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The art of the thank you note is not practiced as much as it once was, even though they always make the recipient happy. Mental_floss has collected some of the best thank you notes ever from the archives of Letters of Note. For example, here’s a note Neil Armstrong sent to the Extravehicular Mobility Unit engineering team.
To the EMU gang:
I remember noting a quarter century or so ago that an emu was a 6 foot Australian flightless bird. I thought that got most of it right.
It turned out to be one of the most widely photographed spacecraft in history. That was no doubt due to the fact that it was so photogenic. Equally responsible for its success was its characteristic of hiding from view its ugly occupant.
Its true beauty, however, was that it worked. It was tough, reliable and almost cuddly.
To all of you who made it all that it was, I send a quarter century’s worth of thanks and congratulations.
Sincerely,
(Signed) Neil A. Armstrong
You’ll enjoy the others just as much, if not more. Link
I don’t know about you guys, but unless the applicant was absolutely terrible, I would totally hire him after that.
It’s so true and just so sad that they still haven’t gotten the point.
Link Via BoingBoing
Or at least, if he does know how to travel through time, he certainly is keeping tight lipped about it. He does have a good point though.
Link Via Geeks Are Sexy
In a rare column, Santa Claus shares some correspondence containing some of the more difficult questions he’s received. His answers will make you think. For example, Darnell asked why he didn’t get the Atari he asked for in 1981.
No question, Atari would have been a great gift for you in 1981. I did get you a skateboard. As you skated around your neighborhood that spring you met your best friend for life, Victor. You ran over the girl you’d eventually bring to your senior prom, Dominique. If you’d spent all that time indoors playing Atari, maybe your life wouldn’t have taken these turns. Sometimes I’m not able to give children the gift they want, but I can give them a gift they’ll use and enjoy that is maybe the perfect gift for them at that moment. Part of believing in the spirit of the Holidays is trusting in that spirit.
Read more at The Hairpin. Link
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Author and editor Peter F. Neumeyer exchanged letters with author and illustrator Edward Gorey over a 13-month period in 1968 and 1969. Now that correspondence has been turned into a book called Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey and Peter F. Neumeyer. Of course, Gorey included illustrations with his letters, even on the envelopes! You can see more of these wonderfully decorated envelopes at Brain Pickings. Link -via @atlasobscura
In 1920, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote and illustrated a letter from Santa Claus for his three-year old son. This became a regular tradition for his children for the next twenty-three years. Below the fold, you can find a copy of one such letter as well as a partial transcription from Letters of Note.
In 1971, Marguerite Hart, a children’s librarian in Troy, Michigan, wrote to many celebrities and political leaders and asked them to send back inspirational messages to the children of her town. 97 wrote back, among them Vincent Price, E.B. White, Pearl Bailey, Douglas Fairbanks, Isaac Asimov, and Pearl Buck. You can read them all at the library’s website.
Link via Swiss Miss
These letters were part of Dear Me: a Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self, a 2009 project to raise money for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Some of them are funny (love the one from Jonathan Ross), some of them are practical and some of them are a bit of both. I think I see a bit of myself in 16-year-old Emma Thompson.
What would you say to your 16-year-old self?
The Norwegian browser company Opera has received emails for years that were intended for Oprah Winfrey. Now that Oprah has concluded her daily talk show, Opera executives posted some of the best letters as a tribute to her. Link -via Boing Boing
The Retroist reprinted some letters from the 1983 book Letters to E.T. Most of the letters are from children to the alien character, but this one is to Steven Spielberg himself. Link -via @LettersOfNote
Comments Off How cute is this? The World’s Smallest Postal Service began in 2008. Postmaster Lea Redmond started a tiny letter transcription service for patrons of San Francisco cafes and shops. Now an online service has been added. Normal size letters are transcribed by hand on a miniature, wooden roll-top desk into miniature script and sealed with a tiny monogrammed wax seal. A mini magnifying glass is included to help the postal worker decipher the tiny print.
Link - Via Book Of Joe
Mark Anderson of Andertoons set out to make a Lego spaceship that resembled each of the 26 letters of the alphabet. It took two years to accomplish this goal, but he did it! Now all those spaceships are posted for your enjoyment. Link -Thanks, Mark!
Shaun Usher at Letters of Note posted a collection of letters from Muppets. Actually, the letters are from Caroll Spinney (who does Big Bird), Jim Henson, and the Swedish Chef (penned by Henson).
Ho Komissionooster Sjolund!
Sveern hund der meenskroo skort herg dah smorgasbord bord bord.
Gloo das click click ein mein filmikin den Washington fom des Fancy Food, goôde des griting zoo des Kükenmenenstoof.
Yay boo thanken svenson eet des goo goo Per Nilsson und des Eilest Nassell fer yoom yoom.
Bork Bork!
Also included is a series of complaint letters about Sesame Street’s character The Count. Link
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The Letter People was a literacy program that began in 1972 and grew into a TV show. In today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, we’ll see how well you recall the individual Letter People of Letter Land. You’ll be given the character, but can you remember their original alliterative “characteristic”? I couldn’t! Link
A few people were lucky enough to be pan pals of a sort with Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh often added sketches or paintings to his letters, to illustrate what he wrote about. BibliOdyssey has a collection of these letter sketches, along with the letters that accompanied them. Link
Have you ever written a love letter? How did it turn out? Sappy or clever?
I betcha it’s not as awesome as this one sent about 100 years ago by William Weightman. He wrote the entire thing in rebus (for example, the word "dearest" is formed using a picture of a deer followed by the letters "est.")
That’s just one of 7 fascinating love letters in this post by Shaun Usher (the guy behind deputy dog and Letters of Note blogs)
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by Eavesy.
Shaun Usher of deputy dog has a new blog called Letters of Note which shares classic correspondence of all kinds. One that stands out is from a slave named Vilet Lester to a member of her former owner’s family, written in 1857. Here is an excerpt.
I am well and this is Injoying good hlth and has ever Since I Left Randolph. whend I left Randolf I went to Rockingham and Stad there five weaks and then I left there and went to Richmon virgina to be Sold and I Stade there three days and was bought by a man by the name of Groover and braught to Georgia and he kept me about Nine months and he being a trader Sold me to a man by the name of Rimes and he Sold me to a man by the name of Lester and he has owned me four years and Says that he will keep me til death Siperates us without Some of my old north Caroliner friends wants to buy me again. my Dear Mistress I cannot tell my fealings nor how bad I wish to See youand old Boss and Mss Rahol and Mother. I do not now which I want to See the worst Miss Rahol or mother I have thaugh that I wanted to See mother but never befour did I no what it was to want to See a parent and could not.
The post contains a transcript of the entire letter and a photograph of the handwriting. Link
In a way, typography has come full circle – what started as a physical process of setting type in machines has been rediscovered as a physical art by a number of creative photographers and designers. Some of these unusual real-life alphabetic collections were found and photographed in nature while others were acted out, constructed or assembled from bodies and objects but all ten sets of type yield compelling images.
Photo: Arjan Benning
We’ve seen quite a few creative alphabets, but probably none as weird (and painful) as this set, made with clothespin and skin. It’s called alfabet in huid (typeface in skin) by Thijs Verbeek.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by mrsmojorisin.
