“I can’t read this,” [Kayla] says. “There aren’t any vowels in most of the words,” [she] says. “You can’t make words without vowels.”
from King & Kayla and the Secret Code
written by Dori Hillestad Butler
illustrated by Nancy Meyers
Peachtree Publishers, 2017
Recorded Books, Inc, 2019
accessed on Hoopla, 5/25/26
But it turns out that you can write words without vowels. You can even write them without letters. My dad could, and he taught us kids to, also. Daddy was a radio operator in the Army/AirCorps in WWII. He wouldn’t speak about his time in the Army other than telling us he learned and used Morse code.
Daddy gave me lots of practical knowledge: how to parallel park, the definition of antidisestablishmentarianism, how to ride a two-wheeler, but one of my favorites was the Morse code alphabet.
I memorized the dots and dashes (dits and dahs) but now I only remember …___… (SOS).
Back in the day, I taught some of my friends the code so we could tap out “secret” messages. It was pretty slow and not very quiet. Teachers didn’t like it and most of the kids gave up pretty quickly, too. Pig Latin was much more acceptable and most of us got really good at it.
Samuel Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872), before he became interested in electronics, was an artist. He studied in the US and abroad. In his House of Representatives, he painted over 60 different people and paid careful attention of the building’s architecture. The painting is housed in the National Gallery of Art.
His portrait of Marquis de Lafayette hangs in the Governor's Room at New York’s City Hall.
His best known work, Gallery of the Louvre, is a composite of 38 miniatures of Morse’s favorite artworks, copied from the originals. In 2012 it was exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, and is on loan to the Harvard Art Museums until 11/1/2026.
In 1838, Samuel Morse famously attached his name to an alphabet he devised to use with his telegraphic machine. Six years later, in 1844, Morse demonstrated the telegraph to the US Congress. His code is how we remember him.
He’s credited with inventing the machine, too. His original patent application (1830) is archived at the National Museum of American History, part of the Smithsonian Institution.
In short, Morse code is a standardized series of dots and dashes used to represent letters of the alphabet. According to Military.com, some telegraphers could transmit up to 84 words per minute tapping out one letter at a time (30-35 was the average).
During World War II, the US military recruited Native tribal members to serve as “code talkers,” blocking the Nazis from decoding sensitive messages. Tribal language speakers who were also fluent in English sent messages in least 14 Native languages. You can find out more at the National WWII Museum's site.
A remarkable incident occurred “in the 1960s when US Navy Commander Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr. was shot down and captured in North Vietnam. Months into his imprisonment, he blinked the word "T-O-R-T-U-R-E" in Morse code during a TV interview that his captors permitted” (Military.com).
Continuing as the international standard of telecommunication even after one hundred years, Morse code was becoming obsolete. In 1999 it was formally replaced by satellite technology.
The universal distress signal, SOS, was established in 1905 and was used until the US Coast Guard stopped monitoring the signal in 1995. In 1999 the system was formally replaced with newer technology.
In international Morse code, SOS, IWB, VZE, 3B, and V7, can all be used to form …___…, but guess which is easiest to remember! Especially in an emergency!
SOS is a backronym. It doesn’t stand for anything, really.
From MerriamWebster.com, an acronym is “a descriptive phrase … made to conform to a pronounceable name.” But in the animated film Over the Hedge (2006), the word “Steve” is mentioned before it became short for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. "Steve" is a backronym.
And so, “SOS” came first. It became Save Our Ship or Save Our Souls, a backronym, after it was already in common usage.
Originating in German government radio regulations and adopted in 1905, SOS is still recognized world over as a standard distress signal. Spelled out, the letters SOS read the same left-to-right, right-to-left, right-side-up and upside-down.
Emojis, codes, and inside jokes are all shorthands for communication. And much more convenient than smoke signals, traveling with long, memorized passages, and signal flags. But time changes all things. Only what is important, easy, and effective remains.
I think Daddy would agree.
