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Now is the Time for All Good Men to Come to the Aid of Their Country
28 Plays1 month ago
In this episode Patrick and Andrew are joined once again by Sean Oborn to discuss a real-life copybook heading and some history about the messages these sayings convey.
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Transcript
Introduction and Inspiration
00:00:00
Speaker
and the brave new world begin begins when all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins as surely as water will wet us as surely as fire will burn the gods of the coffee book headings with terror and slaughter returned
00:00:29
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and thank you for joining us for another episode of the Copybook Headings podcast.
Podcast Purpose and Hosts Introduction
00:00:33
Speaker
If you're a new listener, just joining us for the first time, this show is inspired by the poem by Rudyard Kipling called The Gods of the Copybook Headings. And every week we take an old saying, proverb, or maxim, and we break it down to see what we can learn from it and see if there's still any ancient wisdom that's relevant today. I'm your host, Patrick Payne, and with me, as always, is my co-host, Andrew Stevens. Andrew, how are you doing, bud? Hey, I'm doing great. How are you? Good.
00:00:57
Speaker
I'm doing real good. We've got we've got ah and another guest on. We've got a repeat guest this time. First, or is this our first repeat guest? It might be. Am I the first one to come back twice? Yeah, I think so. Congratulations. Thanks, man. Glad to
Kipling's Poem and Copybook Concept
00:01:14
Speaker
be here. In the order of releasing things, we we end up releasing another second guest first, but yeah. A lot of times I don't always go out chronologically, but yes. I get mixed up sometimes.
00:01:24
Speaker
but as a yeah um so yes sean oborn is back sean how you how how are you man hey guys how's it going going great
00:01:34
Speaker
Yeah, so yeah, it was really fun to have you on the first time and um so this episode is going to be a really unique one because typically um Just a little bit of backstory about the the podcast and the poem it's based on ah You can go back and listen to our very first episode if you want to hear all about it But but um just a brief recap, please please don't please That's probably crazy anyways right now Yes, what Kipling calls a copybook heading is um back in the old time olden days when they had um they were practicing their penmanship for students, they would give them these copybooks and they were mostly a book with mostly blank pages except except every page would have ah a saying or a phrase at the top. and they
00:02:21
Speaker
They would have to copy that phrase down over and over. And I guess the thinking was with these teachers that if you're going to have a kid write something a bunch of times, it might as well have some good saying or meaning to it to instill some good values. So you'd have a penny saved if it is a penny earned or something like that, and they don't have
Historical Insights and Personal Reflections
00:02:37
Speaker
to copy it down again. And that's what ah Kipling called the gods of the copybook headings, right? These copybook headings that contain this ancient wisdom. And so that's what this podcast is about. but Well, we had Sean on recently and Yeah, I don't know. tell Tell us what happened, Sean. This is kind of an interesting story. So I moved everyone to tears talking about the importance of studying your history. um the the So the quote was,
00:03:02
Speaker
I'm paraphrasing it, even though it was my quote that I brought on, but those those who ah do not who don't know the past are condemned to repeat it. um And this whole time, like that that quote is used very frequently, and I always thought it meant something like, oh, you need to learn your history. That that way you don't repeat the sins of a prior generation, right? um But from studying it for in in in preparation for the show that I was on with you guys, I learned that it's more of learning from your own mistakes, essentially, is what it is.
00:03:30
Speaker
is like do some self-reflection, learn from your own mistakes so you don't repeat them or you don't pass them on to your kids or whatever. And I thought that was really interesting and it kind of, I don't know, I kind of shared some sort of epiphanies I had about the importance of like studying your own family history. And we kind of had a lot of good genealogical type discussion based around that. I thought it was a really good episode, but I'm partial to myself.
00:03:57
Speaker
No, I thought it was great.
00:04:00
Speaker
and then that yeah go ahead and so yeah after After you're on and you you you you cajoled your your mother to listen to our episode and ah and then kind of that led to what we're going to talk about tonight. Right, yeah. So so like I guess the buildup and the preparation for tonight's topic, um i I'm always one to show my friends to everybody.
00:04:28
Speaker
and so I was talking to my parents. I was at my mom i was at my mom's house. you know like It was probably the day that that our prior episode together came out, I think. I think it came out like that Friday and I happened to be at my parents' house like either that day or the next day. and so I was mentioning to my mom, I was like, oh yeah, I've got these friends. They have this podcast um you know where where it's like 30 minutes. It's kind of bite-sized podcast length.
