By Hand, By God!

Glancing at a friend's handwriting, I noticed that she puts a crossbar on her sevens. I have seldom done that myself, but I know that it's a common thing, if more so overseas than it is here in the United States. I have never been fond of the practice myself, probably only because I was not taught to do it that way in school or by my parents. Undoubtedly I would be entirely in the other camp if I had been raised differently.

As I said, I have sometimes done my sevens with a crossbar, because I am pragmatic. I know that my handwriting is not the best, and sometimes my sevens are not distinguishable from other characters. When I think that a seven of mine does not declare itself strongly enough, I add the crossbar to help it out, but I want to stress that I do this only in situations of severe need. I do not devalue the crossbar by using it heavily.

This is also true of other numbers, this attitude of mine. Sometimes my ones are not so good. When that is the case, I develop the one beyond a vertical line, granting it a base and that downward diagonal stroke at the top. This again is something that I don't do at the drop of a hat. I do it when necessary. I would never bother for my own benefit, because I can read my own writing just fine. I do care about some other people though.

I wish my writing were better. I blame the schools for bailing on penmanship in favor of typing. At least I type fairly well, although I don't know how my typing speed stacks up. I'm no match for those courtroom stenographers and maybe not for what we now call administrative assistants, but among what's left after excluding those, I'm pretty good. I'm not not much by hand, and I don't suppose I ever was or will be. I can deal with that.