(HOST) When Vermont Humanities Council Executive Director and commentator Peter Gilbert thinks about voting, he thinks about ballots, which leads him to think about X - the twenty-fourth letter in the Roman alphabet  - and the multiple meanings it has in our culture.

(GILBERT) X - It's how we mark our choice on a ballot.

It's how people traditionally signed their names if they couldn't write.

It's the special place on the map.  X marks the spot.

When children end their letters with Xs and Os, it stands for the kisses in "hugs and kisses."

But it's also how we show rejection, by, for example, crossing something out.

Malcolm X took it as his surname to suggest a rejection of a name and identity imposed by others.  When the movie "Malcolm X" came out, some white southerners wore Confederate flag T-shirts that said, "You wear your X, I'll wear mine."  Those Xs meant very different things.

In Roman numerals, it means ten.

It also means "multiply," as in 2 times 2 is 4.  And so X times X (or XXX) is 100, but XXX in Roman Numerals is 30.

It means extra, as in extra large. Or, increasingly,  EXXX-tra large .

It's the horizontal axis on a graph - the X axis, neither evil nor good.  

It means suitable only for adults X-rated.

But it also means either Christ   or cross   in the contraction for Christmas Xmas.

It's the Greek letter Chi - which - when you put it together with the Greek letter R (which looks like a P) - the C-h-r are the first letters of the word CHRist.  This is the symbol one sees in some churches, the overlapping X and P - literally a monogram for Christ.

It's a contraction for  "cross," as in pedestrian crossing and railroad crossing , which on the road signs is PED-EX-ING and RR-EX-ING. It's sometimes pronounced as X, as in exchange, but sometimes it's pronounced not exactly like an X, as in exactly.  And sometimes it's pronounced like a Z! as in Xerox or Xerxes.  But in the Roman letter equivalent of Chinese words, we use an X to stand for the Sh sound as in the famous city in China, Xian - X, I, A, N.  

In chemistry, it's the symbol for xenon.

As a middle initial, it usually stands for Xavier.

In algebra, it's a place holder: X, the unknown.  
 
But in Scrabble, it's the letter that's worth eight points, which you hate to get stuck with, but love to get if you can somehow use it.