1566 Hash it Out

Yesterday I commented on signs of our symbolic confusion when it comes to the use of same. Namely the dollar sign, which we put in front of a number, but then say with the dollar word after the number. We do not say dollars 100. We say 100 dollars.
My friend Rick pointed out after my commentary that the number sign is even more confusing. The number sign is that crosshatchy thing that looks like a bent tic-tac-toe playing field. It's official name is the "number" sign.
But that's only if you place it in front of a number. If you place it after a number, it is widely use as a "pound" sign. When you get telephone menu instructions, the robotic telephone menu reader tells you to press the "pound" sign. And if you want to write "2 pounds of fruit" you can write a 2 and the crosshatchy thing.
Even more confusing, there is a pound sign that refers to actual weight poundage and it looks similar, except the right vertical crosshatch is a lowercase b, and the bottom horizontal crosshatch is absent.
While we're at it, the British symbol for pound, as in pound sterling, looks like a capital E with DTs. Or possibly a Frenchified "L" with a funny looking hat on it.
£
And even more confusing, the pound or number or crosshatchy bent tic-tac-toe sign is now being used by the Twitter folk to do shortcuts. And in that usage is known as a "hashtag."
The symbol is known in that domain simply as the "hash" symbol. Imagine sending someone a tweet that sent them a web shortcut where they could order number 2 on the menu, 2 pounds of tic-tac-toe forms.
##22##'s
Ah…symbols of our communication success.
America, ya gotta love it.