No book review this week. Sorry.
-—Be curious! (and watch out for each other)
from King & Kayla and the Secret Code
written by Dori Hillestad Butler
illustrated by Nancy Meyers
Peachtree Publishers, 2017
Recorded Books, Inc, 2019
accessed on Hoopla, 5/25/26
But it turns out that you can write words without vowels. You can even write them without letters. My dad could, and he taught us kids to, also. Daddy was a radio operator in the Army/AirCorps in WWII. He wouldn’t speak about his time in the Army other than telling us he learned and used Morse code.
Daddy gave me lots of practical knowledge: how to parallel park, the definition of antidisestablishmentarianism, how to ride a two-wheeler, but one of my favorites was the Morse code alphabet.
I memorized the dots and dashes (dits and dahs) but now I only remember …___… (SOS).
Back in the day, I taught some of my friends the code so we could tap out “secret” messages. It was pretty slow and not very quiet. Teachers didn’t like it and most of the kids gave up pretty quickly, too. Pig Latin was much more acceptable and most of us got really good at it.
Samuel Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872), before he became interested in electronics, was an artist. He studied in the US and abroad. In his House of Representatives, he painted over 60 different people and paid careful attention of the building’s architecture. The painting is housed in the National Gallery of Art.
His portrait of Marquis de Lafayette hangs in the Governor's Room at New York’s City Hall.
His best known work, Gallery of the Louvre, is a composite of 38 miniatures of Morse’s favorite artworks, copied from the originals. In 2012 it was exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, and is on loan to the Harvard Art Museums until 11/1/2026.
In 1838, Samuel Morse famously attached his name to an alphabet he devised to use with his telegraphic machine. Six years later, in 1844, Morse demonstrated the telegraph to the US Congress. His code is how we remember him.
He’s credited with inventing the machine, too. His original patent application (1830) is archived at the National Museum of American History, part of the Smithsonian Institution.
In short, Morse code is a standardized series of dots and dashes used to represent letters of the alphabet. According to Military.com, some telegraphers could transmit up to 84 words per minute tapping out one letter at a time (30-35 was the average).
During World War II, the US military recruited Native tribal members to serve as “code talkers,” blocking the Nazis from decoding sensitive messages. Tribal language speakers who were also fluent in English sent messages in least 14 Native languages. You can find out more at the National WWII Museum's site.
A remarkable incident occurred “in the 1960s when US Navy Commander Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr. was shot down and captured in North Vietnam. Months into his imprisonment, he blinked the word "T-O-R-T-U-R-E" in Morse code during a TV interview that his captors permitted” (Military.com).
Continuing as the international standard of telecommunication even after one hundred years, Morse code was becoming obsolete. In 1999 it was formally replaced by satellite technology.
The universal distress signal, SOS, was established in 1905 and was used until the US Coast Guard stopped monitoring the signal in 1995. In 1999 the system was formally replaced with newer technology.
In international Morse code, SOS, IWB, VZE, 3B, and V7, can all be used to form …___…, but guess which is easiest to remember! Especially in an emergency!
SOS is a backronym. It doesn’t stand for anything, really.
From MerriamWebster.com, an acronym is “a descriptive phrase … made to conform to a pronounceable name.” But in the animated film Over the Hedge (2006), the word “Steve” is mentioned before it became short for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. "Steve" is a backronym.
And so, “SOS” came first. It became Save Our Ship or Save Our Souls, a backronym, after it was already in common usage.
Originating in German government radio regulations and adopted in 1905, SOS is still recognized world over as a standard distress signal. Spelled out, the letters SOS read the same left-to-right, right-to-left, right-side-up and upside-down.
Emojis, codes, and inside jokes are all shorthands for communication. And much more convenient than smoke signals, traveling with long, memorized passages, and signal flags. But time changes all things. Only what is important, easy, and effective remains.
I think Daddy would agree.
No book review this week. Sorry.
-—Be curious! (and watch out for each other)
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