Typing Class Practices and Historical Context
00:04:48
Speaker
and They talk about copybook headings, you know like like sort of the history and validity of um like old sayings, maxims, proverbs. And my mom without skipping a beat just like quotes one and says, Oh, like now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.
00:05:08
Speaker
And I was like, what? I've known you my whole life. I have never heard you say that phrase before. Where did that come from? And she repeated it. And I was like, mom, what is that? And she's like, and then she basically told me the story. And it's like, I can tell it if you want, ah Patrick, unless you want to give it to her. My mom is, I mean, she's a she's a um she's a young boomer, I'll say that. So she's not like in her 70s or anything. But back in the early 80s, when she was taking ah typing classes, it was on a typewriter.
00:05:35
Speaker
So we're we're one step removed from Kipling's copy books, but still kind of a long time ago, technologically speaking, right? So she's learning on typewriter. Yeah. So she's learning on a typewriter how to type. And um apparently that specific phrase was one of the phrases, one of their quote unquote, copybook heading phrases that they had to type over and over and over again to practice like their speed and accuracy on a typewriter.
00:06:03
Speaker
okay And I was like, oh, like you just mom, you just straight up shared like an in real life copybook heading like that's not too far removed from me. You know what I mean? And so I thought that was really cool. And so um I got kind of excited about it. So I actually called Patrick like a dork. I was like, dude, check this out. I know what copybook heading. And so we kind of had the idea to like for me to come back on and and just kind of talk a little bit more about, like I guess, that that process, like the history behind that, and if that phrase actually means anything.
00:06:34
Speaker
And here I am. Yeah, I thought that was really cool when you called me. I was like, you know, all of our, this this would be an interesting one to do because all of our ah episodes that we had so far have have been like ah an old proverb or saying or maxim. And that's kind of the, the The point of this is to find ancient wisdom, but this one's interesting because it really delves into the actual copybook headings. This one is not really a proverb. It doesn't really mean much. It's just a phrase that like, and we can talk about the meaning of it, but it's not like something that you would tell your grandson.
00:07:08
Speaker
yeah i mean you could but it's quite literally i mean what it is it's actually called filler text or sometimes called placeholder text or dummy text so it's essentially supposed to be like nonsense that you just like would would either practice typing practice writing or if you're doing like um i was talking to you guys before the show um if you like Apparently in a lot of B movies, they'd have this like like the fake newspaper headline to kind of show what's happening in the in the plot, you know? um Like, you know, fire destroys building or whatever. So they would have like the big headline that the audience could see. But to make it look like a newspaper, they'd have this stuff called filler text where they would kind of just fill in um like the rest of the news newspaper were to make it look legit. But if you ever pause the movie or whatever and look closely, it's mostly gibberish.
00:07:53
Speaker
and There's several examples of this. like One of them we were talking about before the show is that fake Latin phrase, Lorem Ipsum. There's one called like New Petitions and Building Code. so it's a very it's It's somewhat famous in like these old movies like in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.
00:08:10
Speaker
like the One of the fake headlines in these fake newspapers and these movies would say, new petitions against tax or building code under fire, just like fake throwaway lines. So this line was one of them. And it was used as like a practice line for typewriters to use on a typewriter.
00:08:28
Speaker
And let me clarify that I learned in preparation for this show that back in the day people like they were originally called stenographers, right? But people that weren't on a typewriter were called typewriters because they're writing on a like their typist on a typewriter anyway, so it's kind of confusing. We don't use that term anymore, but it was kind of confusing. But anyway, so I thought that was pretty interesting. um And so I kind of Looked a little bit deeper into like what is the phrase mean because when she first said it I thought oh dude This has got to be like a Thomas like a Thomas Jefferson phrase or like John Adams George Washington or something. Yeah Like just some guy just made it up
00:09:05
Speaker
ah ah Yeah. And and you you mentioned it's gibberish, but it's it's it is and it isn't. like You could have words that were a lot more a lot more nonsensical than this one. This one at least has means something. like It's a real sentence. Yeah. There's like the one that's like the quick brown fox jumped over the was it the lazy dog or something. It's supposed to have like yeah every every letter in the alphabet in it or something like that. So mean you could have something like that that really meant nothing. But this one actually does mean something. And you if you said it,
00:09:33
Speaker
it would, you know, convey some sort of message. So I'm, yeah, I'm curious to to know, were you able to, were you able to find anything out on this one? Right. And it is related to that phrase, the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. I learned because of this episode that that's called a pangram.
