Thursday, 1/12

Does anybody even write that way any more?

I've just finished reading a book called “Obsolete: An Encyclopedia of Once Common Things”, written by Jane Grossman, a book that deals with things that were once ubiquitous but are now rarely used anymore, everything from dial telephones to, well, encyclopedias. It was a fun read, and it was amazing how many of the items described as obsolete were items that I once used.

It almost made me feel “old” for a second!

Anyway, one of the items discussed as being obsolete was cursive writing. Despite the fact that I have to sign my name four or five times a day on legal documents for the station, and despite the fact that when I sign my name I sign it in cursive, I have to admit that aside from the letters that make up “James S. Koski” I would have absolutely no idea how to write a word or a sentence in cursive. Aside from those eight letters that comprise my name, I couldn't write a word in cursive if my life depended on it

So hopefully it won't any time soon!

In fact, aside from the technical logs that I have to sign in four different places every day at work, about the only other document on which I have to write cursive—and that's just to sign my name—is when I make out a check. I'll sign my name in cursive, but write everything else out like a normal person, in regular script. Of course, speaking of things that are (almost) obsolete, I can't even remember the last time I wrote out a check. I have bill pay for bills, use credit cars when I shop, and on those rare occasions when I have to write out a check I stare at it like it's some sort of extraterrestrial hieroglyph and try to remember what I have to write where.

Luckily, I have a wife who works in banking and can tell me what goes where. Or at least she does when she's finished laughing at my total ignorance of matters financial.

I should ask my nieces about this, because I'm curious, but do they even teach cursive writing in schools any more? I would think that computer keyboard skills are about a zillion times more important to learn than writing in some sort of flowery script, but I have no idea. Whenever Courtney or Mallory or Sydney leave me hand-written notes it's usually in block printing, the same way I write whenever I actually have to hand-write something. Seeing as how it's been deemed “obsolete” maybe cursive isn't even taught any more, much in the way you no longer have to teach kids how to plow a field with an ox or teach budding doctors on the ethics of using leeches.

Like I said, hopefully I won't have to hand-write anything in cursive any time soon. Because if I do, I'll probably need a couple of bottles of Wite-Out lying around. Oh, wait...Wite-Out was in that “Obsolete” book, too.

Guess if I do have to write something in cursive any time soon I'm just plain out of luck!

(jim@wmqt.com)