Weary of the constant nag for attention of group chats and social media. Time to return to tradition, sending friends a letter once every six months that begins "I write to you more in hope than expectation that you will receive this, and pray you reassure me of your still being alive. Tabitha has the Fever"
@Ciaraioch I was just thinking this, this very morning.
@FourT4 Bring it back sez I!
@Ciaraioch RetVrn
Oct 20, 2026, 2:49 PM@Ciaraioch Here for it, tbh
@Ciaraioch My earlier attempts to return to simpler times by sending a letter with celtic calligraphy sealed with wax, without an envelope and singeing an edge on the page was met with "this letter was found in this condition, it was not damaged while in transit- An Post" scrawled in red crayon to the side of the address.
@byrnensorg That sounds about right
@Ciaraioch this sounds like an appropriate next move, tbh.
@Ciaraioch This is what modern adult friendships are like these days.
@Ciaraioch Yup.....I pick up the phone ALL THE TIME....and my friend says "We should get together"......and afterwards MY PHONE NEVER RINGS..... Is it me? Or is it them?
Long story short... back to the age of #telegrams... the basic message had a default word count of ten... so if you added "#code #words after your message you could communicate much more complex ideas. My personal favorite...
"Jab" = "The servants have left, the house is on fire, all the children have smallpox, and I have lost a filling out of my tooth… but don't think of hurrying home."
For much more from the book "The Private Code and Post-Card Cypher" by C & B Johnson (1914)...
https://richard.rathe.org/books/bookhouse/telegraph_codes_1914/index.html
Oct 20, 2026, 11:25 PMHaving remained a strong and loyal adherent of the art of letter writing, I can only agree.
Kilkelly, Ireland, eighteen and sixty, my dear and loving son John
Your good friend and schoolmaster Pat McNamara so good as to write these words down.
Your brothers have all gone to find work in England, the house is all empty and sad
The crop of potatoes is sorely infected, a third to a half of them bad.
Your sister Bridget and Patrick O’Donnell are going to be married in June.
Your mother says not to work on the railroad and be sure to come on home soon.