I'm still thinking about the disappearance of cursive writing - aka "joined" writing. My friend Marla has some very apt thoughts about this, and I quote her comment: "The legibility of my handwriting continues to deteriorate each and every year, but I bemoan the disappearance of cursive writing to the Nth degree to all who will listen to me, and some who don't want to listen too! Future generations won't experience the intimate pleasure of reading love letters exchanged during the best of times and the worst of times... won't be able to read their ancestors long-treasured letters from the front lines of war... won't be able to read birth certificates, death certificates, and even handwritten wills... history will be sadder and less interesting for the loss of this ability. Decry this 'advancement' to the Heavens!!!! :-( " Thank you, dear heart, you added things I hadn't thought of. Has anyone read the novel, "Canticle for Leibowitz", by Walter Miller? It's an eras-long story based in a monastery where generations of monks cope with the world that keeps getting wiped out. After the first disaster a monk finds a few notes surviving from a wrecked fall-out shelter, buried along with its owner, Leibowitz. He takes them back to the monastery and the monks create beautiful illuminated manuscripts from them. One of the papers is Leibowitz's grocery list: bagels, salami, dill pickles - like that. The other is the schematic of a circuit box, the study of which eventually leads to the rediscovery of electricity and eventually another holocaust. Never under-estimate the power of the written word.