Peanuts by Charles Schulz for December 20, 2015

You wouldn’t want to be shorthanded.

Shorthand looks as incompressible as Woodstock’s speech balloons with vertical lines therein.

Wonder how Santa will decipher the coded letter.

I’ve managed to figure out what he’s saying in the first panel (Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night) but I can’t for the life of me get his last comment! It’s been 50+ years since I’ve had to read/write shorthand! Auuuuugh!

If she were smart she’d read it first. Linus is a good brother, but he’s also smart enough to change some of the wording on the letter that gets sent out and know she won’t know the difference.

All those skills I worked so hard to learn are useless now. I never did make it to shorthand, by the time I was old enough to take the class they had gotten rid of it. I can still hand-centre a document on a manual typewriter. Not that I have a typewriter…but I could.

Anyone know what Linus’ last comment says?

Linus’ comment in the last panel: “Good Grief”

good grief

I never actually met Gregg…

Peppermint Patty often called her Lucille, too.

After last Sunday’s 1968 Peanuts strip got replaced by a 1960 one, we resume 1968 Sundays as we wind down the 2015 year going into 2016 with a second cycle of most 1969 strips previously rerun in 2005 to come unless we go more years ahead or back or somewhat askew.

Was this secretary writing done by Linus also done by Woodstock as dictated by Snoopy?

I wouldn’t mind knowing what the shorthand said either, but in this day, I don’t think anyone will be able to decipher it.

That’s what my writing would look like if I had to take dictation from my sister when I was 5.

I can read it! I used Shorthand for many years in my job as executive secretary and was surprised that it came back to me so easily – like riding a bike!!

@Joanematz; I, too, would like to know what ALL of the “shorthand” writing states.

Wow. I thought that I had effectively blocked that from my mind. What a horrible experience in trying to learn that way back in high school. Yep. He said, Good Grief. Me too. LOL.

I learned shorthand in high school and it’s come in handy ever since…this was fun – and I could read it! Good Grief – and a Merry Christmas to you all…

That’s about the time that I underwent my paralegal studies (1989), and while shorthand was still being taught then, it wasn’t a required course for me (although I did teach myself a little of it and could actually read some of it back in the day). It was on the way out, though, because dictaphones were becoming more commonplace now, so people were taught to transcribe dictation directly (I was never required to take that course, either, but I taught myself how to use a dictaphone early on. It’s really very easy.) My bosses over the years have never bothered with dictation. They’ve simply had me work up the initial drafts of pleadings, other legal documents, and some correspondence, which they have then gone through and edited themselves. My current boss has delegated pretty much all initial drafting to me (with her German accent, taking dictation from her would be a nightmare anyway!).

I can’t resist saying every word except “Merry” and “night” are in the dictation Linus takes down.

Shouldn’t that be, “mail secretary”???

I loved this strip today with the Gregg shorthand! I read it before I read Lucy’s part. Also loved the “Good grief” at the end.

The following site will tell you just about anything you’ve ever wanted to know about the Gregg shorthand system: http://gregg.angelfishy.net/.

I was hoping also to find some kind of app that could scan shorthand through OCR and automatically “translate” it, but I came up empty. Maybe I’ll design and publish one; surely there’s a demand for it. It’ll join all my other bright ideas like the conversational Sanskrit phrasebook.

I don’t know if legal secretaries change the words around to have proper grammer, but as a designer who did drawings for engineers, I would have to rewrite the notes so that they could be understood. I guess my high school English made me a proofreader.

I learned it in 8th and 10th grade, but as i never used it…. maybe that’s why I prefer stenographer notebooks, though.

It’s Greek to me…

I will never understand Shorthand just like I will never understand Chinese and Japanese writing.

xxx

When I was in high school, my brother and sister would have to take summer school classes in order to pass to the next grade. My mom would have me go along and take a few of the elective classes that were offered such as typing, which I took and am forever grateful I did. Another class was Gregg Notehand, a hybrid system of shorthand and note taking in English. I tried using in it college but I wasn’t good enough to really make it work. It was only offered two years in 1968-69. Amazon has a book available in its use.

HEY, I can still read Gregg Shorthand! Do they even teach that stuff anymore.? And the special pen points to write it?

Linus’ last comment in the last panel is, “Good Grief.”

His proportions are always different from what I learned, but I can eventually figure it out. It’s either a k or a g, an r or an l, etc. I still use it to scribble notes to myself.