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

  • @simple@lemm.ee
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    2911 months 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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      1211 months 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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          711 months 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.

          • megane-kun
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            511 months 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.

          • @cubedsteaks@lemmy.today
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            511 months 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

    • HSL
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      1011 months ago

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

      • @RozzOP
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        311 months ago

        I just looked that up. It does look like some sort of linguistic research.

    • @agent_flounder@lemmy.one
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      611 months 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.

    • GreatAlbatross
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      611 months ago

      Is that how Gregg’s remember which are steak bakes, and which are chicken bakes?

    • megane-kun
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      511 months 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.

    • @RozzOP
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      311 months ago

      That’s pretty cool. Basically the same as enciphering something nowadays.

    • @PunnyName@lemmy.world
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      311 months ago

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

      Gregg Shorthand: A Stenographer’s Worst Best friend

      Or some nonsense.