So you thought texting-speak was new

Mon Jan 17 18:15:21 UTC 2011

>Has the collective memory forgotten my example from
1813?
Remember that it's geezer collective memory.

But that doesn't change the von Daniken thing.

JL
On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 12:34 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: So you thought texting-speak was new
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> <font size=3>  A higher ratio of text to texting than David's 1860
> example,
> but definitely in the genre.<br><br>
> <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">While looking for "P's and
> Q's", I came across the following early<br>
> example of texting.  I doubt not that there are other examples,<br>
> perhaps back to Roman times; but I was amused.  I've inserted an
> *<br>
> where I cannot decode the message or am uncertain.  [Ed.: these were
> then discussed on the list.]<br><br>
> Earliest in Olio [NY, NY], published as The Olio; Date: 05-22-1813;<br>
> Volume: I; Issue: 17; Page: 136, but I take it from the<br>
> better-printed American Advocate [Hallowell, Maine]; Date:<br>
> 12-17-1814; Volume: V; Issue: 48; Page: [4]:<br><br>
> Ingenious Conceit.<br><br>
> COME listen to my DT, all those that lovers B;<br>
> Attune your hearts to PT, and read my LEG.<br>
> A bachelor of AT, my brains are racked with KR;<br>
> Of love you'll find the data, if you give serious ER.<br>
> When twenty summers I had CN, with Kate in love I fell;<br>
> A CT wench with black I's keen my EZ heart did sell.<br>
> For ten long years I courted her, 'twas KT DR & DRE;<br>
> And when she frown'd my heart it bump'd, my eyes grew wet and TRE.<br>
> I never once had kiss'd the maid, she was so sly and coy;<br>
> Nor never grasped her RM nor waist, to snatch the blissful joy.<br>
> One day, without much KR or form, my *ID's fill'd with love,<br>
> I slipped into her room and saw what made *H passion move.<br>
> A favorite beau in *TP dress was kissing her quite free;<br>
> To love her after this, says I, a great fool I must B.<br>
> To XMN then her love I tried, and found it all a whim;<br>
> To hate her then, I tried my best, and not to NV him.<br>
> Her FIG in paper cut, I tore and threw away,<br>
> Resolv'd some way to find a QR, at least make one SA.<br>
> Of absence then the FIKC I tried, but all in vain;<br>
> My MT head, and too full heart, felt hard the aching pain.<br>
> My throbbing heart, would not be EZ, to see her scoff and GR;<br>
> Till DZ I did get myself with drinking punch & BR.<br>
>  From love's fever and *AQfortie free, since I've ever BN,<br>
> Nor am I plagu'd with curs'd relapse, for which I sing TDM.<br>
> Should NE one wish love to shun, 'tis plain as ABC,<br>
> That he must mind his Ps and Qs, or he's fix'd to a T.<br>
> Then live a jolly bachelor, let Cupid sing to thee,<br>
> "YYs UR, YYs UR, I C U R YYs for me."</font></blockquote><br>
> Joel<br><br>
> <font size=3>At 1/17/2011 12:12 PM, David A. Daniel wrote:<br>
> <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Text message from 1860.<br><br>
> Essay to Miss Catharine Jay<br><br>
> An S A now I mean 2 write<br>
> 2 U sweet K T J,<br>
> The girl without a ||,<br>
> The belle of U T K.<br><br>
> I 1 der if U got that 1<br>
> I wrote 2 U B 4<br>
> I sailed in the R K D A,<br>
> And sent by L N Moore. . . .<br><br>
> This S A, until U I C<br>
> I pray U 2 X Q's<br>
> And do not burn in F E G<br>
> My young and wayward muse.<br><br>
> Now fare U well, dear K T J,<br>
> I trust that U R true--<br>
> When this U C, then you can say,<br>
> An S A I O U.<br>
> (Charles Carroll Bombaugh, Gleanings From the Harvest-Fields of
> Literature.,<br>
> 2nd ed. Baltimore: T. Newton Kurtz, 1860)<br>
> DAD<br><br>
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