Trivia

Did You Know

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Which famous writer was one of the first people
in the world to have a telephone installed in his home?

© Trivia Today

Samuel Clemens, AKA Mark Twain, was not just a prolific author who brought us Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer; he was also an enthusiastic early adopter of new technology, embracing the telephone almost as soon as Alexander Graham Bell introduced it. By the late 1870s, he had one of the first residential telephones installed in his Hartford, Connecticut home …. long before most Americans had ever even seen one. Although he complained humorously about the line’s terrible sound quality, Twain loved gadgets, even holding several patents of his own. He was a close friend of inventor Nikola Tesla and one of the first writers to use a typewriter for his work.

FYI – Mark Twain got his famous pen name from his days as a Mississippi River steamboat pilot, where “mark twain” was the leadsman’s cry meaning “two fathoms” or 12 feet deep, a safe depth for boats, combining the measurement “mark” with “twain” (two). He adopted the name in 1863 while working as a journalist in Nevada, drawing on his experiences navigating the river for his writing.

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Thanks for stopping by for a look and a listen. 😎

 This is “Telephone Line” by ELO

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31 thoughts on “Did You Know”

        1. Thanks so much for asking, Di. My wrist is healing nicely. I’m still wearing a large splint and will be until after the new year. That is keeping me from getting a lot of things done so I’m behind on my Christmas preparations and that’s a bummer. I will start physical therapy this week and I’m really looking forward to getting my hand moving. One good thing I did was to write out my Christmas cards at the beginning of November in anticipation of the surgery, so they are all done and stamped and waiting for our next trip to the post office. Thank you, Di. I hope you and your hubby are doing well.

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  7. Nothing but the best for you, Nancy … what a grand combination, ‘Mark Twain’ and ‘ELO’ …

    “One of the very most useful of all inventions, but rendered almost worthless & a cold & deliberate theft & swindle by the black scoundrelism & selfishness of the companies of chartered robbers who conduct it.”
    – – Mark Twain’s Notebooks & Journals, Volume 3, Notebook 30, August 1890-June 1891
    Things haven’t changed much, Nancy, except the “scoundrels” have got betterer at swindling us!!

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