My dear Monsieur Chariot,

A handwritten note is a treasure indeed. One from Mme. Joan Walsh is a rarity.

Yours affectionately,
Mme. Riordan

I adore how you must be told again and again to...please...stop...

Merde, I just acquired ten reams of vellum, only to learn that parchment is the only acceptable medium. How utterly thoughtless of me not to consult with you first, Monsieur!

I still write with a fountain pen, but how gauche! I'll pluck a goose a procure a quill!

My dear M. Chariot,

Felicitations of the day!

I sit down to write you this note thanking you for your kind discretion in the matter of certain expressionery missals, which I had hoped you would have burned ere since.

yours truly,
Mme. DianaAni

My Dear M. Chariot,
Please be advised to here-to-for keep these wonderful posts coming as I am always indeed in need of a good belly laugh!!
Rated for fabulousness!

Delightful. I continue to be dazzled by your talents and old-school charms. My step-daughter wrote a long, hand-written note of apology to me after an epic row a couple of years ago. It is among my most cherished possessions. Given that she's a younster of the e-generation, the gesture was wholly unexpected. Right you are my dear sir.

Handwritten notes are indeed a luxurious memory of the past when things were slower and the written word actually meant something. I always had a sad feeling about my penmanship because my fathers was so awesome. I remember visiting my fathers country Lithuania where it was revealed to me that they thought I was mentally retarded because of my weak penmanship.I think they had a point but I also realize they had plans to severely injure me so that the land they had taken from my grandfather would be returned to me.I do to cherish now the few notes and letters I have from a time when we were all a bit more honest and personable.

Monsieur you must at least relent and give Mme Walsh her clock

I could have snail-mailed you a dozen letters in the time it has taken the server to post this comment! Talk about frustration.

First I must apologize for missing your previous post on your life in pictures, part 2. Even though I've not read it, I'm certain it was a treat and that I am a loser for not having gotten to it yet.

This post fulfilled my own longing for something snide, witty, with blotchy yet elegant graphics, and a few Open Salon in jokes. It also speaks to me personally because in 4th grade I won an award for most improved penmanship and I write handwritten letters to this day to a friend of mine in Winston, Oregon. She replies to me on handmade paper. This is because we are both somewhat insane, but I thank you for your encouragement in this endeavor and I shall for that reason invest in a fountain pen.

Seriously though, my aunt (now deceased) wrote me a letter more than a decade ago talking about life with my grandmother (also deceased), and I lost it in my many moves, and it still saddens me. They really are to be treasured.

Mon Cher Monsieur,

Your elegant praise for handwritten letters puts me, a computer addict, in mind of an innovation that would meet the needs of us both: a new software that allows letters written by hand on a keyboard to be printed as ink on parchment. The software would include a subscription service that provides appropriately dressed couriers to deliver each note by hand (which is where the profit would be greatest for the software developer, a detail I hesitate to mention to one as refined as you).

I particularly admire your willingness to give examples of notes that are not, like so many I'm sure you receive., currying favor.

With Admiration,
Ellen Hawley Roddick Haffenreffer Meade Roddick

Maybe Joan Wash should considering a name change? Joan (hand written love note) Joan Letterman. Dear Joan Walsh may chage her name to Dear Mrs. Joan Bell?

If She?
Respectfully,
Merry Mr. Bell.
Alexander G. Bell.
No wed A. Wastral.
Change name to Dear`
`
Mr. M. Chariot? Battle?
That's if she write a note.
Merry Kathleen Battle?

Kerry can marry Kahn?
He be Mr. Kerry Genghis.
`
Thanks M. Chariot. Serious.
I will miss gifted virtue ones.
I wrote a Love Note or two.
They send back "it illegible."

Send my regards to Joan W.
She can wash out editors ears.
No call people Hon? Honey babe?
That's respectable. Type love note.
It's wise to no wed `Attilla the Hon.

I must confess that I am in the grip of modernity; there are several fountain pens in the house, but alas! no quills. But there are no ball point pens either, so perhaps I can be given credit for at least using a writing instrument rather than a disposable plastic appliance.

