GOODBYE HANDWRITING

I was in the first grade. Miss Nichols my teacher. The class being taught handwriting by Miss Nicholas. Involved, the Palmer method of writing.

The Palmer method required the student to learn to write while balancing a nickel on the back side of the writing hand. The nickel could not fall off. If it did, you were not writing correctly.

I could not keep the nickel balanced. It kept falling off. Miss Nichols stood over me, worked with me. To no avail.

I was the only one in the class that failed. All others who wrote balancing the nickel received a Palmer method button. I did not.

The first major tragedy of my life. I felt inadequate. I was a failure. Even at a young age, such feelings can abound.

If I were in the first grade today, it would be impossible for the problem to confront me. Handwriting is no longer taught. By the Palmer method or any other. Keyboard efficiency is the name of the game. Computers, cell phones, etc.

Most young people today cannot hand write their names. They were never taught to write with letters joined together to make words. They do not know how to write. The wave of the future, already here, is that hitting keys is the way it is. Keyboard communication. Handwriting no more.

I recently discussed the problem with a retired school teacher. She told me her grandchildren cannot read cursive. She has to print for them to read. They do not have signatures. They cannot write their names.

She considers it appalling.

Cursive is the key word. Cursive handwriting.

Cursive handwriting uses letters. Written letters. Like a, b, c, etc. The letters are written cojoined in a flowing manner. The a, b, c's being used to form words.

Man got into cursive writing because it made writing faster. Speed was desired. Quill pens were first used for the purpose. Inefficient. Broke and splattered. Steel pens followed. Better than quill, with limitations also.

The final pen developed was the ball point pen. A winner! Mass produced quickly. Cheap. Writing swift. Cursive writing easy.

Cursive writing began in England before the Norman conquest. From the 16th century forward, cursive writing was used both for personal correspondence and official documents.

Cursive writing as we know it evolved in the 17th century.

Now, Thomas Jefferson's story. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. A brilliant document. However his penmanship was lacking. He could not write cursive sufficiently. Many of the words in the Declaration were not connected to make the words whole.

Ben Franklin and others were dismayed. Jefferson was approached and told of his shortcoming. Franklin advised that the group was bringing in the services of a Master Penman. Nothing would be changed. Except the words used would be all cursive.

Jefferson was not offended. He was aware of his shortcoming and agreed that such an important document should not appear slovenly written.

Tom Matlick was the Master Penman called in to fix the Declaration of Independence. He used a feather quill pen. 

The handwriting on the Declaration of Independence is considered elegant. Not Jefferson's however. 

Eighty seven years later, Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address. It was a cursive masterpiece. Each word fully joined. Experts tell us that Lincoln's handwriting is similar to that used today. The writing comparable to the excellent penmanship of today.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, professionals in Great Britain and the United States used cursive for correspondence. The handwriting on the documents was called "fair hand."  Fair hand meaning the instrument's finished product looked good.

Then came the typewriter. Better for professional and business purposes. Not adequate enough that handwriting be abolished.

During the mid 19th century, most U.S. children were taught the cursive method. In the second and third grades. The teaching and use remained the same till the mid 20th century. 

U.S. colleges taught students cursive handwriting into the 1930s and 1940s. A credit course. The colleges stopped teaching cursive handwriting techniques at that time.  Cursive handwriting was deemed to be too slow.

Cursive handwriting since the mid 20th century has been on a downward slope. As time progressed and technology changed, teaching professionals viewed cursive writing as too slow. The move was to computers. Keyboard efficiency the aim.

Teachers today prepare students to use computers in their future lives. Cursive writing considered of little value.The largest teachers' union in the United States is purported to be the FairFax Education Association. The Association considers computers the wave of the future. Cursive writing a dying art..

Common Core State Standards allows teachers to teach what is required and tested through various standardized tests. Cursive handwriting is non-essential for graduating high school students. There is no standardized test for it. So why teach it.

No Child Left Behind does not rate schools re cursive writing. Ergo, the schools do not teach cursive.

The bottom line is cursive handwriting is too tedious to learn and not useful in the long run for school rating purposes.

