old-fashioned

[ewein2412]

My cousin is getting married tomorrow, very quietly with only her parents and sister and husband's family attending, in the same lovely old mansion where we had our own wedding reception.  I thought it would be nice to send her a telegram--you know, it would be delivered to the desk of the bed & breakfast where they're staying, and they could put it in their wedding album.  Tim said he didn't think I could find anyone who would send a telegram anymore.  I swore I can find ANYTHING in The Land of the Lost--I mean, come ON, what is the Internet FOR if not for the instantaneous transfer of words????

So... We were both right.  Western Union sent their final telegram exactly two years ago.  But, there are still posey telegram services available on the web.  The first one I tried would send a whole 14-line sonnet for a mere $158.  The next one I tried charged 96 pence per word plus delivery, which was BY POST and therefore "not guaranteed by a specific date." Nine words cost £23. 

 

So I gave up and sent flowers instead.  The local flower shop does a guaranteed same day delivery service.  Flowers and delivery together cost me £20.  And guess what?  Um, hello--when you order flowers you get to include a ten-line message FOR FREE.

So my cousin and her new husband get their wedding telegram after all.

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I want to say "Isn't the Internet wonderful" except I also want to say "Isn't the Internet STUPID"

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ETA: The flowers arrived about two hours after I ordered them, at exactly the same time as Efa and Bruce.  They were unloading their car when the delivery van pulled up.  It was the same shop they'd ordered their wedding flowers from and at first they thought they'd come a day early!

 

Comments

[ajl-r.livejournal.com]

It's worth the hankies, anyway. :) The whole way through both series I was both enthralled by the stories and appalled by my own lack of intelligence in not being able to keep up with all elements of the plot and the allusions. And I started as an historian...shame, deep shame. Eventually, I gave up trying to remember where every single thing fitted together and just swam with the avalanche, as it were.

[ewein2412]

well, that's exactly what I'm doing. but I don't mind doing that, it's how I read (and why I'm not a historian)

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

You really shouldn't feel dumb; Dunnet is a master manipulator who does it all with very clever narrative tricks. I learned a huuuge amount about pure technique from looking at what she'd pulled over on me, and taking it apart to try and see how it worked.

[ewein2412]

the astonishing thing is that she hasn't influenced me, I swear. I've never even heard of her. God knows how I missed her; even tim saw what I was reading and said, "Are you enjoying that? It's kind of a classic, right?"

Every time when I stop reading and go back to my own deathless prose it just seems lifeless and plodding. blah.

[ajl-r.livejournal.com]

Well, that's a little bit of comfort, thanks.

I particularly liked the way she reversed the blond body into being the villain in the next series (not a spoiler - manifest from the start). I wondered if she'd got sick of all that physical beauty...hard as that would be!

And, O revered blog owner, us readers appreciate lots of different styles. :)

[ewein2412]

us readers appreciate lots of different styles

thank goodness!