I am very encouraged to see that OS leaders have such fine taste in pen and paper. Perhaps the spammers will follow their example, and start sending us handwritten notes.

ah my beloved Chariot, you inspire creation!

I have taken pen to paper but for all my earnest effort this day is a thick black mess of encre d'Inde not so delightfully covering hands, lace chemise, swell of bosom, feather quill and hand pressed paper. I am happy to say the sentiments were fabulously pornographic, albeit illegible. perhaps tomorrow mon bonbon......

turgidly yours,
etc etc

Friend, don't get yer panties in a knot. It don't make me no never mind if folks jes send me a quik text. Stop wastin' time with writin' all that fancy pants stuff. As far as dancin', ferget that stuffy minuet, times a wastin' git out and live boy!

This'll git you started
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ich7aSuDGZg&feature=related

"Real men may not write notes — but gentlemen certainly do! "

Mais, chèr Monsieur. . .
With all due respect, I question the implication of this statement.
♥ Chaleureusement

Mon cheri,

If only I could write you a clever note of the past, to engage your mind and perhaps put a small hand painted flower on it too. This was the way I communicated with my love of 40 years ago, when one could still commit their love in a note and send it across miles.

A long ago writer of little notes....

HAHAHAHA, if that is the wrong tense for Mon Cheri, Please excuse me I am not French nor speak it, just enjoying the language of romance...

Mlle Kelly was more than pleased to read this most urgent post, a call to the return to good graces and decorum that a savage society has deemed obsolete. Mlle Kelly is comforted to know that she is not the only one who has been distressed by this lack of etiquette and manners that are so important when a society wants to remain civilized. May Mlle Kelly indulge herself for one brief moment here? Yes, thank you. Mlle Kelly was admittedly shocked to find her recently graduated daughter immersed in a sea of pens and handwritten notes. Mlle Kelly was confused as she could barely recognize the notes and pens as "stationery", she had not seen the sight of them for years. When inquiring to said daughter what in the world she was doing, refined daughter calmly replied, "Mother, I am writing thank you notes for my graduation gifts." After the smelling salts had to be rushed to me immediately and a cold wash cloth placed firmly on my forehead, I recovered in due time. As for Mlle Kelly herself, she recently found herself sending a thank you note via email. While she was chiding herself on her obvious slothfulness, she took a small amount of comfort in using her "Apple stationery" that featured a tasteful border of flowers around the edge. (One could become exhausted with all the possibilities.) As for your samples of handwritten notes from the likes of Mme. Joan Walsh and Monsieur Lauerman, they are mere peasants. Anyone of good standing knows that the stationery they used came directly from the ordinary and mundane shopping establishment known as "Target". The mere thought of this makes a person of my sensibilities and good taste shudder at the thought. I find I must now go retire to a dark quiet room once again. R

I would refer you to the post_it note on the screen before you and please brew the tea for only three minutes next time.
If you wait for OS to connect the leaves will stew.

Rated with an Ug.
"Send press please FRed(tm)"

It worked! We shall all be writing handwritten notes to get EPs!

Yes! Handwritten notes *always*, when it's time to express a sentiment more deeply felt than "have a good weekend". And you found a characteristically amusing way to make the point, too, M. Chariot.

I use handwritten notes as one arrow in my quiver of seduction, (Note to self: advise attorneys to trademark "Quiver of Seduction") in spite of the unfortunate and jarring fact that my handwriting, in its looping gaiety and unsophistication, looks like that of a teenage girl. Except I eschew smiley faces and hearts in favor of devil's horns.

Cher M. Chariot,

Technology has advanced beyond the quill. I am speaking, of course, of the fountain pen.

Do not be afraid. After a brief period of adjustment, you will wonder how you put up with the slow and undependable low tech quill. These new fangled inventions use a bladder to store ink, and must be carefully cleaned and maintained to prevent crashing, but writing control is unparalleled, and best of all, your gentlemanly fingers will remain free of unsightly staining.

