The Unbearable Banishment: Makes me want to quit blogging

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Makes me want to quit blogging

This item on CNN's landing page..

...makes me feel like blogging is a joke instead of a legitimate means of expression. It's the old dictum that I don't want to belong to a club that would have someone like this as a member. Am I being a big baby again?

* * *

I just read a convincing and sobering report. Because of the advent of electronic communications, teaching cursive handwriting is no longer considered a priority in schools. Classes have been dramatically cut back and will eventually be eliminated altogether.

Cursive writing will go the way of Morris code and the DuMont television network and vanish. It will become a relic of a bygone era that only hobbyists will practice. That's a little sad.

* * *

An Unbearable birthday tip 'o the hat to the lovely, lively Mrs. Wife. How do you do it? Do you have an aging portrait somewhere in that crawl space behind the linen?

Unbearable personal factoid: I am 14 years older than Mrs. Wife. It works for us!

14 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Am I being a big baby again?"

just write. write for yourself. for the interaction. for resonance. for the therapy. for whatever you need it to be...

if you become pathetic? we'll wander off... or stick around and make fun of you.

happy b-day to mrs. wife!

October 1, 2009 at 11:10 AM  
Blogger Ellie said...

Blogging and tweeting are completing different!

Bloggers, hold our heads up high.

Tweeters, tweet. :-)

October 1, 2009 at 12:01 PM  
Blogger Mamasoo said...

Please don't stop blogging. Just don't Twitter.

I stopped the whole twitter thing when I read about the mom who twittered to her "fans" while her baby daughter died. Callous and uncaring? I think the whole crackberry thing is annoying, and the next person who slows down in front of me on the subway because they're texting is going to get my foot up their ass.

Happy birthday to Mrs. Wife!

October 1, 2009 at 1:08 PM  
Blogger Leah said...

Blogging is still writing, when all is said and done. And writing is one of my favorite things. Don't worry, we haven't lost our dignity.

Happy bday to your lady!

and p.s. thank goodness, cursive is a big part of my daughter's third grade curriculum.

October 1, 2009 at 1:20 PM  
Blogger The Unbearable Banishment said...

Daisy: So, in other words, I'm being a big baby? Yup. You're right.

Ellie: I know. I signed up for a twitter account in the spring of '08 and bailed out three weeks. But the headline said she's a mommy blogger, so she's on my turf.

Mamasoo: That's very flattering. It's the nicest thing I've heard all day. Thank you, very much.

Leah: I feel some ownership over blogging and don't want idiots like that to spoil the party.

October 1, 2009 at 5:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My husband has me by 18 years...it works for us too.

Happy birthday to your wife.

My husband loved that he received birthday wishes from strangers after I wrote a post about him for his birthday, last Sunday. I think it was the nude photograph that drew the crowd.

October 1, 2009 at 6:02 PM  
Blogger tennysoneehemingway said...

I'm off Twitter now because it's kind of pointless. Blogging, at least, is something to say. Well, mostly. Happy Birthday to your wife. I'm eight years older than my wife. And no longer teaching cursive writing? What the fuck? How are kids going to write if they don't have a phone or computer handy? Are they still at least teaching printing?

October 1, 2009 at 6:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't twit or tweet. You can't compare blogging to a medium that limits you to 140 characters.

October 1, 2009 at 9:50 PM  
Blogger Sid said...

She blogged while in labour? Now that's commitment!

October 2, 2009 at 2:04 AM  
Blogger Please Don't Eat With Your Mouth Open said...

But equally worrying is the tweet that was getting the RT treatment on my page last week from a woman who had died. Her final thoughts went to @StephenFry.

I was like, come on. There was something so wrong about that. You're about to die and you're on twitter. I don't get it.

October 2, 2009 at 4:45 AM  
Blogger The Unbearable Banishment said...

Gifts: 18 years! You guys get the gold. We only get a silver.

TE: 18 years! See above. I thought I was one in a million. It turns out I'm a dime a dozen.

HIF: I think it's possible to do something creative with only 140 characters but, unfortunately, 99% of the population is incapable.

Sid: She's not committed. She's an idiot who SHOULD be committed.

Jo: Here in the States I keep reading about Stephen Fry's twitter posts. What's up with that guy? Is he super-clever or something? Why all the press?

October 2, 2009 at 8:03 AM  
Anonymous nursemyra said...

Twittering is for the birds

October 3, 2009 at 5:26 AM  
Blogger A Free Man said...

I think it says a lot about twitter but not as much about blogging. Apples and oranges.

Sad about the cursive, I was hoping to have the same hardship that I went through inflicted on my sons...

October 3, 2009 at 7:47 AM  
Blogger Blues said...

It's a shame to lose cursive, but it definitely is more important to learn to type properly. I wish to god I had been taught Morris code though. I always worry about getting trapped somewhere and kicking myself for not having learned Morris code.

October 17, 2009 at 11:33 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home