Writing and speaking

I do so miss the days when people wrote in complete sentences. I got an email this morning from Louisa, after I'd asked her what she'd gotten to do on her weekend away. There wasn't a single article in the entire paragraph. It was as if she was typing the whole thing on a cell phone with small buttons.

She doesn't speak that way... why does she write that way? And no, she's not some real young'un. She's 39, and thus not a native of the IM/chat generation.

I often find myself attracted to great writing even more than great legs these days, if only because there are more great legs around than great writers. There are more passable legs than even passable writers. That, and on cold days, pants and boots don't cover up your writing skills, though if it's really cold, mittens could cause more typos.

The lady in Minneapolis -- we'll call her Lucy -- writes remarkably well. It's fun to read, flows easily, doesn't sound forced or dissimilar from her speaking voice. She seems to be able to bridge that gap between voice and words without too much trouble. So many people seem to sound very, very different when speaking and writing. I have never been sure why.