New technology is expensive, but the monies owed to Mlle. Walsh would make a good down payment towards a spanky new Montblanc.

Votre amie,
Mlle. Heron Verte

Dear Sir,

Once again your post has illuminated and enlightened the darkest corners of this poor wretched troglodyte's mind. I am forever in your debt.

As to the under-qualified and overly paid keepers of this Salon, all I can say is that they do not appreciate the other-worldliness that a man of your caliber exudes.

Besides, if Joan had wanted a really faux antique clock she should have gone to Mary Lin.

Rated with great pleasure.

Oh, my word! A scam artist? Oh! Where are my smelling salts???

mais oui, monsieur, i agree completely that one must preserve the lovely tradition of writing appropriate notes by hand and, where possible, personally delivering them. but i must point out that you note that we have progressed from shells-held-to-ears and that m. lauerman wouldn't have been able to leave you the comment in january of 2009 without the use of - comment dites-vous? - the innertubes that our computers connect to.

merci, monsieur, for the amusing salon this evening.
your friend,
bonbon l'homme

Thank you for reminding us how delightful letters are to receive. I don't like bad form, Monsieur, but vintage stationery is so much fun to buy and write upon with my Parker Big Red pen. I close my letters with sealing wax on which I have impressed the letter M with my signet. Writing letters is a pleasure with such accoutrements.

Hello MC! What a master piece of a post you have noodled here!

Mea Culpa, me. Yes. I have lost the art of handwriting. My brain, there with, has taken leave. I am bereft of the noodle to doodle.

Once an A in penmanship, Cursive if you will; Catholic school where rulers ruled if your sans script was lacking and all the angles just so...

Perfectly written...an art form so long ago...the hand written thank you note, so Miss Etiquette, Jane Brody et al...where did you go?

A best friend who pens the art and never lets it go, but holds the standard so high as to claim it's preference and rightfully so...

A thank you note by any other name, puts any email to shame. You must put spit to stamp, on parchment so fine...anything less, is little more than a crime.

Like minded cheaters, will pen what they will, but when time is lacking, a text will appear.

So, cherished as thy may be, do not be fooled when none materializes.

The responder is clearly clever, as the end result realizes.

No one mentioned your handsome new portrait upper left!

Brilliant, witty, artistic and devilishly clever. How alike we are (oh, she wishes....)

Please write soon.

With admiration and affection,

MOC (r)

Mon Cher Monsieur Chariot,

would a Venetian glass writing pen acquired in Spoleto Italy be deemed an acceptable substitute for the quill pen? You must admit, it's original of me.

Mlle Shiral.
rated

Merci! Une note écrite à la main est tellement rare que d'être un délice ces jours.

I prefer my ransom notes and eviction notices to be hand written.
R

I have nothing against handwritten notes and letters, but my writing is so illegible my friends and family beg me not to write any more. Thus, I live vicariously through your exquisite cursive.

My dear Monsieur Chariot,
This is an earnest, and encouraging reminder of the art form we cannot now lose...thanks to you.

"Real men may not write notes — but gentlemen certainly do!"

Then bring on the gentlemen, I say, and have them with quill in gloved hand. Such penmanship does make a young lass like myself quiver so.

Bosh to you, sir!

Just brilliant. More than just content, you are, by far, the best example on OS of beautiful blog post layout.

Please - one post - show us some of your tricks. How did you do the letters? Did you have to fuss over this so it looked just so? It seems so.

And I like your new profile image. I'm quite used to the old one, but I'm read y for this change. Besides, I think the smiling face bespeaks of a happier life on your end. That's what I'd like to believe.

"Don't know which stationary to use? Why, parchment . . ."

I presume, sir, that you mean the finest kidskin vellum versus a paper-based parchment, which is just so pedestrian, so . . .prole.

Perhaps, were you to teach all of us Spencerian script, we might all be more graceful?

Why even bother writing a note if you're going to deliver it anyway?

