IMs Back In The Day
To the feverish debate of L'affaire Foley, the blogger named By Nettie Jingo! adds some instructive lit-crit and historical context:
It's immediately clear that the Instant Message does not threaten the Shakespearean sonnet's place in the literature of the seduction of the underaged. It's a painful harbinger of the degradation of our times to compare
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion
with
Xxxxxxxxx (8:05:08 PM): haha
Maf54 (8:05:53 PM): and gram the one eyed snake
Maf54 (8:06:13 PM): grab
To make his point that our Instant Message seduction scandal in Congress is nothing novel, By Neddie Jingo! goes back in time. ... well past 1983 and Rep. Gerry Studds
... to 1882 and the forgotten case of Cong. Ezra Canney-Pickham, of Ohio's Third District, and the object of his desires, a Congressional page from Georgia named Elmo Trotwoodie.
This was a great press scandal of the day, By Neddie Jingo! reminds in a Saturday post titled "Gram the One-Eyed Snake."
And he reprints the instant messages of the day to prove it -- the telegraph.
NAUSEA ENSUES STOP SLOW THINGS DOWN STOP AM ONLY SEVENTEEN STOP NOT EIGHTEEN UNTIL FEB 23 STOP SERIOUSLY STOP STOP STOP STOP ELMO
A classic, via The Tattered Coat.
Note to my editor: This might not be actually true. I Googled young Trotwoodie and found only By Neddie Jingo's post. I have my suspicions. Suggest taking the rest of the week off so I might head for the Savannah, Ga., library stacks and conduct further research. Please forward mail to the Hamilton-Turner Inn.