Long ago, possibly in First Grade, I was taught to abbreviate the days of the week that way. And still, about 65 years later, I follow suit, scribbling down “T8” for that 8 pm Tuesday meeting or R1130 for that lunch meetup on Thursday. This has persisted with me for all those decades, even though I’ve often had others mention it was strange and in fact I’ve never met anyone else who considers “U” to be the reasonable abbreviation for Sunday, and only one other person who agrees with “R” for Thursday. (I really think this must have been taught me by a teacher, because who else would ‘naturally’ assume the week starts on Monday, and thus Saturday should clearly get the “S” over Sunday?) Did anyone else here grow up with that way of abbreviating the weekdays? In my case, this was in a small ‘temporary’ town in California, during a tech boon.
And otherwise: what other habits have persisted with you over the years, even though they aren’t reinforced by being shared with those around you?
I know I’ve seen R as an abbreviation for Thursday on academic schedules. There was no need for an abbreviation for Sunday because there were no Sunday classes.
I still use a weird cursive F that I was taught in grade school, but haven’t seen anybody else use in years, and can’t these days usually even find an example of online.
What’s interesting is that I’ve never noticed anybody else having a problem figuring out that it is an F (and I use it, among other things, when writing checks.) Maybe they’re going by context? It can be written all in one line without lifting the pen/pencil, including then continuing on to the next letter; but it doesn’t look like an F when I think about it.
– I’ve never seen the R or U as day-of-the-week abbreviations. I use Tu or Tues and Th or Thur, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen just T and Th (and Sat/Sun but I’ve seen Sa and Su). – I think I’ve seen D for Sunday somewhere, from Dimanche? but maybe that was in French class.
Same here - but I didn’t see it until college. Because prior to college either 1) my schedule was the same every day as it was in high school or 2) I didn’t actually need to know my schedule - in grade school , I didn’t need to know that gym was Tuesday or music was Thursday because the entire class would be brought to the music room or the gym as a group.
R and U at every university I’ve attended or worked for.
I write 7 with a line through it. Someone in my childhood identified it as a European way to better differentiate 1 and 7. Handwritten 7 without a line looks weird. I’ve since added a stroke to my 0 and a line to a printed Z where number/letter differentiation is useful.
As do I. Bugger the ‘style pundits’, I insist it makes text more readable.
Also as a computer programer, I insist on putting the final period of a sentence containing a quote AFTER the closing quote. I say “putting the period inside the quote is just plain wrong”.
Perhaps slightly off-topic, but I am anal-retentive in making sure there’s no ambiguity when recording part numbers and serial numbers using pen or pencil:
Horizontal line through “7” to ensure it’s not mistaken for a 1.
Diagonal line through “0” to ensure it’s not mistaken for an O.
Horizontal line through “Z” and “z” to ensure it’s not mistaken for a 2.
When I have to record “S” I put a vertical line through it so that it looks like the dollar sign ($), to ensure it’s not mistaken for a 5.
Have never been quiet sure what to do with “1”. If I use a simple vertical line it could be mistaken for an l (lower case “L”) or I. If there’s a chance it could be mistaken for one of these, I will take the time to add the little vertical line to the top and the horizontal line to the bottom.