00:09:52
Speaker
basically a a phrase that uses all letters of the alphabet. And so the reason they use that sentence is because it's a sentence that makes sense. It's a complete sentence, but it utilizes every letter of the alphabet. And so the idea was back in the day is you use that to make sure like if you put ink on all the letters and stuff that like on a on a printing press or on a typewriter that all the letters work, like they're all formulated and and carved correctly or whatever. um So this one, um but what I learned, and there's not a lot of history behind it, but what I learned is is that um one of like the early, early like experts on typewriting, and this is back when people were still using like shorthand, and like even if you were like a court reporter, you were still
00:10:37
Speaker
handwriting stuff, like the notes, you know, like what the plaintiff says, what the defendant says, all this stuff. It was all handwritten, because typewriters were new. And um so there was this guy named Frank E. McGurren, I think. And he was actually a court reporter in Salt Lake City, of all places. um And apparently in like the late 1880s, he starts like smoking people because he's so fast at typing on the typewriter that he can out he can basically out type more accurately and faster than the handwriting people. And so he kind of gains some renown and wins some um some like contests like local contests for like accuracy and speed of typing on a typewriter.
00:11:18
Speaker
um And he he kind of starts like a typing school, like that like one of the very first typing schools um that that teaches people to be stauned stenographers or type typewriters, like to learn how to type on a typewriter. um And he I don't know if it was like a like a book he wrote or like ah like a handbook for the class, but in like January of 1889,
00:11:39
Speaker
um He came up with the phrase and the phrase he came up with very similar to the one we're talking about today But the phrase he originally came up with his call it not called but the um it reads Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party
00:11:56
Speaker
um And again, kind of nonsense. like When you hear that, you think like, oh, it must be a communism thing. It's failed communism, right? But the guy had no ties to communism, like had nothing to do with it. It was just like a phrase that that um he came up with. um And then later he wrote a book that was called The Early the early History of the Typewriter, which is ironic because the book was written in 1918, and it's called The Early History of the Typewriter. So I don't know how far back he went, but but it's called The Early history History of the Typewriter. And in that book, 1918, is when he changed it to, now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country with a period at the end.
Typewriter History and QWERTY Layout
00:12:36
Speaker
And apparently by doing that, that exact phrase worded that way with a period at the end um is
00:12:42
Speaker
70 characters, including spaces, which is exactly one line of text if you're typing with a typewriter. Oh, looking wild. that's why he picked that phrase. It's exactly 70 lines or whatever. And so that would go across the paper like one complete time. And so I guess back in those days, they had standard lines. it's like It's not like today where you could fiddle with the margins. It's like, you know, like if your teacher tells you he wants three pages, you can make the margins bigger. You probably couldn't do that on a typewriter. You could do it a little bit with a typewriter, but yeah. It's a lines the line. Yeah. Yeah.
00:13:19
Speaker
I don't know if you ever, like my grandma, the typewriter when I was growing up, I used to play with it, but like it has like three functions, right? Like you can move up and down a line. It can move left and right. And that's basically it. And so if you're practicing, you would type this phrase out from starting from left to right. You get to the end of the row.
00:13:35
Speaker
you you go down one, move the typewriter back over to the starting position, and do it all again. And that was basically the only functionality that that the machine had. And so by having that phrase with a period at the end, with the spaces the way they were, it was it was exactly perfectly one line across in the typewriter. Interesting. I mean, I don't know if that was like that was his... I've got my typewriter here tonight, guys. Oh, do you have one? got pushche here Of Dude.
00:14:03
Speaker
Honestly, like ah grandpa's we should, we should, we should do some ASMR, Andrew, and you just have like going in the background, you're like typing in the background, like we're at an office in like 1920s. Yeah. Are you a good typist, Andrew? You seem like you, the type would be a good typist. Uh, I'm, I'm, I'm okay. I mean, I spend most of my day typing, but like not just. I use the mouse a lot, right? It's not like I'm just going to go and I go and I just, well, and typing on a keyboard is way different than than ah than a typewriter. Like the pressure on the buttons and stuff is different.
