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