The proof in the pudding is the 2006 SAT exam. Only 15 percent of the students wrote essay answers in cursive. Eighty five percent used computers.

A 2008 survey revealed most elementary school teachers lack formal training in teaching handwriting to students. Only 12 percent had taken a course in how to teach cursive handwriting.

A 2011 study of the effects of Common Core were not surprising.  Common Core had not made cursive handwriting a part of the curriculum. The thought was why teach something that is not subjected to standardized testing. As mentioned, forty four states push keyboard efficiency rather than cursive writing.

  

The 2012 trend reflects cursive handwriting down and dying. Whereas, keyboard efficiency is spiraling upward.

Recall George Zimmerman's trial for shooting and killing Trayvon Martin. Trayvon's 19 year old friend Rachel Jeantel testified she was talking on the cellphone just before Trayvon's death. A lawyer handed her a handwritten document and told her to read it. Rachel said she could not because it was written in cursive. The jury was shocked.

Though hard to believe, handwriting is a relic of the past. All critical writing today is done on a keyboard. Widespread use of computers is driving the written word to extinction.

The most shocking development is that your grandchildren or young children do not know how to write their own names.

Progress? I am not sure. On the other hand, I am 80 years old and buck change. I do know however that if I could not hand write notes of my research, outline my columns and stories, and play with words before entering them in the computer, I would be lost. I am married to pen and paper.

MIGHTIEST PIRATE OF ALL TIME.....A WOMAN

Pirates of old are well known. Their names having come down to us through the ages.
On the male side are William Kidd, Blackbeard, Black Bart, Long Ben, and Sir Henry Morgan. All notorious.

The female side not neglected. Women like Anne Bonny, Mary Reed, Grace O'Malley, and Rachel Wall. Each as tough as their male counterparts.

There is one additional noteworthy female pirate. A woman whose name is unknown to most. Perhaps because she was Chinese and ruled the China Sea. As opposed to Caribbean, Atlantic and European shores.

Her name Cheng I Sao.

I discovered in researching Cheng I Sao that the names of Chinese women change during the course of a life time for various reasons. Cheng I Sao was known by different names at various times in her life.

Cheng I Sao was born Shi Xianggu. At a young age, she became a Cantonese prostitute. Her prostitute name Shih Yang. She worked in a brothel, never the streets.

In 1801 while a teenage beauty, she was captured by pirates. The leader of the pirates was the notorious Cheng I.

Cheng I was looking over the female captives which included Shih Yang. He was deciding which to keep for his men and which to sell into slavery. For whatever reason, Shih Yang attacked Cheng I. She tried to scratch his eyes out.

Shih Yang made an impression on Cheng I. He loved not only her beauty, but also her aggressiveness.
Shih Yang was one smart female, regardless of her age. Cheng I fell in love with her. Wanted to marry her. Shih Yang was hesitant. She had a price. Her terms were that she would share in his booty on an equal fifty/fifty basis. She would share similarly in authority.

Cheng I was in love. He agreed.

Shih Yang became known as Ching Sish.

Cheng I lived up to his part of the bargain. Ching Sish became a known and feared pirate leader.

Cheng I was strong and assertive. Rather than fight each other, he thought the pirates should unite. One fleet. The enemy henceforth being the Chinese, British, Portuguese, and Dutch.

Everyone agreed. An alliance was formed. Named the Red Flag Fleet. Instantaneously, the most powerful pirate fleet in China.

Cheung Po Tasi was the son of a fisherman. He was forced into piracy at 15 when captured by Cheng I. Cheng I liked him and adopted him. Cheung rose in the ranks. He was a detail man. Both Cheng I and Ching Sish left the everyday operations of the Red Flag Fleet to him.

Cheng I died in 1807. Of unknown causes.

The Red Flag Fleet pirates met to select a new leader. Ching Sish brazenly walked into the gathering. Dressed spectacularly. Brash and assertive. She convinced the pirates gathered that she should be leader.
Her leadership from that point forward was never questioned.

Her cunning and ruthless leadership resulted in the Red Flag Fleet growing to over 400 Chinese 20 gun junks. Pirates to 30,000.