00:14:33
Speaker
Yeah, when I'm on the typewriter, especially like my my right my left pinky, like hitting the A is like just really fatiguing and it gets really weak, like it shows up really weak because my my pinky isn't strong. like oh yeah And also if you type a little too fast on a typewriter, the keys will get jammed up because they hit each other. So you you actually have to, I don't know, there's probably a a skill to it to go fast, but also not jam things up, but I don't have that skill, so.
00:15:01
Speaker
Well, I think it's kind of a lost art, like the type typing with a typewriter, you know? um And actually, funny story, when you're talking about the um the the the keys kind of jamming when you hit them or if you go too fast, that's the exact reason that we have the keyboard setup that we do now, what they call the QWERTY keyboard, K-W-E-R-T-Y, QWERTY.
00:15:24
Speaker
So that configuration was created because if it was an alphabetical order, apparently it was too easy for people to type really quickly. And it would like jam up the typewriter, um I don't know if they're called, but the things that put the ink on the paper. and And so they had to put it like this to deliberately make it more difficult to type so that you couldn't, like so so that basically the the base of that machine could keep up with you. But now its now that's it, go ahead. I want to say, I was ah looking at the keyboard as we were talking about this phrase,
00:15:53
Speaker
and And one thing I can see about it is that it it goes back and forth between the right hand and the left hand a lot on a lot of some of the words like sequentially. And so you can kind of see it's a good practice sentence because you're using both hands a lot and you're not using a ton on one hand all at once or on the other all at once. But that's probably also a function just of that keyboard layout like you're saying.
00:16:16
Speaker
to keep people, you know, from from jamming up the keys. So yeah. and And with computers, you don't even need that anymore, because the computer can keep up with, you know, problem. But because that is how that that's like the path we were started down with with ah typing on a keyboard, that's how everybody learned. And so now we're basically just stuck with it. Now, they do have other keyboards, they have other configurations, but they're so weird that I don't that I can't even use them.
00:16:45
Speaker
OK. All right. So that's that's actually a very interesting ah source for all of this. I am curious, though, ah do you. So we don't know anything about the guy's politics or anything like that. We don't know if I mean, I think that's World War One. Yeah. At the end of World War One. So I looked the guy up. His name's his name's Frank McGurren. He was born in 1861. So it's the beginning of the Civil War. And he died in 1933.
00:17:14
Speaker
he was from He was from Michigan, he died in Oakland, but apparently he spent a short time as like a stenographer, that's what they used to call it, the typist before, you know, before typewriter, in Salt Lake City teaching typing classes. And so it was sort of him that developed like the idea of having a class where you learn to type and typing this phrase out because it uses like the whole line of the keyboard. um Yeah.
00:17:39
Speaker
did your mom grow up in salt lake uh she was born in salt lake um but she moved to california when she was like seven or eight or something like that so she grew up because you said this guy was teaching in salt lake city yes but he died in 1933 yeah i know i'm just saying maybe it carried on i guess my yeah maybe carried off from that's it from that area i wonder if it's regional Yeah, maybe maybe. I don't know. But um because the thing is, is I'd never heard that. And so when my mom told me that, I was like, well, let me Google it. And when I Googled it, there's a Wikipedia article about filler text. And this is an example of Gibbs, this exact phrase, along with the other ones we discussed earlier. And so I was like, Oh, apparently, like, there's, like, some people know about this stuff, because I got a Wikipedia article about it.
00:18:23
Speaker
um So, I just thought i thought it was interesting. um Yeah, it just makes me curious because while it is filler text, he could have picked anything. you know He could have picked any phrase and he did he did pick, now is the time for, sorry, I don't have it for me, now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country, is that what it is? Yeah, that's it. yep Yeah. And so um I wonder if that had something to do with you know being near the end of World War I and maybe some sense of patriotism or something and and the party aspect of it, that the first, the initial iteration of it had party instead of country is kind of interesting.
00:18:59
Speaker
Yeah. Cause it said, I mean, take this for what it's worth, but like the source I read said that, um, he used to use a Remington
Patriotic Intent and Educational Impact
00:19:06
Speaker
typewriter. That was like the one that he used and, um, the same company as the gun company. I think it's different. I think it's different. okay Maybe it's the same. I don't know. But, uh, apparently January of 1889 is when he came up with that first phrase.
