[xander]

Got to work at typing two em dashes, not found easily on conventional keyboard — or do you?

Double hyphens can automatically be converted into an Em Dash by some applications. Could it be five hyphens were typed but software converted to two em dashes and a hyphen? Five hyphens 23 -—> 5/23?

Testing:
-23
—23
-—23
——23
-——23

Two long dashes in Morse Code is the letter M. M-23 -—> May 23rd?

Just throwing it out there.

[Cboldt]

-- Could it be five hyphens were typed but software converted to two em dashes and a hyphen? --

Other than the original source is ONE emdash, and ONE hyphen ...

You bring up a good point though. Maybe what we see in an artifcat of autocorrect or aut-conversion, so what we see is not "pure Q." What then? Interpret the autocorrect's mind? ROTFL!!

[xander]

That test was one hyphen through five hyphens with the number 23 and no spaces.

This site automatically converted my hyphens to Em Dashes. Interestingly the odd number of hyphens I typed placed the remaining unpaired hyphen at the beginning of the chain and not at the end as we see it in the Q post. Site/software dependent perhaps.