Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for August 11, 2018

Long for the days when a phone was just a phone, and people could write, in cursive no less!

Danae should try being without an Internet connection for seven days, as I did recently. Took me days to get caught up again.

Because of a technical difficulty, I had to go 5 days without tv, internet, and phone after I moved to my new place. It was pure hell. I made it clear to the responsible company that I was not happy so they gave me a few valuable concessions.

One hurricane did knock out power for several days. It was not good. No cooked food. When the lights went out so did my staying awake after sundown. I did not like it. And we are so close to that happening at any time because our civilization is still too fragile.

Leave it to Danae to have strange ideas about time and age. Always good for a chuckle as I did. Thanx again Wiley bringing a smile to me lips and a chuckle in my heart…

Better yet, a time when people didn’t expect you always to be in touch.

I’m sorry, what is this before the Internet reference of which he speaks? I’ll have to Google that.

Without power for 12 days after a millennium ice storm. I read books( real paper ones) and it was wonderful. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I had forgotten how nice it was.

@say what now: so there is no library where you moved? No dvd rental? No park for walking? No time for going sight-seeing to learn the area?

What is the fun of being self absorbed if you have no one to share it with?

I would miss GoComics with my coffee and toast in the morning.

After reading these comments, I see racism is alive and well in America.

I gave up facebook and went back to reading whenever I had a spare moment. So much better.

Well, I wouldn’t miss Farcebook, or the other “So-Called Media” sites, since I’ve never been on them in the first place.

I went to the beach the other day. I left my phone home because I really don’t know what to do with the phone at the beach (you can’t take it into the water and it seems foolhardy to leave it with the blanket). I had such a nice day, and part of the reason was that I didn’t have a phone, so I had to slow down, read a book, and actually quiet down and think.

I’ve always promised myself a “Fifties Week”, where I didn’t use anything in my house that wasn’t available when Ike was President. It’s tough to find a percolator these days, though.

The irony is that I’m reading this comic strip online.

the good old days. “ook ook”

I can live without TV or social media for a few days, but since I have an online business, I need the internet for work.

As far back as the 1980s? You mean when we used smoke signals?

Honestly! It truly is astounding to see just how far we’ve come since Roswell. (Today’s Arcanum: XXI The World.)

Hand writing, printed or cursive, helps slow down shooting from the hip and posting impulsive reactions instead of taking a moment for actual reasoning and thought.

My cursive writing was accursed. Teachers would have me re-take cursive writing classes. So, I’ve been a printer ever since and pretty fast one at that…

@mourdac said about 4 hours ago:

“It was more the thought behind writing to someone in longhand, it took effort”

May I add that the very act of writing a letter in longhand, folding and placing it in an envelope, addressing the envelope, affixing a stamp on, and physically mailing it, required not only effort but deliberative thinking.

Too often, nowadays, because it’s so easy, people fire off an email, a comment, a text, a tweet or an instagram, at the slightest provocation, without giving a second thought about what they are saying or how it will land on others.

While we know that the Commander in Tweet is a perfect example of this, we also know that he never regrets any of his outrageous or bizarre pronouncements and rants…..but those who work for him, and even his family, often do.

Ironically, in this electronic communication age, as the tape recorder brought down Nixon, so Twitter will, eventually, be Trump’s undoing.

I got up this morning and the TEL1 light on my cable modem was blinking. I just about freaked out. The idea that I had no landline or internet sent me into panic mode. Turned out it was just a phone off the hook.

I’m waiting for the day when someone brings out a “Smart Phone” that can’t actually make a Phone Call and no one notices until they’ve Sold a couple Million.

SOS!

My cursive and my printing are both execrable except when I use a fountain pen, especially a calligraphic one. However, since all I write any more is checks (and none too many of those) it’s not worth the trouble to keep the pen clean and risk spilling ink all over the place.