Tommy^[1] the Tank and the Steep Hill

Afterward, Roberta grumbles that In The Glorious 50-Baud Days, constructions such as ‘‘the tank it,’’ should they ever have made it as far as The Wire, would be followed by an immediate RESENDING.  Well, In Those Days, there were people called ‘‘editors’’ who usually caught such things before they escaped from the newsdesk.  Not to mention the final check by the guy/gal who punched the tape for transmission.

Nowadays just about anybody can hit ‘‘send,’’ although proofing your own copy remains just as damn difficult as it’s always been.  And once in the wild, I’m not sure anyone actually reads anything; transmission nowadays seems to be mostly cut-and-paste.

^[1] Unnamed in her story, but he was a British Tank, after all!

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