00:19:20
Speaker
And then as he kind of got a little more well-versed in teaching people to type and kind of having these classes on teaching people to be typists, um is when he changed it, where he where he changed it from part the aid of the party to aid of the kind aid of their country and added a period at the end.
00:19:37
Speaker
Um, and that was in a book that he wrote in 1918 so he kind of I guess maybe kind of workshopped it a little bit but it is interesting that he basically wrote that at the time the us was uh heavily involved in world war one and that's that was probably on top of mind for most of the world not so much the us but everybody else was definitely uh Like the great war was was definitely like, you know in the news and everything. So yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe maybe that's maybe that that was like his his ah inspiration for it. Yeah. ah Side note, E. Remington & Sons was a manufacturer of firearms and typewriters. Oh dude, same guy? Yep. That's awesome.
00:20:19
Speaker
Do you think he still makes the typewriters?
00:20:23
Speaker
Remington's a crap show of ah of a firearms company these days, unfortunately. They're a pale shadow of their former selves. Yeah, sad. um but yeah ah so okay all right let's let's I know this is isn't a proverb. This is truly just a copybook headache, but what if it was a proverb? Let's talk about Is this, is there truth to this one? is that Is now the time for all good men to come to the of their country? Do you think it was meant to be maybe a little patriotic back in the day? It seems like it might've been during i think during World War I. And I mean, what do you guys think about that? What do you guys think of the meaning of it? Yeah, I think ah ah I'll give i'll give the him the the benefit of the doubt here and say that it is, there is some good meaning here, I think it's, and it's a
00:21:13
Speaker
um, worth heeding this advice. Cause it, you know, I think part of what makes it a little odd is, is the now, right? Like it takes it away from, like, you don't see that a lot in a lot of of proverbs, um, because that, that takes away the timelessness of it does yeah these things. And so that's why this one's a little odd, but, um, but I think even the now that I think it does apply to all people at all times, like that it is, you know, now is the time to,
00:21:43
Speaker
to help your country because you're here now. So so get get to work, right? Yeah, kind of like a lift where you stand type of thing. If you are here in the net here and now, all you can do is help here and now. So um wherever you are, whenever you're listening to this, now is the time. And I mean, and it might've been related to the war effort um back in World War I, but it doesn't have to be militaristic in my opinion. like coming to the aid of your country is in there's so many ways to contribute to your country, your state, your local, your area, your community. um I don't know. I like it better than the fox jump fox jumping over the lazy dog. I don't know. Yeah. I like it too. The only the only the only difference between the two is this one doesn't use all the all the letters of the alphabet. Oh, man. But who cares? But but there is.
00:22:37
Speaker
But you bring an interesting point up because there is almost a values judgment in in the in the phrase, right? yeah Because now is the time, so now, right, yesterday is is the time for all good men to come to the aid of our country, implying that if you're not coming to the aid of your country, you're not a good man.
00:22:54
Speaker
Yeah. yeah and let's Let's not forget that when these copybook headings, for better or worse, are propagandizing these kids with with some sort of message, which is the whole point of the you know teaching them these old teaching them proverbs or or what have you. So having this phrase, whether it be fi at filler text or not, and not necessarily an old A maxim, ah this is this one was chosen to put a message into you young people's minds. Now's the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. If you're not coming to the aid of your country, yeah, like you said, you're not a good man. And this is a message that they wanted kids to remember. I kind of like your your your thinking here, Patrick. Your line of thinking here is, what I'm hearing is, is this is based like a proto-psi-op.
00:23:37
Speaker
Like as you're typing it over and over and over again on your typewriter, it's like, man, I gotta to enlist. Man, I gotta to go fight those, I gotta go fight those, those crowds. Let's go. Type school and go enlist. You know, like I'm just, I'm thinking here. I'm like, you know what? ah There's gotta to be some truth to that because yeah was that was a huge thing like for recruitment back in the day as they would try and like insert it, you know, into like the, the, the culture, you know,
00:24:05
Speaker
totally Just to get young men to to to go join the wherever. So they're just clickety-clacking, typing this over over and over and now just wondering, do I become a doughboy? Do I become a typewriter? The the the fork in the road, you know the career path. Something else I thought was interesting is this guy is a contemporary of Rudyard Kipling. They lived in the same era.