It's almost better that the young not write notes anymore. They've been keyboarding since kindergarden, and their handwriting (including my sons') shows it.

My 10 year old niece learns keyboarding in school, but not penmanship. She can't even read her own handwriting (and this is true for all the other kids in her "accelerated" classes)

lol

My dearest Mme Riordan ~ I have become deliriously intimate with Mme Walsh's exquisite handwriting, since about the time she filed the restraining order.
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dearest Catch-22 ~ There are some messages that are so heartfelt they bear repeating again and again!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dearest M. Procopius ~ M. Chariot considers vellum a passing trend, unsuitable to the true classicist.
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear M. Tingey ~ A connection to nature compliments the reflection of a true gentleman.
With a flourishing bow,

My dear Mme DianaAni ~ Our fervent love letters er… correspondence on the matter of the antique clock — are locked in the safe at my cloistral apartments.
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Mlle Lindau ~ It does the gentleman good to see the lady split the seams of her pretty dress!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Mme BSBabe ~ Step-children and step-parents could barely discuss the weather without the use of quill & parchment!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear M. Kemezys ~ Quite the picaresque character, aren't we?
With a flourishing bow,

My dear M. Heart ~ For the public record, I have arranged for the delivery of many, many antique clocks to Mme. Walsh, who continues to insist that they do not arrive. I should deliver onesuch clock in person were it not for the restraining order!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Mlle Latethink ~ One hears of your lovely penmanship via admiring conversations in the world's most exquisite salons!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dearest Mlle Ellen Hawley Roddick Haffenreffer Meade Roddick ~ Cherished, handwritten note-making is not about Profits and Remunerations, dear lady — it is rather about Grace and Propriety! Think on it!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear M. James ~ Your exquisite and high-spirited verse cries out for the quill!
With a flourishing bow,

My dearest M. Mishima666 ~ It appears your recommendations have been heard! Why just yesterday, I received several perfectly handwritten proposals to marriage from ladies abroad.
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dearest Mlle Monkey ~ The pleasure of plucking the tiny missive from the lady's decolletage is nonpareil!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Mlle Bleue ~ Far be it from me to pshaw lively native folk dances from the colonies!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dearest Mlle FusunA ~ One cannot underline this truth more adamantly: Real men may not write notes — but gentlemen certainly do!
With a flourishing bow,

You sir, are a gentleman of the highest order. Your advice is spot on and well take. Unfortunately, I have forgotten how to write with ink and pen.

My dear Mlle Sheila ~ And I still have that letter with the tiny hand-painted flowers, cherí! Je t'envoie beaucoup de baisers!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dearest Mlle Kelly ~ The lady's delicacy is a thing of concern. Might I suggest a few droplets of Wahburg's Tincture mixed with Laudanum? As a child I was under the psychoanalytic care of one of Freud's first female followers, Madame Docteur Hermine Hug-Hellmuth, who prescribed it regularly, for terrors.
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear M. Creekend ~ How insightful of you to suspect the gentleman's tea! The concoctive specifics are maintained under lock&key in my cloistral apartments in Old Hollywood. Welcome to OS, dear sir!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dearest Mlle Lane ~ A handwritten, hand-delivered note to the Editors — every hour upon th' hour — is but one of the secrets of my success as an Open Salon auteur! Keep reading to uncover more, dear Lady!
With a flourishing bow,

My dear M. MTNow ~ I'm sorry to inform that you're but a moment's too late on that call to your attorney! My very next submission coincidentally happens to be entitled, The Gentleman's Quiver of Seduction!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Mlle Heron Verte ~ You do not appear to realize that M. Chariot is but a "country" gentleman — surround as I am by chicks n' goats! No fancy airs in this quarter!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear M. Trudge ~ 'Faux' you say? My dear sir, my antique clocks are authenticated by my own hand-written certifications!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear M. Paust ~ Allow me to suggest few droplets of Warburg's Tincture mixed with Laudanum, a suitable treatment for a wide variety of internet terrors!
With a flourishing bow,

