I can't quite let go of cursive writing, that is, of writing by hand. These days you can get workman's compensation for pain and disability caused by computers and there are names for it, like carpal tunnel syndrome and tinosynovitis - I had that, even though I can't spell it. Hand-writing could cause pain, too, especially to writers, writers without secretaries. In Roman times such secretaries were called amanuenses, educated slaves who could write and who relieved their owners' stress. I know of two writers in the 19th century who needed help. Louisa May Alcott wore out her hand making carbon copies of her manuscripts. She tried electric shock to try to ease the pain caused by repetitive pressure - no ultra-sound in those days. Henry James wore out his hand with his prolific writing and he also wore out two amanuenses. (One of them was named Helen Bosanquet - how could I forget? - but I'll check.) So now we have computers to save our hands but our wrists wear out. There's a whole science of ergonomics now, dealing with ways of coping with the hazards of computer activity. Potential pain is not the reason for people not writing by hand, though. Hand-writing is simply not prized. My grandfather, my father's father, won first prize for Penmanship in a contest in Canada which led to his successful career. Imagine getting a job these days because of what used to be called "a beautiful hand"! (Not a bridge hand.) I have terrible hand-writing but it doesn't stop me. It's my age, you see; I still love paper, hands-on. I love to make notes and lists, scribbling ideas and reminders and aides-mémoire (yes!) and then, when I have followed up on them, throwing away the paper they were written on. I love paper, too, and write on the back of used paper. This is not ergonomic, this is ecological. And now my battery is running out. My hands feel fine.

Except when you have to go to the dentist. So another day went phstt, like that whooshing noise your email makes as it rushes away from your computer. iPad, whatever.But I'm still here, and still trying to deal with that list of things that, unlike me, will disappear in my lifetime - well, then, of course, so will I. Not to worry. We're up to Number NIne: joined handwriting. That's what it's called in the list I was sent. It used to be called "cursive" handwriting but I suppose if you cant'/don't do it you don't know that. Now think back, think way way back to your own childhood and try to remember when/how you first learned to write, that is, the physical act of writing, that is, joining your printed letters to make them flow. Does anyone remember filling a page with Os? Or up-down, evenly spaced Ls (lower case). I think it happened about Grade Three. Apparently, it doesn't happen any more. Did you know that? I just found out a few months before my end-of-things-in-our lifetime-list appeared. Cursive writing is no longer taught in schools. I guess the reasoning is that no one does it any more, writes, that is. I'm not talking about writing-writing because everyone is a writer these days, or thinks they are. (Note the generic plural, which I normally hate.) Marshall McLuhan predicted this: that one day everyone is going to be an "artist"/writer, whatever, and then the problem will be who will read him/her/them? That's another discussion. I'm still trying to deal with the physical act of writing. I was at the birthday party of an 88-year-old friend and he showed me a note on his fridge door written to him by his 12-year-old granddaughter. He beamed with pride as he pointed it out and took it off to show me: it was WRITTEN. This little girl had learned that there was another way to put words on paper and she had practised all summer to join together her print letters to make them flow. Well, it wasn't flow, exactly, but the letters were joined - and that's where the term "joined" handwriting comes from. One can't call it a step forward, at least, I can't. Oh, look, they still call different styles of letters fonts, even though lead fonts have long disappeared, and the old wooden font-boxes have been hung upright on walls to hold tschotschkes (please, somebody, tell me how to spell this word, it's not in my online dictionary). They still call a car's strength "horsepower" and light is measured in terms of candle-power. Everything evolves and we refer to the past technology to identify a current one. So - "joined" handwriting. Well, why not, I guess. I've already bemoaned that fact that no one writes letters any more. I'd be grateful for a printed one.