00:24:27
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, that's crazy. Yeah. Cause I was looking it up. Kipling was born in 1865 and died in 1936. And this dude that wrote it was born in 1861 and died in 1933. So he was actually slightly older than Kipling.
00:24:43
Speaker
So same same era. um So obviously this guy, Frank McGurren, would have been familiar with like copybook headings. And so that's probably why he had the idea to have like a phrase that you just type over and over again for practice. um But I thought that was kind of kind of cool that like this these guys, I mean, they probably didn't know each other, but.
Relevance of Typing Education Today
00:25:04
Speaker
Heck, well, he might've known the poem. I mean, the poem was published in um Harper's Magazine in January of 1920.
00:25:10
Speaker
Yeah, two years after this this guy, this phrase came out, yeah. So I didn't ask you before, but I'm curious, ah did you find other phrases that were like in this book that this guy put out or just this one is the only one you were really able to... This is the only one I could find. um the way So the way that it's... um The way that it was originally crafted was this guy, Frank McGurren, who was an expert on this on this specific of a Remington typewriter in the eighteen eight late 1880s. There's another guy named Charles E. Weller, and I can't find anything on him. And he's the one that kind of wrote like the history of the typewriter. And in that history of typewriter, he's talking about this phrase that Frank McGurren came up with.
00:26:02
Speaker
okay um But it's only, apparently it's only mentioned like one time and I think it's more of not, not like necessarily history of here's what they typed to practice. It's more of like in the early days, in the 1880s, you know, 30 years ago, here's what we used to, here's here's what typewriting was like. Here's the history of the actual typewriter. Here's a phrase they used to type.
00:26:21
Speaker
and And that's that's kind of where the the the phrase was like memorialized, I guess. um But it's interesting that that is like these phrases, depending on how you're coming up with it, 1880 or 1918, still a long time ago, my mom's typing this in the 1980s. So this is still 70 something years later, and it's still being used on a typewriter. um I'm not sure what to make of that. Yeah.
00:26:50
Speaker
Yeah, it's a long time. They couldn't find any other phrases, but I know that um like the copybook ones, obviously your guys entire podcast is is one example of things people would would um would write. Um, but the other ones I saw were, um, like the ASDF it's like the home row and what we used to call the home row on the keyboard. That's why but if you put your hands on the home row on the keyboard, there's little like. Raised like, uh, whatever. Yeah. It's so you can, your fingers can find it while you're typing. So that was one of them to type the home row. Um, there's another one that I found, um, that's, I don't even know how you would say this. It's like a tailwind shirt, Lou or something like that. It's.
00:27:29
Speaker
ETA I I'm sorry ETA oh I n and then sh are DL you it's just gibberish but what it is is it's the It's the order of frequency of the 12 most commonly used letters in the English language it's ah It's a nonsense phrase, but it was one of those things were in the early days I was like, okay type this out and you can kind of get used to typing all these letters um and then lorem ipsum is one um and like the whatever, the quick the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. That's another one. um So yeah, man. Most of them are gibberish though. When I was a kid, we had this program on our computer, you know, on the big floppy disks. Mavis Beacon teaches typing. I remember Mavis Beacon. Yeah, that's what I learned on him. Good old Mavis. And so I'm wondering if, i'm I'm curious if any of these old phrases were on there too in the in that,
00:28:29
Speaker
eighty s yeah Do you still have that, Andrew? You should boot it up and see if it's... I bet my dad has all the discs. I bet all of those are there. All my cool old games. um You know, Black Cauldron, I remember, was a great one. The Korea Olympics game was really cool. um But I don't know... Korea Olympics? Is that what you said? Is it like like the Seoul Olympics in Korea is what it is? The Seoul Olympics, yeah. I thought you had to be like a Korean athlete.
00:28:56
Speaker
Oh, yeah, just very, very. No. um Yeah, man. But I don't think he's got a ah computer that can play him, but I'll have to track those down. and You can probably get an emulator, Mavis Beacon emulator. Yeah. Get your typewriter out and learn to type with Mavis Beacon.
