Mine would be creating pen and paper ciphers for my made up secret communication needs.

  • simple@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I was learning Gregg Shorthand at some point just for the fun of it and every time I brought it up people had no idea what I was on about.

    • OldFartPhil@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I’m old enough to remember when shorthand was a required course for women in secretarial schools. I always though it was black magic and very cool.

        • OldFartPhil@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          In my 60’s. According to Internet sources, shorthand was taught in schools until the 1990’s. It’s likely that shorthand use declined as PCs became common in offices.

          • cubedsteaks@lemmy.today
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            1 year ago

            My mom grew up in the 80s and I remember her telling me I needed to learn it too in the 90’s so I could be a waitress someday if needed.

            I took a typing class instead! Worked great for me lol

          • megane-kun@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            I think it was still taught to business students up until the mid-90’s in my country. That’s also how I got my hands on an old Gregg shorthand textbook. That, and typing (via a typewriter) which was the one I learned when I was in high school.

            Had I had a choice, I would have chosen to learn shorthand instead.

    • HSL@wayfarershaven.eu
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      1 year ago

      I still dabble with orthic shorthand - it’s kind of like seeing language from a different perspective.

    • agent_flounder@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      I only know about it because of my fountain pen hobby; back in the mid 20th C, Esterbrook made fountain pens with replaceable nibs and offered a wide variety including a Gregg shorthand nib. I guess the Gregg shorthand people licensed the name for marketing. It was basically a normal non, but branded.

    • megane-kun@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Hey! Someone left an old Gregg Shorthand textbook (anniversary edition, if I remember it correctly) in our house back when I was a child, and I tried learning it. Still kinda interested in it up until now.

      Tried learning it again back during the lockdown days, but it went nowhere unfortunately.

    • PunnyName@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Follow up with a small description, like a sub title. Like…

      Gregg Shorthand: A Stenographer’s Worst Best friend

      Or some nonsense.