Tuesday 19 November 2013

Seven Score and Ten Years Ago Today . . .

. . . on November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. Amazingly brief (the entire speech consisted of only 10 sentences), it is nevertheless justly celebrated as one of history's most famous and profound speeches. However, by modern standards, it's much too long-winded for today's short attention spans --


And rather than attending some big ceremony, today's Lincoln would just tweet it from his local Starbucks while enjoying a grande cappuccino. Or perhaps a nice pumpkin spice latte?


33 comments:

LL Cool Joe said...

And to think I've never heard the speech at all, long or short. Sad but true. I have the attention span of a fish. :D

Anonymous said...

Text talk hurts my brain!

mxtodis123 said...

We had to read it when I was a kid, but ask me now if I remember what I read.
Mary

DEZMOND said...

Gotta admit - never heard of the said speech!

Anonymous said...

oh wow thats so true sadly, but so funny! Shame on us, we spend more time with gadgets than people!

OmaLindasOldeBaggsandStuftShirts said...

you are right....until the last 6 months I had an inkling of the absolute demonic addiction to electronic devices but had never been talking to a member of my household and have them be reading a text from someone else and not hearing a thing I said. Oh I'm sure they were looking right at me and doing the same thing before but now they have something to entertain themselves while ignoring my words.
And Abe's text is fun.
BTW, I love the lovely lady holding the bee on the sidebar.
Oma Linda

Adam said...

he probably would be like "alright time to unfriend Senator Jefferson Davis from FB"

Jim said...

A very smart man! HE knows where to get a good cup of coffee!!

jadedj said...

We no longer know the score. A pity really.

Anonymous said...

Drives me nuts when people type their words this way in any form of social media. Hurts my brain trying to figure it out... what happened to good old English??

Cperz said...

Isn't that the truth that by today's standards the Gettysburg Address would be considered wordy. While Lincoln might of had to shorten it to Tweet it, it probably would of gone viral reaching far more people than it did initially. But sadly it would of been replaced by another Tweet 5 seconds later that would of been something stupid like the latest comment from Kanye.

SUZY8-TRACK said...

People want their news and information in small sound bytes! No one has the time to stop and actually LISTEN! Very sad!

Mary said...

Lol! How true, and hilarious, this is! I'm working hard at trying to improve.. lengthen my attention span. It has become pathetic..

Leanna said...

We are all Zombies. Stumbling around glued to the iPhone screens. It's a sad sight when you see a poor unsuspecting zombie suddenly disappear into an uncovered manhole on the street.

Hey, that's something for you to write about on your next blog.

Bird said...

ROFL! Sad and funny but, unfortunately, probably very, very true.

Plowing Through Life (Martha) said...

Hahaha! He'd probably be hanging around Tim Hortons when in Canada. Enjoying a double double :)

Elsie Amata said...

I can't stand text speak. When I text, I write everything out.

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is amazing.

yellowdoggranny said...

I text all the time(my hearing is so bad I don't like to talk on the phone..but I spell all the words out..had to memorize the gettysburg address when in high school..it flows.

Fundy Blue said...

Such a funny post, Debra! I snagged the Gettysburg cartoon to pass on to a friend who is a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to technology. While I'm solidly Old School when it comes to writing, I find the creativity and fun in textspeak refreshing! Have a good one!

The Happy Whisk said...

Pumpkin spice lattes and tweets. Hahahaha.

Rawknrobyn.blogspot.com said...

Good thing Twitter wasn't around back them. I bet nobody would've favorited the speech, except maybe the Mrs.

Be well, Debra.
xoRobyn

Willow said...

Smiling I am , too funny.

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

It's really difficult for me to believe that there are grown people in this country, citizens, that say they haven't heard of The Gettysburg Address..
Kinda sad. How can one appreciate all that went into this country if they haven't learned history..but never mind. Not my business anyway.
Not liking the short cut, so called English..it's ugly!
Still the idea of the
Gettysburg address being said in a text message is funny! The only thing is, I have always wished President Lincoln had said "....that all men are created with equal rights"...instead of "..all men are created equal." because they are not. Not at all, but they should have equal rights!
Anyway, I thought it was a cute post.

Professor Chaos said...

If you missed it. check YouTube for the speech critic panning Lincoln and other famous speeches on SNL. One of the funnier bits they've done lately.

Linda said...

I am text-free....twitter-free...
Guess...I am downright boring!!
But...
I do have a blog!!! YAY!!!!

Enjoy your evening♥
Cheers!
Linda :o)

CraveCute said...

Got a good chuckle out of this. Reading all the comments was pretty interesting too!

Birdie said...

And we could save the speech to read later when we have time!

Miss Val's Creations said...

Haha! How times have changed!

fromsophiesview said...

Have you had one of those pumpkin spice lattes? So friggin' sweet, makes you wanna tweet!!

bobbybegood1 said...

Hilarious post! Hi, my name is Bobbybegood1 and I found your post via Enjoying the Epiphany. You have a wonderful blog. I hope we can become blogbuddies. Cheers!!

Dawna said...

Took me awhile to work out what the 1st pic was saying!.. shame on me!

Magic Love Crow said...

LOL! Sad, but so true!!!

Ol'Buzzard said...

His original speech was thrown away and he scribbled down the Address in his carriage on the way to the dedication.
the Ol'Buzzard