ypsi~dixit

I have only received one as well, and it too was a doosy. My partner had been laid off for over two years and the telegram was his call back to work. I wanted to kiss the delivery man, I was so relieved. The early 1980s economy was a big bust for us and is scarily reminiscent today.

"The One Telegram of My Life." No chance for any more...and to anyone born after the millenium it will just be a quaint old-timey anachronism.

That *is* a doozy. Odd to think that a simple old email can reach one's intended so much faster than the formerly-lightning-fast telegram...

Somehow I *knew* you were going to write about this... ;)

IM SUPRISED WESTERN UNION DIDNT EXIT BUSINESS MUCH EARLIER STOP EMAIL HERE A LONG TIME STOP FAX EVEN LONGER STOP

STOP ME BEFORE I STOP AGAIN STOP

Scott: Oh, how funny. I wonder why you thought so?

I'm fascinated by things relating to communication and language, the stranger and more archaic the better. This is a real milestone, the passing of a venerable old communication form that brought so many messages of joy and awful doom to millions over those 145 years.

I recently read a book about the history of telegraphy that described two people getting married, at two different locations, via telegraph...and after the "I dos," all the operators up and down the line chiming in with their Morsed congratulations for the happy couple.

I love this story. Getting married by email--feh!--would not be the same at all.

But I wonder why one method is romantic and charming and the other is tacky and silly?

Tom: I had to laugh. Silly. :)

Valid points, though. Fascinatingly, faxes are *older* than telegraphy and the fax machine was patented in 1843! From here:

"Facsimile transmission over wires or faxing was invented by Alexander Bain, a Scottish mechanic who in 1843 received a British patent for “improvements in producing and regulating electric currents and improvements in timepieces and in electric printing and signal telegraphs.” Seven years earlier, Samuel Morse invented the telegraph and the fax machine evolved from the telegraph technology."

More expanded history of the fax machine here.

OK, just a minute here--before we get all sad over no more telegrams, I just realized that telegrams are alive and well--they're just no longer being sent by Western Union. They're being sent by cell phones and Blackberries and Yahoo apps--they're IMs.

The Morse code transmissions you hear aren't necessarily spy communications. There is a group of amateur radio operators with Ypdidixit sensibilities who still use Morse code. They even have a website.

Ooh, cool! Yes, I'm all for the preservation of Morse code in everyday life. For example, it would be a handy thing to use at a hideously boring party, to say to your spouse:

".... --- -. . -.-- --..-- / .. / -.-. .- -. .----. - / ... - .- -. -.. / .-.. .. ... - . -. .. -. --. / - --- / - .... .. ... / -.. .-. .. ...- . .-.. / ..-. --- .-. / --- -. . / -- .. -. ..- - . / .-.. --- -. --. . .-. .-.-.- / .-.. . - .----. ... / --. --- / .... --- -- . / .- -. -.. / ... -. ..- --. --. .-.. . .-.-.- "

Phooey, I see someone posted this on Metafilter at 10 a.m. today...now my post looks like a lame MF rehash; ah, well. Not the world's biggest problem.

We used morse code in the co-ops to signal peoples' names. There was a system where you could tap long-long-short and it would transmit through the house. That was nice because you didn't have to shout, "MOOOOOONNNN-CHHHHIIIIILLLLD! YOU HAVE A PHONE CALL!!" but what was funny was how everything would stop and people would snap to attention mid-conversation to listen for their code. (I think I've written about this before here.... that or I'm just having a strange deja vu).

Anna: Heh. That's a good story. I can't recall your telling it before, though. It's funny to think of everyone snapping to attention at the first tap.

But, how would it transmit through the house? Would you tap on a pipe, or something? Just curious.

I wish they would have given us more warning - I would have liked to have sent one more telegram.

I feel like IMs and SMSs/TXTs are not the same.

Kind of like the difference between having to come into my office on Sunday to read the NYTimes online versus being able to walk down to the corner store and buy it, and sit down with it in my hands next to a big steaming latte.

I hear I could buy it in Frankfurt if I lived there, but it would cost 10 Euros and be one day old and - frankly - what is the point of a Sunday NY Times on Monday?

Daniel: That is a wonderful comparison, with the NYT. And what a vision of Sunday indolence it evoked. There's nothing I love better than to snag a sunday NYT and dawdle the morning away on the Ugly Mug patio in the summer, over a steady series of bagels and cups of coffee....ah, the good life.

10 Euros for a day-old paper--phew.

Daniel, forgive a stupid question: do you live in Germany? I didn't know that. I'm very flattered to have a reader in Germany. Thanks for stopping by.

Say. Without looking it up: what is the present tense of wrought?

My guess is wreak.

Laurens & Suzie: Yep.

"Hey, God, whatcha wreakin' today? How 'bout whippin' up a manimal or two?"

Oh, what's the past tense of Beware?
Do we say "He Bewore being caught"?
Should we use the same usage with Fare?
And what is the present of Wrought?

Can a wheelwright be said to Wright Wheels?
Should Sluice follow Loose into Sluisen?
And this oral philologist feels
That Mongoose & Son are Mongoosen.

Surely more than one Bus shold be Bi;
Might not Might in the past become Mought?
And Trew is the perfect of Try--
But what is the present of Wrought?

… anyway: to work, wrought, wrought. Few people know it, but in the sentence "what hath God wrought" it makes perfect sense. God worked a great deal, in His time.

Laurens: Lovely poem: thank you for that bit of whipped cream. Fun.

(forlornly) no one asked me what my telegram was about.

(sniff).

HA! I *knew* you were just being coy!
(Anyone who is a blogger is probably not going to mention such a thing and then want to keep it hidden.)
So..... I'll bite. What was the telegram about? Hopefully not something too bad.

No ma'am. It was...(pauses for effect)

(audience cranes forward expectantly)

...a marriage proposal.

(audience:) Oooooo. (widespread murmuring).

Yes indeedy. From a guy down in Indiana (sheesh) whom i was seeing at the time, many years ago. But the relationship fizzled out soon after. Too much idealism involved on either side. At any rate.

Oooooo. (murmur murmur)

Very interesting!

Well, it's better it didn't work out; we were a bit unrealistic. At any rate.