What Hath God Wrought

Well, it had to happen.  Western Union is finally going out of the telegram business

One of the questions asked in the MSNBC article linked is "Ever get a telegram" (ok, it's in a fake survey linked along with the article).

Actually, to my knowledge, I've only ever received one in my life.  It was about 21 years ago, and it came the day after I had a job interview with this big somewhat balding guy with a loud voice, and a name I'd never heard of before, Steve Ballmer.  The telegram was to invite me out to Seattle to interview with a small software company that almost nobody had heard of.  And the rest is history.

So it's finally the end of an era, telegrams will no longer be delivered, no more guy in the blue uniform with the funny brimmed hat.

Oh, and the title of this post?  It's the text of the first telegram sent, from Samuel Morse to Alfred Vail (and no, I didn't know that off the top of my head).