I was leisurely looking at a vintage postcard of Washington Park that had been sent by an Altamont man to his aunt concerning a package he had just mailed her. It was postmarked Dec. 1911 and was rather unremarkable except for the closing, which read: "Yours in haste, Geo." I like that. It's like: Forgive me for not writing more, but ... gotta go! In truth, though, I'm often kind of stymied when it comes to signing off: Yours truly, Sincerely, Best Wishes, Regards? Cordially, Fondly, In Solidarity, Cheers? Peace, Love, Later, Anon? A coworker suggests something a friend of her mother's would invariably close with: "As ever..." Or one could always say: "As always." Both of those have a certain unwavering quality that tends to reassure and is hardly ever a lie. In any event (as ever and always), our typo of the day appears in both OhioLINK and WorldCat, 11 times in the former and 98 times in the latter. With apologies to William Congreve and his 1693 play The Old Batchelour: catalog in haste, repent at leisure. Perhaps one could also say the same for that flamboyant wig there, Bill! (Just kidding, dudes of the 17th century...)(Portrait of William Congreve, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt, from Wikimedia Commons.)
Carol Reid
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