# Lingering habits/bits of knowledge(?) -- M T W R F S U **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 9, 2023, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316 "2023-10-09T14:57:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/121 "2023-10-13T01:47:00Z")
I _can_ read it. But at 1/4th speed I can read the comments telling me others could read it too. And it was tiring and taxing to do so. Cursive is what the software folks jokingly call a “write only” medium. Efficient to lay down, and often useless when it’s time to retrieve the info the scratching on paper represents. A fine invention of 150 years ago. As was the telegraph. Time for the scrapheap of history. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/122 "2023-10-13T01:49:09Z")
How many even noticed the “you you” among the chicken scratching? ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/123 "2023-10-13T02:03:19Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I _can_ read it. But at 1/4th speed I can read the comments telling me others could read it too. And it was tiring and taxing to do so. I could read it nearly as fast as I can read typed print; and certainly as fast as I can read most hand printing. Probably I’ve just had more practice reading cursive over my life as a whole. Anything that’s unfamiliar is going to be harder to read. But there’s nothing essentially harder to read about good cursive. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > How many even noticed the “you you” among the chicken scratching? I didn’t; but I often don’t notice such things in typed print, either. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/124 "2023-10-13T03:32:49Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I _can_ read it. But at 1/4th speed I can read the comments telling me others could read it too. And it was tiring and taxing to do so. > > Cursive is what the software folks jokingly call a “write only” medium. Efficient to lay down, and often useless when it’s time to retrieve the info the scratching on paper represents. > > A fine invention of 150 years ago. As was the telegraph. Time for the scrapheap of history. This is exactly what I meant by “aesthetic judgement”. You don’t like the person’s (perfectly legible) handwriting? It was “tiring and taxing” to read? Sounds like a you problem. [Pray you never encounter one of _my_ notebooks :)] > [@LSLGuy](#): > > A fine invention of 150 years ago I’ll give you a bit of a pass if you stick to Elizabethan secretary hand or old Roman cursive, instead of that new-fangled dog’s breakfast, sure. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/125 "2023-10-13T05:10:40Z")
The cursive in that linked example was mostly legible, though it did take me a bit to realize it didn’t say “coined a bigasse phrase.” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/126 "2023-10-13T05:39:09Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > The signature’s illegible, as many signatures are. I had no problem at all reading the rest of it. Some weird words so i had to stop and make sure “purple” was right, but otherwise, NP. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/127 "2023-10-13T10:55:14Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > How many even noticed the “you you” among the chicken scratching? It jumped out to me. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/128 "2023-10-13T11:49:29Z")
The unusually large e in _welcome_ made it look like two L’s. But the context made the meaning clear. That does remind me that most people’s script writing was unique. I knew my grandmother’s writing. The little quirks in the shape of her letters was entirely different from other relatives ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/129 "2023-10-13T15:31:48Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > How many even noticed the “you you” among the chicken scratching? I did not, though I had no problem reading the text (other than the signature). ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/130 "2023-10-14T19:20:48Z")
Pretty sure the code for Toronto came from the Rush song… ---
**Author:** ![ISuddenlyRemembered](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/34f0e0/32.png) [@ISuddenlyRemembered](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISuddenlyRemembered)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/131 "2023-10-15T15:16:24Z")
I will always use two spaces between sentences. As a voracious reader, I know how much easier it is to spot a new sentence in a block of text and also quickly distinguish those sentence breaks from abbreviations. It is especially handy keeping my place when I am reading aloud to other people. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2023, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/132 "2023-10-16T02:54:56Z")
But the thing is, modern word processors PUT extra space between the sentences even when you only type one space. Distinguishing end-of-sentence periods from abbreviation-periods is a separate issue, because word processors (to my knowledge) add the extra spaces after any period, being unable to distinguish function. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2023, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/133 "2023-10-16T03:58:45Z")
Maybe there is some sort of Unicode whitespace hack you could use to get the word processor to do what you want. However, if you are at the stage where that sort of detail matters, like typesetting a book, are you going to use a “word processor”, or something like ConTeXt, InDesign, …? For example, in TeX markup you can input stuff like [not claiming this is good style] `Dr.~Wang has a PhD\null. I have not met Prof.\ White.` to control the spacing of end-of-sentence periods vs abbreviation-periods and whether the line can or cannot be broken at various places. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2023, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/134 "2023-10-17T19:35:28Z")
I remember how happy my bosses were at my internship that I knew proper grammar, writing, and correspondence techniques. Especially when I was writing the draft for a town comprehensive plan. But one of the weird things that I was taught in high school that has stuck with me is what I call “The Hierarchy of Paper Clips.” When you are assembling a report or collection of items to be bundled, you use the smallest “trombone” paper clips on the small items, then larger ones on the bigger bundles and and the larger black clips to hold the whole thing together. I think this was more of his OCD than an official practice. But it has stuck with me. It annoys me if there’s a huge black clip holding two sheets together and a little trombone struggling to contain a small book. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2023, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/135 "2023-10-17T19:47:14Z")
I may or may not have seen the MTWHFSU schema; I could swear that I’ve seen H for Thursday. I have to wonder if there’s a similar schema in France and Italy (and other countries with repeating day first- characters): Lundi, Mardi, Mercredi, Jeudi, Vendredi, Samedi, Dimanche. Maybe LMEJVSD or LMRJVSD. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2023, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316/136 "2023-10-17T20:27:04Z")
I just checked Welsh, which has two Ms and two Ss. [http://www.unllaiscymru.org.uk/OVWWeb-CYM/Dyddiadur\_Digwyddiadau\_16738.aspx:](http://www.unllaiscymru.org.uk/OVWWeb-CYM/Dyddiadur_Digwyddiadau_16738.aspx:) they use LL Ma Me Ia Gw Sa Su (M T W Th F Sa Su), first two letters, but more commonly I see three-letter abbreviations (Llun Maw Mer Iau Gwe Sad Sul), partly because that gets you the full word for three of them: Llun [←considered 3 letters in Welsh], Iau, and Sul. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lingering-habits-bits-of-knowledge-m-t-w-r-f-s-u/991316.md?page=6)