Good handwriting still important . . . for that successful stick-up note

[Harold Schiffman]

This calls to mind the Woody Allen movie where he attempts a bank robbery,
but his note
(which is intended to say "I've got a gun") is not legible to the teller,
who reads it as "I've got a gum' and then an argument between various
tellers ensues over what it actually says.

HS

On Feb 2, 2008 2:06 AM, Dennis Baron <debaron at uiuc.edu> wrote:

>  There's a new post on the *Web of Language*<http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage>
> :
>
>  Good handwriting still important . . . for that successful stick-up note
>
>  Since the computer came on the scene and rendered all other forms of
> writing obsolete, no one needs good handwriting anymore, not for school, not
> for work, not even for bar mitzvah invitations. But Emily Post reminds us
> that the Palmer method isn't dead after all. A legible, handwritten note may
> not get you into an Ivy League college, but it's still de rigueur if you
> want to pull off a good bank heist....
>
>  Chicago resident Duwayne Allen found this out the hard way. Allen was
> caught by police after handing a teller at the Park National Bank a
> barely-legible stick-up note reading in part, "I gut a bomd."
>
> After losing valuable minutes explaining to frustrated tellers exactly
> what his hold-up note said, Allen only had time to scoop up a little over
> $2,000. But as he fled the scene on foot he had to jettison some of that
> cash to slow down the bank's security guard, who was hot on his trail.
>
> The guard, an off-duty Chicago police officer, called in the heist before
> giving chase, then stopped to pick up the discarded money. Responding
> officers caught Allen hiding on a nearby porch, where he threw down the rest
> of his haul, and briefly held them at bay with the only weapon at his
> disposal, a double negative, with which he repeatedly told officers, "I
> don't got no gun." ...
>
>
>
> read the rest on *The Web of Language*<http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage>
>
>
> *www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage***<http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage>
>
>
> Dennis Baron
> Professor of English and Linguistics
> Department of English
> University of Illinois
>
> 608 S. Wright St.
> Urbana, IL 61801
>
> office: 217-244-0568
> fax: 217-333-4321
>
> www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron
>
> read the Web of Language:
> www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage
>



-- 
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Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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