Here's a new one....

[conuly]

I was linked to another article on the much-commented-upon Death of Cursive Instruction at the NYTimes. Not much new there, but I may run through the comments and laugh at them all soon. (Or maybe not. There's a shocking number of "Eh, who needs it?" there and surprisingly few "OMG! DEATH OF ENGLISH!!!")

But what a coincidence, here's what I saw on Not Always Right today:

Me: “Thank you, sir. Now, if you could just sign your name on the line, and then write it regular on the line below…”

Printing = regular writing. I admit, even I am a bit surprised at this phrasing.

Comments

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

We tried to include the handwriting repair woman's paean to italic (http://www.handwritingthatworks.com/), but were too late getting in.

They even have an app for italic practise. (http://leisureguy.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/italic-handwriting-news/) Seems it's quite useful to doctors and so forth.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

If anyone said that to me, they would get my signature on the line and cursive below. Because printing != "regular writing", and cursive != signature, neither.

(My signature is stylized, swoopy and personal. Cursive is, well, cursive--much less swoopy, not stylized or personal at all.)