Re:My first and last telegram was from Rebecca West
by mrandish on Friday November 06, 2026 @06:40PM
(#50400019)
> At the risk of being the LMGTFY guy
That was actually great. While a Google search is free and easy, that cost real tokens which aren't free (especially for those who don't have a work-paid sub).
Re:My first and last telegram was from Rebecca West
by pradn on Friday November 06, 2026 @03:25PM
(#50397968)
Telegrams have a quaint connotation these days I suppose.
In old Indian movies, a Telegram would only arrive to signify really bad news - someone died, or something like that. Why else would you pay for that expense? Well, it could also be a job interview or posting. So the connotation there, in that time, was probably not so good.
Re:My first and last telegram was from Rebecca West
by bryanrasmussen on Saturday November 07, 2026 @04:28AM
(#50403015)
"Bad news! Or tries against our interests is our sole communications from strangers, so by all means, let's plant poles all across the country, festoon the cocksucker with wires to hurry the sorry word and blinker our judgments of motive, huh?"
Re:My first and last telegram was from Rebecca West
by FiatLuxDave on Saturday November 07, 2026 @01:11AM
(#50402101)
Back in 1999 I sent a telegram to my girlfriend as a quaint romantic gesture. As I recall, I sent about 30 characters and it cost around $50. Western Union stopped telegrams altogether a few years later.
It turns out that it is still possible to send mail to someone in the US by Pony Express: https://hashknifeponyexpress.com/about-us/ Currently waiting for the right moment with the right person for that particular gesture.
I've always enjoyed stories about what is on interesting scraps of paper found in old books. I think this is one of the things that future generations may not get to experience as much as digital literature pushes the hard copies out of the way. I love old books, and I suspect that someday someone may find a scrap of mine in one of my books. I just hope they find it as interesting as Nic Rowan did.
https://claude.ai/share/b84c491e-3480-4407-ae76-b6cf63ee551d
That was actually great. While a Google search is free and easy, that cost real tokens which aren't free (especially for those who don't have a work-paid sub).
In old Indian movies, a Telegram would only arrive to signify really bad news - someone died, or something like that. Why else would you pay for that expense? Well, it could also be a job interview or posting. So the connotation there, in that time, was probably not so good.
Old movies in general, Indian or Hollywood. For pretty much the reasons you list.
-- Al Swearengen
> I found this telegram tucked into a passage on the Jewish community in Sarajevo [...] The recipient of the telegram was Ann Cottrell Free
I dare say, he received someone else's telegram.
It turns out that it is still possible to send mail to someone in the US by Pony Express: https://hashknifeponyexpress.com/about-us/ Currently waiting for the right moment with the right person for that particular gesture.
I've always enjoyed stories about what is on interesting scraps of paper found in old books. I think this is one of the things that future generations may not get to experience as much as digital literature pushes the hard copies out of the way. I love old books, and I suspect that someday someone may find a scrap of mine in one of my books. I just hope they find it as interesting as Nic Rowan did.