mostly david ephgrave

This morning I received a text from my mum that simply read, "OM" – and for a second I thought she’d turned Hindu. “Perhaps she’d finally found inner peace”, I thought to myself. Or maybe she’d just been listening to The Beatles song Across the Universe and thought she’d text me some of the lyrics. I didn’t think any of the above, if I’m honest: I’m exaggerating for comic effect. I knew that what she really wanted to say was “OK”; any allusion to mystical Sanskrit was due to a slip of the digits. This is what happens when people of a certain age are faced with modern technology. Over time, you come to expect it. It’s like a few months back, when I was on the phone to my dad, offering him advice before he bought a new computer. He was thinking of getting a desktop PC, but I told him that for the sort of thing he’d be using it for, such as checking his email or internet banking, he might as well just buy a laptop. In...