me explain the background of this question.
> yesterday, i participated a conference/meeting regarding of light-weight
> languages ( of course including ruby ), and found that one of the most
> skilful guys does not know how to pronounce it.
> many of japanese programmers call it 'sharp BIKKURI'.
> 'BIKKURI' means 'surprise' in japanese.
> and, i found myself that do not know how to "write" it in flat english.

by the way, a 'BIKKURI' in english is an exclamation mark. exclamation 
is like "MAJIDE!", so yeah, if you were to describe these two symbols 
just in english, it would:

'#' = 'pound sign' in america, 'hash symbol' in britain or australia
'!' = exclamation mark or exclamation point (exclamation is the noun of 
the verb 'to exclaim')

cheers

iain