My dearest Mlle Mann ~ Your exquisite understanding of the underbelly of modern technologies has left me flabbergasted!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Mlle Holt y Roybal ~ Accoutrements are the lady's finest arsenal of seduction!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Mlle Cathy ~ Your exquisite prose begs for the most ornamental penmanship!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Mlle M d' Crows ~ Thanking your for your keen appreciation of the gentleman's new portrait!
With a flourishing bow,

My dear Mlle Shiral ~ Your worldliness leaves the gentleman in a swoon!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Mlle Linnnn ~ Je t'envoie beaucoup de baisers!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear M. LWillie ~ A gentleman also appreciates restraining orders hand-lettre'd!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Mlle Peel ~ The gentleman's calligraphic skills are available to persons such as yourself - for a small fee!
With a flourishing bow,

My dear M. Justis ~ It takes a gentleman to understand a gentleman!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Mlle Sumac ~ Young ladies should take care not to read hand-lettred notes from gents unknown — due to potentially fatal effects!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dearest Mlle B. Mann ~ "Good nature will always supply the absence of beauty; but beauty cannot supply the absence of good nature." - Joseph Addison
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear M. BadScot ~ It appears that you fail to recognize M. Chariot's Americanized status as a Man of the People ~ not for this gentleman trendish elitist indulgences like vellum and Mont Blanc!
With a flourishing bow,

My dear Mlle Seijo ~ Some things are just a part of the innate constitution, no? We must each reach deeply within to release that which is Spencerian in our natures.
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear M. Chapman ~ Your attitude, sir, teeters on the brink of High Culture's collapse!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear M. RWoo5g ~ The gentleman shudders at the realization that Keyboarding, like Waterboarding, are only markers of widespread First World corruptions!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Major Mojo ~ "The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Take up the quill and write once again, sir!
With a flourishing bow,

so delightful. u show what the medium can do and your refinement of it bespeaks a unique perspective and engaging charm. that they recognize it gives one hope.

My dear M. Buttonflocker ~ For Propriety's sake sir! Propriety!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear M. Ben Sen ~ Refinement, charm, hope. What more can one gentleperson offer to another?
With a flourishing bow,

Thank you for so potently and pertinently reminding us of the charms of a handwritten letter. Your personal collection is impressive, your daring, enviable, monsieur.

A quill is always the best for communications, I'd agree...
You clearly are no slouch with technology either, which gives a little frisson: a modern gentleman, social graces with technical savvy...
...tu es magnifique!

Lovely to read and lovely to look at. You are a true gentleman, Monsieur.

Let this be a lesson in Love to gentlepersons of distinction!

My dear Mlle Salzberg ~ As one of Paris' most renowned socialites, your sweet commentary leaves this, and I'm sure many other gentlemen, blushing with tenderness and solicitude.
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Mlle JThinking ~ Your delicate flirtations generate no small frisson on this end either!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Mlle Jeanette DeMain ~ Indulgences from a lady such as yourself are prized!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear M. Tawls ~ It takes a gentleman to understand the true scope of Love — here, among the details of connexion, and of longing.
With a flourishing bow,

I am but a recent author on Open Salon, and my efforts are under the heading BellemeadeBooks .Your missive is a refreshing reflection in an age when so much that is "current" is redundant of earlier events. You may find the following "post" about letter-writing enjoyable:
http://bellemeadebooks.blogspot.com/2009/01/william-carlos-williams-nearly-extinct.html

Darling, What a oh so very creative person you are and your penmanship immaculate. Why, I can almost smell those pressed flowers!

My dear Mlle Bellemeade ~ Allow me to welcome the fine lady to OS, and to thank you for your link. The reference to William Carlos Williams' comment, "I'll go on reading what I can and when a glimmer of brilliant exposition comes through the fog of your verbiage I hope I will still be alive to recognize it." struck me deeply!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Mlle ACCutri ~ All the better to enchant the young ladies!
With a flourishing bow,

M.Chariot,
One regrets that one is travelling at the moment and while the goose is compliant in many ways one could not persuade it to fly alongside ones amazingly delightful Japanese vehicle during one's journeys on this occasion. I can offer only the poor stylings of this electronic contraption in place of an elaborately scribed parchment.

