Today, January 23rd, is National Handwriting Day. It was established by the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association in 1977 to promote the consumption of pens, pencils and writing paper. January 23rd was chosen as the date for National Handwriting Day because it's also the birthday of the man with the most recognizable signature in America - John Hancock, the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence ...
Nowadays, handwriting is a dying art. Children are taught keyboarding skills rather than good penmanship, and it's a rare event to receive a handwritten letter. Those of you to whom I've handwritten personal letters will probably remember the pleasure of receiving an epistle that someone actually wrote by hand (if not necessarily the content thereof). A letter written by hand in ink on paper provides a degree of personal connection that a word-processed, laser-printed letter doesn't give, even if the content is the same.
You've probably also received a lot of junk mail that looks like it's been addressed by hand, but was actually done with a handwriting font. The easy way to sort out those things (if the font initially fools you) is to check the postage - you can be about 99% sure that it was sent at the bulk postage rate.
If you want to make people think you've handwritten something, you can download many hundreds of fonts that mimic cursive handwriting* ... here's one site that offers them.
And if you just want the practice, go ahead and celebrate National Handwriting Day by writing a letter to ol' Bilbo. Yes - you, too, Mike.
Have a good day. Write a letter to someone. If you want a personal, handwritten letter of your own, send me your snail mail address by e-mail and I'll send you one ... as long as you promise to write back.
More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
5 comments:
Did you make it through the links to this article? http://www.vox.com/2016/3/2/11148356/donald-trump-short-fingers-small-hands-vulgarian
It's funny stuff.
My handwriting looks like a three year olds' scribbling. I've though of several different ways to get some kind of letter to you and have never followed through. Maybe the script fonts are the way to go.
Oops, sorry Bill.
We just had this conversation about penmanship in our home this past weekend. I was writing a thank you card and my writing was appalling to me. I said to my hubby that I actually received penmanship awards throughout school, now it's not even legible. I was taught typing in school as well as penmanship. I think we may still need both. Do people not send birthday cards and thank you cards anymore? You can't type those. Or just send them via email? Hmm...not cool.
Okay must now go to read Mike's link above me.
One disadvantage of handwriting (unless you use carbon paper - is that even still available???) is that you don't have a record of what you said. In the past, when I've been exchanging printed letters with people, I've appreciated the computer keeping a copy so I could refer back to it for continuity.
I didn't know there was such a day. It started for commercial reasons, but it's a good idea.
Will a time come when Americans won't be able to read the original Declaration of Independence or Constitution?
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