Date:  Mon, 12 Sep 1994 16:27:02 EDT

From:  AAllan[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: etaoin shrdlu



I trust everyone knows this is "the letters produced by running the finger

down the first two vertical rows of keys at the left of the keyboard of a

Linotype" to quote the nearest dictionary (Random House College).

 That is not the same as highest frequency, though the Linotype was

supposedly arranged to make the most frequent letters the most convenient.

 Speaking of printers, consider the type case which held hand type (and from

which we get the expressions "upper case" and "lower case.") It has been many

years since I used one, but I remember how big the space was for the

lower-case e.

- Allan Metcalf