I try, although my punctuation is far from flawless and I have no qualms about sentence fragments or terminal prepositions.

George: Typing in high school? For us it was Junior High, what might now be intermediate school. Oddly, for a little while in college, I did plausible calligraphy (including at one point rendering the entire “A Elbereth Gilthoniel” in Elvish script)–oddly because even I can’t read my handwriting any more unless I use just the right micropoint pens.

[For the one person who might care: Now that Uniball Roller Grip 0.2mm pens seem to have disappeared entirely, I've finally found that Uniball Signo Micro (0.5mm) 207 writes an equally fine line and seems unlikely to leak under airplane/high-altitude pressure, the problem with other Uniball Micro versions. And, for what it's worth, it's one of the Uniball pens with ink that apparently can't be removed from checks by scam artists. Oh, and instead of a cap it's a good old clicker.]

As a writer you are grammatical, even on the blog. That is a highly prized quality in my book.

Keep up the good work!

I try to use titles when addressing younger people and first names when addressing adults–I like to throw the system off a bit–so I address my birthday greetings to both Walt and Mr. Crawford.

I hope the day goes well and that the meals are excellent!

The first book-length manuscript I ever wrote, and the only unpublished one, I wrote on an electric typewriter. I did two drafts. I had one copy and one carbon. Both of them disappeared many years ago. Given that I spent two years cursing at microfilm readers (the manuscript was on press coverage of the Free Speech Movement, so I had to look at a LOT of newspapers-on-microfilm), the miracle is that I ever tried another book.

Fortunately, I learned good typing habits in junior high–70wpm then, about 80wpm now if I’m transcribing (adjusted for errors). I find it’s always easier to catch mistakes during initial entry than to try to find them later–particularly since spell checkers don’t handle “legal but wrong” words very well (e.g., if I’d used “then too” in this sentence–and an awful lot of people seem to use “too” when they mean “to”).

Anyway, thanks all. I’m taking the day off today (legitimately)–but, of course, I’ll still be working on “my own stuff”: Essays for the next C&I, blog analysis for the Academic Library Blogs project. And a nice meal or two.

I never used an electric typewriter, going straight from a manual to using various word processors in around 1985 or 1986. I do remember composing term papers in one draft at the typewriter! I can no longer even imagine trying to type so carefully as to avoid any mistakes.