She used intimacy to gain her ends. She and the adopted son Cheung Po Tsai became lovers. Subsequently married. 

Along the way, Ching Sish's name had become Cheng I Sao.

In the three years following her first husband's death, Cheng I Sao became the most prominent and successful pirate in the China Sea. She whipped the ships of every nation. Never lost a battle.

In one fight against the Chinese, she captured 63 Chinese Navy vessels. She gave the captured Chinese sailors a choice. They could join her or die. Death was by being tied down on the deck and beaten with clubs.

China was controlled at the time by the Qing Dynasty. Also known as the Manchu Dynasty.

Cheng I Sao terrorized the China Sea. An armada of Chinese, British and Dutch ships was sent out to defeat her. She whipped their asses.

Commercial shipping was taking a beating. The Chinese, British,  Portuguese and Dutch were suffering economically as a result. The Chinese government especially had to do something. Even if extreme.
They made Cheng I Sao an offer she could not refuse. She and her pirates would be given general amnesty. 

They would also be permitted to keep all the loot pirated.

Cheng I Sao was no fool. She accepted.  

Cheng I Sao retired. Bought herself a brothel/casino. She was the madam.

She remarried. Gave birth to several children. Died of old age at 69. Not from a gallow as most pirates.
There are two reasons attributed for her success.

The first her cunning and ruthlessness fired by her desire to be the most feared pirate in history.
The second had to do with sex.

Cheng I Sao prepared a written set of laws to be followed by she and her pirates. Known as the Code. It covered the obligations and responsibilities of her to the pirates and vice versa. Distribution of booty and the treatment of captured women were included.

Cheng I Sao was a feminist. Probably the world's first. Captive women not sold were either married or partnered with one of the pirates. A pirate could only have sex with his wife or partner. If otherwise, the pirate lost his head.

If a pirate had consensual sex with a captive, he was beheaded. The woman was not to be denied. She had cannonballs attached to her ankles and was thrown overboard.

Sensual deprivation was part and parcel of Cheng I Sao's plan. She believed that sexual frustration made her men better fighters. Eager to take out their aggressions on the enemy. The harder they fought, the more successful she and they would be.

She appears to have been correct.

For various other offenses, the wrongdoer was flogged, quartered or had his ears chopped off.

In modern day, we have seen movies involving Blackbeard, William Kidd, Sir Henry Morgan, Anne Bonny, Mary Reed, Rachel Wall, and others. Never Cheng I Sao. With one exception. 

The film the popular Disney movie franchise Pirates of the Caribbean. Cheng I Sao is portrayed as the powerful pirate MistressChing, one of the nine Pirate Lords.

JOE BTFSPIK OF LI'L ABNER FAME

Li'l Abner was a popular comic strip character from 1934-1977. A big muscular guy. Always clad in overalls. A naive, gullible, sweet natured hillbilly. A country bumpkin who lived in a log cabin.

Li'l Abner was the brain child of Al Capp. A comic strip author.

My generation remembers Li'l Abner. We read the comic strip every day. Today's generation probably know him not. In between generations, perhaps.

Li'l Abner's girl friend was Daisy Mae. A virtuous, voluptuous, barefoot damsel.

They lived in Dogpatch. 

Joe Btfspik was a character in the comic strip. A poor lonely man. His life perpetually jinxed. Nothing ever went right for him. He did not have the ability to succeed at anything. At all times, a dark cloud over his head. Clapp drew the cloud in every time Btfspik appeared. Btfspik'spersonal storm cloud.

Bad luck followed him every where. Instantaneous bad luck.

This column is not about Li'l Abner and his friends. I use Li'l Abner and his fellow comic strip characters to introduce Walter Hunt. The JoeBtfspik of his time.

Hunt was born in Lewis County, New York. As far north in the State as one could get. Extremely cold in winter. A short warm summer.

Born, 1796. Died, 1859.

He was the eldest of 13 children. Received a minimal education in a one room schoolhouse. Hunt eventually settled in Lowville, a community in the southern part of Lewis county. 

Lowville was the site of a textile mill. Hunt worked in the textile mill where he impressed his employer with his ability to repair machinery and improve a machine's efficiency.

