If you want to send a message, do not use Western Union

[mmcirvin]

Via pauldrye: Little did I know, when I attempted to explore the murky origins of the phrase, that it would become obsolete eleven days later.

Not quite as on the dot as when I death-rayed GEnie by talking about it here, but close.

Comments

[pentomino.livejournal.com]

You mean they still sent telegrams?

I was actually looking around for telegram services a couple of years ago. I could only find a place that advertised delivery to rural Russia.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Apparently, they did. I get the impression that toward the end they were trying to sell it as a nostalgic novelty.

Telegram

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

I think the last time I sent telegrams was in the Czec Republic in '93 after giving up in frustration at the still Eastern Blocky telephone system.

By the time I got back to Europe in '99, there were few places where I had trouble finding a cybercafe.

Re: Telegram

[pentomino.livejournal.com]

I think cybercafes were easier to find there than here.

We need more places to adopt the universal symbol of the @-sign to advertise cybercafes.

[paraleipsis.livejournal.com]

Oh noes! That makes me oddly sad. If only I'd known, I'd have sent some telegrams on the last day. . .