Mead Spell-Write Steno Book word list

If you really insist on carrying around a notebook all the time, you can't do much better than a Mead Spell-Write Steno Book. It's not one of those cloth-bound 'journals' you can find in Borders that bespeak writerliness. It's not a cumbersome binder. Best of all, you don't have to take a position on the wide/college/narrow debate — Spell-Write Steno Books are "Gregg ruled." (Gregg, in case you're wondering, was a pioneer in the development of squiggles, scribbles and doodles.)

After you've had a Steno Book for a while, you can't fail to notice that it does more than hold together your notes with a wire. It attempts to improve you, or at least your spelling. Both the front and the back covers of the book are printed with a list of syllabicated words, words that the Mead corporation seems to feel are potential stenographic pitfalls.

It's never easy to decide which words go on a list like this. Include bookkeeper and you're bound to get calls from roommate and threshold's agents. If you take superintendent, how can you justify leaving out pendant and ascendant? The result can end up seeming like it was assembled by a com-mit-tee eager to mollify everyone and offend no one.

And Mead's list suggests just that kind of ad-hoc decision-making. Put in canceled to remind everyone that single-letter-on-nonaccented-syllable is how we do things in the States — but add cancellation as a sop to the double-l crowd. Include only a few maverick progressive tenses, like tying. Make a point of remembering all the -ceeds, but bury the single -efy in the middle of the list — it's just too sensitive a category.

There's something old-fashioned about a list of frequently misspelled words in the first place, since we all have spellcheckers now, but Mead's list takes it a step further. No single word in the list seems dated. Stationery, receipt and fluorescent are all mainstays of modern prose. But taken as a whole, the list has a distinctly 1950's-Rotary-Club feel. It is from a time where there was finance (business, career.) There was science (amphibian, antarctic) and technology (vaccinate and x-ray, which apparently is spelled without the hyphen when used as a noun.) There were glancing interactions with other cultures (Filipino and kimono being the only examples.) And there was a secretary (secretary) taking everything down on her (always her) steno book.

A little sentence at the end of the list leaves the notebook owner with even more time-travel jet lag. "The above copyrighted word list reprinted by special arrangement with Remington-Rand who shares with us a deep interest in the field of education through its lines of school equipment." Who are Remington-Rand, and why have they taken such a deep interest in education? Why can't Mead just come up with its own list?

The name Remington-Rand reminded me of another hyphenated manufacturer of school products, a name that's been lodged in the recesses of my memory for 16 years: Zaner-Bloser. They made those wide-lined books that were supposed to teach us all-important cursive skills. The name Zaner-Bloser once filled me with trepidation — now it sounds like a scrappy little twee-pop band from Minnesota.

Upon remembering Zaner-Bloser, it's not unreasonable to think that the whole handwriting thing would make a good design motif for a Web page. Solid red lines. Dotted blue lines. Silvery-beige newsprint. The Platonic ideal of script writing. But then, why design a Web page based on something that was the bane of many existences for four years, something that many associate with C-minuses and heated parent-teacher conferences?

Because Zaner-Bloser just isn't as scary now. Handwriting class is a quaint memory. And the passage of time in our collective memory has made a steno book with a spelling word list printed on it seem like a charming relic from another era. Find one now before they switch to the Pokemon cover.

— Julia Lipman (julia@flakmag.com)