Friday, August 27, 2010

Dear Nathaniel Ford - Typing Lesson

Dear Nathaniel Ford,

When I was in high school, they made all the girls take typing lessons. Sexist, yes, but here I am typing away with a decent level of accuracy and speed.

Ms. McKim used to teach the keyboard by making us typists just repeat the same couple of letters. To trick us, she'd sometimes throw in a new letter.

She'd recite, "F F F space. H H H space. F F F space. J..." and so on.

I thought of Ms. McKim while I waited for my train at Montgomery today. There we were, one stop from the Embarcadero dispatch station and the trains were coming just like Ms. McKim's typing lesson.

J J J wait. N N N wait. J J N wait. L.

It makes me wonder if the person in charge of sending trains out is learning to type. That's the only explanation I can think of.

Why is it like that?

You know what would be better, Nathaniel Ford?

If, right there where the trains are arranged and sent out, somebody said, "Hey, instead of sending a train to the same line twice or three times in a row, let's make the next one a K. The people of Ocean Avenue have been waitings a long time."

What do you think, Nathaniel?

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