Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

I have no use for LinkedIn generally (at least not now) but I've had an account for years with links to some old acquaintances I don't really care to be associated with anymore, due to several industry, geographical, and social changes. I checked it on a whim about a year ago and found an old message from someone I hadn't talked to in over 7 years, very professional message just trying to catch up. I have no other social media accounts and am not easily found through general searches, so it was the only way this person could reach me.

I felt horrible for weeks that I had never responded, then I sent off a reply. I then promptly forgot that I did so, and abandoned LinkedIn for another year. I checked again last week for some reason and I had a year-old response to my response. I forgot to reply and only just now remembered this situation.

I'm now trying to decide if I should bother responding and risk another long delay, or pretend I'm dead.

Yep me too. I still feel sad about it sometimes.

I also can no longer write in cursive, but I don't feel bad about it. It's an archaic and un-needed skill, a leftover relic of a bygone age. Also, I could never write in cursive particularly well to begin with... started getting nasty notes in my report cards about that starting from primary school, so as far as I'm concerned, "Good Riddance."

I find it interesting that I only ever hear that kind of complaint from Americans. Here in Europe, cursive/script is the basic way you learn writing, you automatically transition to something other later in life ... and we have zero hate for either variant.

As for lack of legibility: I would guess US teachers not enforcing good style in preschool and elementary school contribute to that.

I'm equally skilled at illegible writing in block letters or cursive, thanks.

My third grade teacher thought I'd turn out ok, because I'd have a secretary. Sadly, secretaries were out of fashion by the time I graduated college.

Not sure which cursive is taught in the US, but to me (having learned cursive writing in Southern Europe in the 90s) that looks surprisingly legible, if not for the quality of the picture in your link. Here's a high-res version: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/United_S...

Except for the "double s" that looks like an "f" (that ligature was common also in fonts for bookprinting at the times, so it's not hard to figure it out if you know that), the rest looks like a better version of the calligraphy I used to have when I was 9/10 years old (and that I wish I still had, now it's a much "simplified" - in shapes, not ease of reading - version of that).

Update: also the single "s" is a bit peculiar, since it's completely different at the beginning VS at the end of a word

The chancery/round hand style used in the Declaration of Independence is not a style of cursive much used in the last ~150 years. So it's potentially quite difficult without some practice.

A major part of why we teach (or taught) writing cursive is because it also helps teach you to read cursive. You may not need to write much, but until recently you would encounter written cursive all the time. In my experience it's still common enough. It'd be awkward to be unable to read the New Year's cards from my older relatives.

It is, in essence, a different dialect of writing. It is not illegible, you just don’t know how to read it. Deposit yourself in Edinburgh, Appalachia, or rural Minnesota and you’ll have various levels of difficulty understanding how people speak, is their speech wrong or is your knowledge of their language lacking?

Apart from the low resolution of that scan, I find that easy to read.

I have no problem reading this. You just didn't learn how to read cursive I guess.

That is perfectly legible. Many modern fonts are less legible than that.

I am curious about the opposition to cursive script that some people demonstrate, mostly in the US. In Europe cursive script is the norm; block letter writing by an adult is considered a mark of poor education.

I dont want to optimize a curriculum, I dont want them to bother with that. Glad to read other decision makers reached the same conclusion.

Maybe forgotten in an active sense, but those years are critical for instilling the passive behaviors and expectations which help make us into productive human resources to serve the economy as adults. Things like learning not to talk until called upon, learning to ask before being allowed to use the restroom or for other bodily functions, learning to be identified by an ID number, learning to answer a daily roll-call, learning that our personal possessions will be confiscated at any time, learning to walk through security checkpoints and metal detectors, learning to expect the presence of a School Resource Officer whose job is to perceive students as a possible threat and protect the institution, learning we must dress a certain way, learning to buy our own school supplies necessary to complete our assigned work units, learning that being poor isn’t an acceptable excuse for not having supplies, learning that food won’t be provided for free even though we’re required to be be at school for eight hours straight, learning it is never acceptable to leave school grounds once we check in for the day until officially released at the end of the day, learning that disruptive individuals will be separated from their entire social circle and sent to a stricter alternative facility, learning that authority figures will discuss you with each other behind your back and may form prejudices based on gossip or on your familial relations, learning how it’s best to surpass our peers and that we can’t get the highest grade unless others fail, learning not to read ahead of our current place in the curriculum, learning never to read from unapproved sources, learning that truth is whatever the curriculum says is Officially True, learning how authority figures will punish or shame us for questioning the curriculum or beyond the curriculum because they are evaluated on how accurately we know it and thus must defend it to survive, learning how cooperation is cheating except for group projects where it is instead a thing to dread, learning to expect no privacy, learning to sit inside all day and only have free time once the sun sets, learning to be punished as a group for the actions of an individual, learning to tell on our peers for gold stars from authority, learning that a bell controls our daily schedule but individual authority figures can decide to keep us late anyway, learning to get up uncomfortably early and do a daily commute, learning to survive on less sleep than we need, learning we will be equally punished for tardiness as for absence, learning somebody else needs to write a note to acknowledge when we are sick before it’s believed, learning to be segregated based on sex, learning to be segregated based on seniority and that the oldest cohort will be regularly pushed out with no say in the matter, learning we must find a clique for social defense because loners are weird and deserve bullying, learning how punishments are decided by administrators who don’t know us individually, learning how rewards and punishments may be arbitrary depending on social status within the microcosm of the school, learning that we must also think about school in our free time and use that time to prepare for what’s due tomorrow, learning that “extra-curricular” work is basically a requirement if everyone else is doing it too, learning to walk in long silent alphabetically-sorted lines with our hands clasped behind our backs, etc. You know, important life skills.

If you have a problem with any of that, you have Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Here’s some pills to turn your brain off so you might still have a chance to “‘earn’ a living” and pay off your original sin of being alive. All hail The Economy!