Although it degenerated to the point where I had to sit down and practice to recover legibility a couple of times (when I couldn't read my own notes) I've managed to maintain a rather pretty cursive "hand," right up until my kid left an air hose looped across the yard that tripped me up and broke two fingers on the hand I use.

It still is worth being able to scrawl things when needed, but I've wondered why my bank hasn't rejected my checks, since my present signature doesn't bear much resemblence to what's in their records.

re writing backward, I did that some just for a joke, but I found it convenient in lots of meetings at the office (when some nosy &%^#! tried to read over my shoulder) just to write the notes in Greg. It was also occasionally handy to be able to read over the sec'y's shoulder, but most of them gave it up before I did - - - and the "hand" is just as - maybe more - important in shorthand as in cursive, for legibility.

John