Letter? What's that? A stream of consciousness loop.

Inside my fortune cookie today:

"You have a charming way with words. Write a letter this week."

Well, thanks very much, but when was the last time I wrote a letter? E-mail, design documents, blog entries - sure. A letter?

Strangely enough, I thought I had received a letter yesterday. It was from Jenny -- a friend I've not corresponded with in several years. She used to write letters. This, however, was a hand-written "Thank You" card. That's pretty close to a letter. I even entertained the idea of writing back to her, though it would likely only be a short note enclosed in a box of Magic cards. Would that count as a letter?

I wonder what the per capita letter production is these days, and how that compares to twenty years ago. Sounds like a PhD thesis waiting to happen.

Not my PhD thesis, mind you.

If I wrote such a thesis, would that make me a man of letters?

OK, I'm rambling now.

Steve Martin's "Ramblin' Man"

Stephen King's "Walkin' Man"

Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time"

Alan Parsons wrote "Time is flowing like a river, to the sea."

Cat Power sang "Sea of Love" in Juno.

Cat Stevens wrote "First Cut is the Deepest."

Sheryl Crow is the latest artist to make that song a hit. She wrote a song called "Letter to God" which gets us back to "letters."