Out of the inkwell

I don't remember a strange kid ever taking a shine like that to me before.

And look at what has happened since then.  It's time to replace your tractor, the furnace died, and the brakes on your Chevy went awry.  Strange kid, indeed.

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Emojis are one of those new-fangled things that I seldom encounter but I think they've gotten out of hand; now they're animated, too.  I used to like the old style emoticons that used plain old punctuation to indicate a smile or a wink, if used sparingly.  They were useful to convey a mood, the lazy man's way of saying "just kidding" without a lot of typing.

It's curious how changes in technology have affected the way we communicate.  Cursive handwriting is not a popular classroom subject, or so I've read, and I still wonder if the adults in the future will even be able to read it.  It might be fake news, but there was a recent article that stated analog clocks are being removed from some British classrooms because none of the kids can tell time with them.  It's all digital now but really, how difficult was it to learn to tell time?  Digital clocks lack the visual cues that the hands of a clock provide as you gaze upon the slow progression of the minute hand.  A quick glance can tell you that there are only a couple of minutes before the bell rings; no mental calculation required.  The old Regulator clocks with their pendulums were better yet, almost hypnotic in a quiet classroom.  But those were the old days, when the desks had a hole in them for inkwells although I've never seen them used for that purpose.