One apologizes, of course, but M Chariot will, I am certain, understand.

I have traveled some 6,000 kilometres in five days. I fear that the goose, had it been so unwise as to attempt the flight, would now be but a mere titmouse, lacking even the delightfully musical twitterings of that tiny little creature.

This missive is short as I am exhausted from my journey and go to an early rest this eve.

Sincerest regards,
Pixie of the SkyZero variety……

(ᴼᴥ̃)
.

I treasure handwritten notes from the past.... I have boxes of them. I wish people still sent them!! Great post.

one hopes one's timing may be considered fashionable late?
this is a journey not to be missed.
yrs respectfully,
c.g.


rated

My dear M. SkyPixie ~ It is an honor to receive your hand-lettre'd note, on parchment and delivered by courier, from those far-flung lands you are known to traverse! Impeccable!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear Mlle JustKay ~ As I shall treasure your keepsake compliment!
With a flourishing bow,
MC

My dear M. Cyril the Gnome ~ Fashion, be it late, early or otherwise, is essential to the true gentleperson's wardrobe of arrivals and departures.
With a flourishing bow,

My! I hope that there is a sort of 'Gentlemen's Underground Railroad' to help you keep ahead of the rogues from Interpol.

Eepkay emay abreastway ofway ouryay ereaboutswhay, andway Iway
illway ingbray onesscay andway eatay!

My dearest Mlle Delia Black ~ No need! No need for alarm, Dear Lady! The authorities have been wrong about me before, and they will no doubt be wrong about me again! My only sin is that I am exquisitely dressed at all times! If that should make me subject to brute incarceration — so be it!

Sadly, I could write better by hand in the sixth grade than I can now. I envy people like my mother -in-law (or my own mother, God rest her soul) who can write letters by hand and actually not look like they were struggling to learn the language. I'm so glad the OS editorial staff retains this skill, and even more delighted to learn that you are a troublemaker. I have enormous regard for troublemakers. (I'm perfuming this comment with a subtle floral scent, and having it delivered by my personal assistant, who is very discreet.)

My dear Mlle Sirenita Lake ~ Make no mistake: the editors at Open Salon maintain the most rigorous adherence to time-honoured exhibitions of Elegance and Propriety! Inhaling deeply of your exquisitely fragranced communiqué (is that a base note of gardenia modified by a top note of arsenic, which I detect?), I remain, yours, affectionately,

my dear monsieur chariot,
pardon my long absence from OS, as I had taken ill and required a Mediterranean climate. i did learn at my Italian retreat that certain American children are no longer being taught handwriting in some schools, only PRINTING. perhaps this is just a vicious rumor. upon my return, it has been a pleasure to see you getting your due recognition for your beautiful and incisive missives.
xoxo,
malice

My dear Mlle Malice Fery ~ It is a pleasure to receive your meticulously handwritten note on your return to the Open Salon, and I am delighted to discover that your health is on the mend! One musn't take Italians too seriously, my dear. All that sunshine, culture, pasta and romance leaves the Italian mind healthy... but a bit addled.

Mon Cher Monsieur, I cannot believe I missed this post, exquisite in conception, brilliant in execution. Hilarious bien sur as well.

Dear Ms. no
Dear Mr. no
Dear Monsieur,
Let us not forget one should never cross out a spelling error - just a new piece of Parchment. Rated

A scribe after my own heart! The only problem with you being so prolific, is that it requires I read so much more and my fingers sore from so many comments - as well as reading my responses irritates your spectacles. I so agree... A well written note with ink spills and coffee stains, on both the paper as well as my fingers is a true joy! It must be a splendid day to have enjoyed a cup over discussions of writing and other scribblings of thought with you! I can here the laughter bellow from within. Perhaps, some day... In L.A.! If I may be so fortunate.