From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Quoting
Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 18:49:25 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2005 10:36 AM
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Quoting

> At 09:06 AM 4/22/05 -0400, Ernest Lilley wrote:
>
> >I just had a s=E9ance with my dead great grandfather, who was writing
letters
> >before there was an internet and he said that he never considered
copying
> >everything said in previous correspondence before starting in on his
> response.
>
> How many letters a day did your great grandfather get in an average day
> before he was dead?  I'm guessing the average is less than one...I could
> remember that many threads of conversation without much trouble.  The
> several hundred a day that I go through is a different story.  Some sort
of
> a hint is required in most cases.
>
> Keith:  the ">" thing actually does result in indenting, if you ignore
the
> ">" characters.  It also looks like shorthand for an indent ("shift it
all
> thataway") that saves screen width.  At the time in question most folks
had
> a limit of 80 columns on their screens and no ability to shrink fonts or
> use scrollbars (though some editors could do a screen shift thing with
some
> effort).
>
> Kids these days don't know how good they have it...back in my day we had
to
> hand crank the calculators.  Seriously.

And back in my day we had to pound on manual typewriters.  I've written
quite a few million words on my old Underwood -- and still have it around,
for power failures....

As far as old fashioned correspondence goes, one had the letter one was
replying to in front of one to refer to, but one rarely quoted directly
from it.   Mundane correspondents rarely had back-and-forth discussions in
their letters, anyway; more often they treated their letters as
quasi-journal entries, bringing their correspondents up to date on events
in their lives.  They used their letters to pass on news and opinions.

--Ted White