Word-process

In the distance there was a growl of thunder. I didn’t leave my computer on, did I? thought Isobel. A colleague at Oxford had once been word-processing during a storm with disastrous results.

Once he’d surprised her when he mentioned he loved some Shakespearean lines about horses. “I’ve always remembered them, Con. We had to read Henry V in college.” Slowly, he repeated them: “‘Think when we talk of horses that you see them/Printing their proud hoofs i’ the receiving earth.’” […] She had word-processed the lines for herself, bought a frame at Wal-Mart, and placed the humble copy on her beside table.

I was composing one day and somehow I had inadvertently selected a large chunk of text and deleted it. It wasn’t the first time I’d experienced this frustration. I complained to my son Eric about it and he said, ‘Just hit Ctrl+Z and it will come back.’ I couldn’t believe I had been word-processing for over 20 years and no one had ever told me about it!