Hunt was a prolific inventor. A genius at making things. During the course of his life time, he invented the fountain pen, sewing machine, safety pin, flax spinner, foot pedal street car bell, hard coal burning stove, a street sweeping machine, an early form bicycle, an ice plow, a knife sharpener, and the forerunner of the Winchester repeating rifle.

Hunt should have died rich. He did not.

Hunt never made any money. He was a failure at making money. Whereas he was equal in genius to Thomas Edison, Hunt did nor possess Edison's money making vision. Edison died extremely rich. Hunt, poor.

Many of Hunt's inventions remain in use today. Hunt failed to recognize their value.

The safety pin stands out. He took a piece of wire and in less than four hours twisted it into a spring on one end and a clasp on the other. His safety pin still in use today.

Hunt patented the safety pin. He owed some one $15. He sold the patent to W. R. Grace & Company for $100. The safety pin was a million dollar idea and made millions for the Grace Company and subsequent manufacturers.

The sewing machine. The design was that of a locksmith sewing machine. The machine did single needle stitching.

The sewing machine a winner to this day!

Hunt never patented the sewing machine. His reason helps give us insight into his thinking. 

At the time, women worked at home sewing by hand things like a man's dress shirt, women's dresses, and summer pants. The ladies were known as seamstresses.

Hunt failed to obtain the sewing machine patent for fear it would create massive unemployment for the seamstress community.

Appreciate the difference a sewing machine made in the sewing of clothing. A man's dress shirt took 14 hours to make. Using the sewing machine, 1 hour 15 minutes. A woman's dress took 10 hours. A pair of summer pants 3 hours.The time for production of the last two items was also significantly reduced by use of the sewing machine.

Hunt's sewing machine was reinvented several years later by Elias Howe. He patented it. M. Singer invented and patented a similar sewing machine around the same time. A lawsuit erupted. Howe and Singer arrived at an amicable settlement. Both became millionaires ten times over.

Hunt's other mentioned inventions worked out the same way. Hunt never made any money. A genius at making things, he could not turn any of them into wealth for himself and his family.

No question. Walter Hunt sadly was a Joe Btfspik. The cloud followed them both.

THINGS THAT CONCERN ME

There are things which give me concern. Worry. I feel a need to vent re some.

Let's start with Donald Trump. A disaster in the making. A bully first class. He tells people what they want to hear. Not what is necessarily good for them.

Trump appeals to those sick and tired with the status quo. In this regard, I cannot blame those who support him. The status quo stinks.

He is the Pied Piper leading followers that can only see and hear him. To their detriment as with the children that followed the Pied Piper.

There was another in history who appealed to the masses. Told them what they wanted to hear.  Promised them anything and everything.  Promised to change their lives. Spoke loud and boldly.

He did change their lives.

His name was Adolph Hitler. On January 30, 1933 Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. It was the beginning of the end for Germany.

I worry Trump's election will be the end of the United States as we have known and still know it.

The lead water problem in Flint, Michigan is inconceivable. Not possible in this day and age. This is 2016. Things like this just do not happen.

Money was the driving force that caused the problem to occur. The need in these difficult times to save a buck. Should not have been done blindly and carelessly.

Someone failed to cross the T's and dot the I's.

As a result, thousands of children will be affected. Brain damaged.

The tenor of the immigration problem has changed. Initially it was we have to take care of these poor people escaping Syria and North Africa. Germany's Merkel led the charge. Germany will take one million!

Merkel speaks no longer. She is silent. Especially since the rapes of German women at a railroad station.

The immigrants must be sent back to where they came from. Their sheer numbers are overwhelming. Each country that opts to take them will see the fabric of their society change dramatically. Today, tomorrow, and forever.

One solution is to end the Syrian War. ISIS is projected to only have 35,000 troops at the most. Send 50,000 plus troops in and wipe them out. Stomp on them in one swift movement.

Instead, our government moves from one side to the other. Not certain what to do.

Zika.  A new word to most of us. A virus. A dangerous illness. For which there is no vaccine. It primarily affects the unborn. When born, the babies  will have small heads and small brains..

