We went direct to overload this morning. There was a series of unlikely events that came to full-boil yesterday. There are at least two wars in progress, in “U – – – – – e” and “G – – a,” and we may be in another in the R – d S – a. You can see the challenges. Then there was the address from the Podium of Power with an emotional response to published legal remarks about infirmity and the natural progression of aging. Sadly, we know about that from personal experience.

There were naturally some voices that shouted it was time for someone new, and others saying “protect us from the guy who abuses Twitter (Formerly known as Something Else).

We are aware of the former only since that individual is still using something we called English instead of sentences that end in .

We recognize the challenge, and looked for an icon- or a more straightforward ’emoticon’- to depict some of the crazy stuff going on. The leadership of the next cycle of this great nation is what is at stake, since now the consequences of losing elections comes with the possibility of legal expenses so vast as to constitute a penalty all by itself. Not to mention the real penalty of hard concrete walls and beds protected by steel bars.

We are pretty sure you are getting similar streams of incoherent information as well. Thankfully, the Boomer generation of which we are part is now on the diminishing stage of recollection, and echoed on the other side of the Big River that divides our capital. That is hardly the only division in town, and we looked for an icon to convey the situation accurately.

The English language we used to speak is being dissolved into something newer and more streamlined. Almost supersonic. We know it is just a function of technology being applied to communications, just as new or modified words enter the lingua franca each year. The new ones sometimes cause a minor headline when the Websters Dictionary folks update the language for the new edition.

We know about the “u” shortcut, the one that replaced “you” although we don’t use it. The other ones collapse multiple words into strings of simpler letters. “IDK” is good enough to express the idea that we lack understanding of somethings. That is a reasonable shortcut on which we generally can agree, although we have issues with people who reduce complex thoughts into “WTF.”. There is something else going on, though.

Technology has permitted internet operators to program their digital sites to shuttle messages into holding bins if certain words are used. These leave us baffled, since we now have to count the spaces behind the first letter and the last one is not always included. Which means we have to count and wonder.

“B_ _ _ _ _ _d” could refer to the gender of half the canine population without using it. We were trying to use the word for “illegitimate offspring,” which some sites would permit, though others would not. Post- Boomer citizens have taken to other modes of communication in case the algorithms force fairly routine- if course- expressions of emotion.

Accordingly, we offer the following, which is perfectly understandable to some and unintelligible to others.

As you are completely aware, these cheerful symbols represent the complete text of the Gettysburg Address by former President Lincoln. The depiction may lack a few of the subtleties, but you can see the reverence displayed throughout the natural flow of imagery.

We think the full text is captured not only with reverence but a certain veiled hostility to those who resisted what in English might be called the War of Northern Aggression. Of course that is a partisan view of the phrase, which Up North would be dumped into a holding file to be reviewed by an objective analyst. Unless it was transformed to “W- – of N- – – – – – n A – – – – – – – – n.”

And you can see, three letter words in the old style would have the first and last letters used, but with only one mystery not as effective simply typing the words can lead to confusion. Accordingly, the words themselves have been replaced by images, just as our cave-dwelling a – – – – – – – s did. you can see how easy it would be to confuse “ancestors” with “a – – – – – – s,” so the search began for something to replace the spaces.

We could scrawl images on the sheetrock paneling in the living room, but that would require painting over previous communications.

The solution was plain to Gen Xers and Zs: use of emoticons. You can see that the eloquence of Lincoln’s antique language is reflected nicely, and with direct prompting on how we are supposed to feel when reading it.

It saves a lot of time. And this appears to be at least part of the future, whether we understand it or not. Like this:

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com