Another day, another nail in the coffin of all that we hold dear. This time, with the news that Clinton Cards has gone into administration, it is jobs, the high street, the art of writing and places to buy slightly crappy stuff that will do in an emergency. Competition from supermarkets and sites such as funkypigeon.com and moonpig.com has, of course, played its part in the chain's demise. But I suspect its greatest nemesis has been the advent of e-cards, whose toxic spread has left few of us unstained.
Speaking as a multiple recipient, every pinging-ponging penguin dancing across my screen induces howls of rage and a drafts folder full of intemperate responses generally – not always – at the last minute left unsent. Why? Because they're lazy, contemptuous, ugly and graceless. That's why.
As a giver, of course, you are morally unsound. I think you secretly know that. I keep a drawerful of lovely cards covering every occasion, picked up from craft fairs, charity shops, Christmas fetes, museum gift shops (in their sales, I'm not made of money – or generosity) so that I can write something with a real pen in my real hand so that you know that it, and you, mean something to me. I don't do much else that is good in this life, but I do that. Don't send a penguin to do a person's job.
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