It is called microcephaly. The result is a child subject during the child's lifetime to various type brain defects.

One of the causes is thought to be genetically modified mosquitoes. The kind that the Mosquito Control Board tried to foist on us a couple of years ago. Cheaper and purportedly did a better job of eradicating mosquitoes.

The genetically modified mosquitoes were to be tested in the Keys and in Brazil. They were not tested in the Keys. They were in Brazil. They were dumped in a certain area of Brazil in 2012.

Since last October, 4,000 babies have been born in that area of Brazil with microcephaly.

The problem is acute. Zika is popping up worldwide. Nowhere in the numbers as Brazil, however.

The World Health Organization met last Monday in emergency session to deal with the problem. President Obama has called for an immediate big time search for a vaccine.

When the Mosquito Control Board was pushing the genetically modified mosquito, I wrote the Keys should not be used as a testing ground for the unknown.

Tourists visiting Key West are becoming a problem.

The Tourist Development Council's primary function is to market tourism. The organization has done an outstanding job. They have been highly successful. Too successful.

Key West is a small island. There have been more tourists this past year than ever before. I fear the island will sink under the sheer weight of them.

Hotels, motels, restaurants and bars are doing a big business. Rates and charges in most instances have gone up with the increased number of tourists. Traffic jams are horrendous. Too many people mean too many cars. The worst ever. Traffic has never been this bad. Included is US 1. It takes longer to travel up and down the Keys.

The sidewalks overflowing with visitors. Jammed. Bicyclists everywhere. Most not accustomed to bike riding. None caring about traffic, stop lights, stop signs, etc. Key West has the highest rate of bicycle fatalities in the State of Florida. Any wonder.

Tourists crossing streets pay little attention to anything.

Private home rentals for tourists have sky rocketed in price. Weekly and monthly rentals the highest ever.

It used to be anyone building or renovating a Key West property had to conform to the taste and flavor of the neighborhood. No more. New motels and restaurants have been approved that are ultra modern in design

I believe if the pace continues, Key West will kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Tourists learn swiftly. They will perceive Key West as too busy and too expensive. They will look elsewhere to vacation.

Anti-government citizen groups are growing rapidly. Becoming more vocal. Making their presence known. They are anti-American.

Anti-American groups are hostile to the interests of the United States. They dislike and fear government.

There has been a resurgence of such groups since 2008. Fueling factors include changing demographics driven by immigration, a struggling economy, and the election of the first African-American President.

Examples of such groups include the present armed occupation by citizens in Oregon. Citizens who are ready to die for their beliefs.

In 2015, there were 1,274 anti-government groups in the United States. Three hundred thirty four were military.

There are what are called sovereign groups. We are better than you type. They are generally racist and anti-Semitic.

Many of the groups are concerned with what they perceive as impending government violence against the American people. They are preparing for the coming revolution.

Military spending. Fraught with waste. Washington cannot be depended upon to control the situation. Most elected Representatives are beholden to and owned by the corporations manufacturing military equipment.

What is needed in Washington is another Harry Truman.

In March 1942, the United States was heavy into lend lease. It was obvious war was coming. Military expenditures were zooming upward.

The Senate appointed a special committee to oversee government spending in the military area. Harry Truman was appointed Chairman. The committee became known as the Truman Committee.

Truman was not for sale. He took the job seriously. During World War II, he kept close watch on the spending. Truman's committee exposed waste, fraud and corruption in the federal government's wartime contracts. And prosecuted the bad guys!

We need another Harry Truman in Washington. The military is the biggest part of the U.S. budget.

Destruction of the middle class scares me. The middle class needs to be resurrected. American society cannot survive without a middle class. The 1 percent / 99 percent thing is poison.

Income inequality goes hand in hand with the destruction of the middle class.

Someone has to speak for workers. One thing is a return to strong unions.

Another is for the U.S. government to make the necessary changes in the tax structure so we get the billions in foreign tax havens back on our shores and taxed.

If the middle class is not resurrected, it will lead to the end of American society as we knew it and know it. The way things look now, I fear they can only get worse. Not better.

Wow!  A lot to worry about. We better worry about every item. Each is important to us and the society we live in.