Editing The Pen Addict 224/transcript (section)

== Italic Cursive ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' I remember vividly that class. I remember, and I don't know how old I must have been, but I remember vividly just in pain struggling to do this thing because everybody could do it except me. Yeah. I just couldn't get it to work. And I will put it down to my left-handedness. I don't know why that would be an excuse, but that's the only one that I will give. And I remember the teacher coming over and telling me just how wrong it was and showing me everybody who was doing it right. I will always remember that class.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I don't know why you ever had to learn the italic cursive stuff. That was weird. But anyway, so back on to Anne. You know, our friend Tony from Everyday Commentary wrote a massive, I guess you'd call it a Tony takedown. That's what he kind of does on some certain products. So this time he did it on the cursive handwriting. Basically after the, we mentioned the New York Times op-ed piece that she wrote. And he went full lawyer mode onto his discussion. It's a really, really long post. A lot of people read it. A lot of people thought it was overly aggressive in trying to, you know, take her down. But Miss Truebeck responded to him. You know, she was pretty taken aback by the whole thing. And she had a, he posted her entire response, which was long in itself. And we'll have all these links in the show notes if anyone hasn't read any of this. You can certainly check it out if you're interested. And then, you know, Tony wrapped it up saying, you know, he appreciated her. And, you know, here's, you know, my stance on everything. And then yesterday, I got a tweet where Ann Truebeck and I forget the other gentleman's name. Here, I got the link in here. Chris, I believe. I'm sorry. Let me get his name correct. Oh, gosh.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Christopher Rulo.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Christopher Rulo.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Talked on a show on CBC Radio, which is Canada's radio station, about is handwriting obsolete in the digital age? So she had a conversation with him on there. And where I'm at in this whole thing, this whole Ann Truebeck thing, is I don't know what she stands for, especially after reading her responses to Tony and in relation to what she wrote in her op-ed piece. So I've emailed her this morning.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And she replied already. You know, I'm asking her to come on the podcast. You know, I don't want this to be a one-sided conversation. You know, I think she deserves a platform to talk about, you know, what she believes in. And she replied back. And she said, hey, I'd love to be on the show. She said, have you read my book? I'd be happy to send you one. I said, no, I haven't read the book. But if you want me to read that before you come on the show, that's fine. I said, but here's what I really want. I said, well, we, this is me, my response to her. Then I haven't heard back. I said, well, we can definitely talk about the book. What I really want to wrap the discussion around is how you have been labeled as anti-handwriting and get your thoughts on that. What is your true stance on handwriting being taught in school, schools, cursive dying out and things of that nature. That's where I'm confused. So, you know, her book, oh, Handwriting Just Doesn't Matter was the title of the New York Times article. I understand that she probably didn't write that headline. You know, most newspapers have their own headline writers. But the book is called The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think the message is getting lost somewhere on what she's really trying to do just based on some of the wording of the New York Times piece. The title does not help. Handwriting Just Doesn't Matter. The image they attach to it says end of an era. And especially at the end of the article where she says there will be no loss to our children's intelligence. Like, I find that hard to believe. So, I've offered her the opportunity to come on and discuss this. Like, I'll be happy to discuss the book. We can discuss every part of the book she wants. I'll read it before she comes on if that's what she would prefer. But what I really want to know is what her stance is. Because she's being made out to be anti-handwriting by everything I can tell. She may just be anti-cursive. That's cool. I've got no problem with that. Does she want handwriting taught at all in schools? Yes or no? That's it. That's when I want to know what the stance is. If you don't want cursive taught in schools, great. Do you want handwriting taught in schools, period. That's all. I mean, I think it's that simple. I think this has gotten, like, way out of whack in what her stance is. The way I read her stuff, it makes me think she doesn't want handwriting. But the way she answers Tony and the way she answers questions on the CBC broadcast, it doesn't sound like that. But she never really says one way or the other.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's never clarified. Maybe because nobody's asking.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. So I said, I told her specifically, I said, that's what I want to know. I said, we can talk about your book all day long. But here's what I want to know. Because you're being made out to be an anti-handwriting villain. Is that true or not? You know, I don't want to keep banging on her. I don't want to put words in her mouth, you know. So we'll see. You know, I will keep efforting that. She's already replied once. So we'll see if we can set something up. I'd like to have her on. And I told her, you know, we're obviously biased towards handwriting on this show. But this isn't going to be some, you know, sneak attack hatchet job. I want to come on and have a conversation. And here's what I want to talk about. You know, I'll give her the floor. But I'm going to ask black and white questions. Do you believe handwriting should be taught in schools? Pretty simple to me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Wash your space, kids.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So on that subject that can get a little intense, we have maybe the exact opposite of that. Have you heard of PPAT, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, this is one of those things that for whatever reason, it hits a nerve with people. And then I start getting it sent to me in like a snowballing effect. And it is picking up. And I'm pleased we're talking about this today because otherwise it's going to continue. You want it to stop? This is just something that seems to be a little bit of a meme now. It's this very peculiar song that has come from somewhere in Asia, I'm assuming. I don't know the exact origins of where this song comes from. There's kind of no information about it at all. And I don't I cannot recognize which language some of the subtitles are written in. But it looks to me like a like an Asian language, maybe Korean or Japanese or something like that. And but the song is in English and it is called Pen Pineapple Apple Pen. So obviously people send it to me because it has both pens and pineapple in it. And well known for my love of pineapple pepperoni pizza, which Jason Snow introduced me to. So it is one of those things where it's just like the perfect crossover of things that I talk about and enjoy. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I can't explain what this is. I don't I have no idea what this song is. It makes me uncomfortable to watch it. I watched it for the first time just before we recorded today. It will be in the show notes of this week's episode. Just pause the show and go and spend 90 seconds watching this. Yeah. So you understand what we're talking about. Yeah. But you've got to know that you're going to feel like physically uncomfortable when you're done.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, this guy's a straight up baller. I mean, oh, apple pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. You're going to be singing it the rest of the day. Pen Pineapple Apple Pen. Oh, it's weird. It's weird. I don't like it. I do not like it. It's totally amazing. You know, it's amazing. And you're going to be singing it all day and you can't wait to show Adina.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's very Gangnam style, I think. Yes. Kind of.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, this thing's got 7.7 million views on YouTube right now. So how many of them are you? Something's going on. 0.7 million? Maybe three. Maybe three.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh. Apple pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Dear, oh, dear.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Why are we sticking the pens into apples and pineapples?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I don't know. And then why do you put them together? It doesn't make any sense. This is why it makes me uncomfortable because I feel like he's not singing about pens and pineapples and that's why I don't like.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right, right. That's why you can go, oh, in there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because he's freaking me out when he looks right into my eyes and makes that sound. It's not good. It's not good. So we should stop doing it because it's probably way worse coming from me and you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, it's going to last at least another week. I'm pretty certain of it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, yeah. This is, you know, now I have Gangnam Style in my head. That is just a great song.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So what I will not be doing, I will not be showing this to my kids. Yeah. Because the Gangnam Style never died. That took like a year to go away. This will not be viewed in my household. Well. As long as I can control it. Yeah. As long as I can control that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, yeah. So that's a thing. So we have a bunch more to get to on the show. We have a bunch of Ask TPA. And I want to have a little mini topic here that comes up in Ask TPA a lot. And it comes up in my inbox and Twitter feed a lot. And it's something we've covered before. But as it continues to, you know, be a thing, I want to kind of revisit the topic of selling a pen.