THE DEMISE OF THE CURSIVE CAPITAL Q

Cursive writing, for those who have forgotten or never learned, is the fine art of handwriting in flowing loops and curves. Once upon a time, penmanship was much emphasized in our nation's schools.

Many older readers will remember the displays above the blackboards in virtually every classroom showing how to form both the block-printing letters to guide the youngest students and the precise cursive letters for older students of handwriting.

Zaner-Bloser Inc. is the company that has for years supplied American schoolrooms with those visual guides to printing and writing. Now there is about to be a change that is compelled, no doubt, by the computer age and the fact that so few people actually write much any more. The company is giving up on the cursive capital Q, the one that looks like a loopy number 2. Instead, the new cursive capital Q will look like -- well, it will look more like a Q, a big O with a tail.

As changes in our society go, the loss of the Q that looks like a big 2 is probably not going to revolutionize our lives. But here it is, a fundamental change happening right before our eyes. It at least deserves some mention rather than occurring unnoticed, don't you think?