sent in by arvind 

'Hamlet'

 Said Hamlet to Ophelia,
 'I'll do a sketch of thee,
 What kind of pencil shall I use,
 2B or not 2B?'

       --Spike Milligan

On reading the recently published Milligan's poem "The ABC", went searching on
the net for more. Whereupon I stumbled across this cute little one. The point
here is, texting is the order of the day and teachers are more worried about
youngsters using these short text forms.

Add to this, the furore created over an essay written by a teen which goes like
"My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kids
FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc" (Translation: "My summer holidays were a complete
waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his
girlfriend, and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York. It's
a great place.")

And then read this article[1] recently in "The Hindu". To quote from it, "To be
or not to be, that is the question" became "2b r not 2b that's?" or even more
mathematically as: "2b/-2b=?" (Though what Milligan means in the verse is the
pencil type, it very well fits the SMS text of today)

Thats all the much reason why I'm sending the above verse 2 u. oops, to you ;-)

thanks,
arvind

[1] http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/03/20/stories/2003032001120400.htm

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