00:29:14
Speaker
um I think there's an episode of the office where they reference Mavis Beacon where I think like Jim asks Pam like how fast she can type and she's like, oh, I can do like, you know, I forgot 90 words per minute or whatever. And he's like, that's impossible. Mavis Beacon can't even type that fast. Just kind of like a throwaway line, but no one knows who Mavis Beacon is. Yeah. Well, we're coming up kind of to the end of it, but, um
00:29:43
Speaker
So I mean, I guess yeah usually this is the part of the show where you talk about like the gods of the marketplace, right? And it basically is this phrase still relevant today. um I don't think it's necessarily, um maybe it's relevant to practice typing. like I took keyboarding in in high school and we didn't have practice phrases, but When the teacher's not looking, you can just like control C, control V, like copying over and over and over again, you know the shortcuts. so I'm not sure how relevant these like actual like typing out copybook headings are anymore. But I think the phrase like the sentiment behind the phrase is still valuable. And I think now is the time for good all good men to come to the aid of their country because your country needs you now more than ever.
00:30:26
Speaker
Well said. I've got a thought. Andrew, you want to you got anything to add before I give my two cents? Curiosity. curiosity do a ah are we to the point yet Are kids even learning ah how to type on keyboards anymore? Like for computers or at all just swiping? you know Go to swiping class?
00:30:44
Speaker
i school I'm not sure, so I have, i have let's see, my my oldest son is 15, he's in high school, he's starting his sophomore year, which is weird, makes me feel old. um And he is asked, he yeah, so he is he is asked to do um like essays and stuff for for school, where he has to type them up, but my I have not heard of any course that's like, because back when I was a freshman, they called it keyboarding, that was the name of the class in high school, it was keyboarding.
00:31:11
Speaker
um we have that i don't Yeah. And so I don't, I don't know if they even teach that anymore. I'm wondering if the assumption is, is you've been raised with nothing but a QWERTY keyboard and screens your entire life. So most of the stuff should be second nature to you. I don't know. All right. Yeah. yeah just Just wondering if we're. exiting thee the need to. i might I wonder if your son would just dictate his paper and let some voice recognition do it for him. yeah Actually, the bigger problem now is AI, because the kids can use AI. It's like, hey, chat GPT, write an essay about George Washington or whatever. And it does you know for a fifth grade paper. And it does a pretty good job. ah So you got to like like monitor that, because it's kind of hard to tell.
00:31:59
Speaker
Yeah. um So I have one last thought on this before we before we jump off. um The phrase is, now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. This is a this is a ah phrase, a message, like like you said, kind of like ah like a psy-op or like a like a like a jingoistic phrase that's being put into these kids' head during possibly during wartime.
00:32:22
Speaker
um So while I do think there's the the message, in and this was done and put into curriculum for schools. so So my takeaway for this, if there's some some advice would be, now is the time to to come to the aid of your country, but in the sense that make sure you're paying attention as a parent, as a citizen about what's going into schools.
00:32:47
Speaker
and maybe take a little bit of time to go to a school board meeting or talk to your administration. Because mean look at how powerful this can be. this is this This is something that kids are going to repeat over and over. And while they may not have typing classes anymore, I promise you that there are some messages that are going through to kids, and some of them are really positive, and others may not. So yeah, now's the time two for all good men to come to the aid of their country, get involved in your local schools.
Conclusion and Modern Implications
00:33:13
Speaker
and go vote and go vote yep local and primary elections too don't forget the whole of a man vote and everything yep okay hey thanks so much man this is a fun one and and kind of offbeat and different but it was uh kind of refreshing Yeah, I wasn't sure if we get like a full episodes worth of content out of it, but I think we did okay. You know, I'm pretty good at rambling off the cuff and sharing useless information. So, um, but it was exciting to me because it was, like I said before earlier on, it was like ah a real life example, not that far removed from our own generation of a straight up copybook heading, you know, that, that I'm assuming people, our parents age would be somewhat familiar with.
00:33:55
Speaker
They're real. Yeah. You have to go ask my dad. Exist, yeah. It's real. yeah yeah All right, well. But hey, thanks for having me on, man. It's been awesome, guys. I appreciate it. Yeah, thanks so much for coming on, and thanks so much for listening, everybody. We will see you guys all next week. All right, we'll see you. Bye. There are only four things certain since social progress began,
00:34:26
Speaker
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins, When all men are paid for existing, and no man must pay for his sin, As surely as water will wet us, as surely as fire will burn, The gods of the copy walk hideous, with terror and slaughter at her.