History in its making

What could possibly goad us on, you may ask?  What might put such a task in motion?

Our story won't blow you away, but it starts with an affinity for playing trivia.  Around dusk on any particular day, you can probably find us at a bar taking random stabs at which running backs had 2000 yards rushing but did not win NFL MVP* and things such as that.  Normally, such nights pass prosaically.  But not that particular night.

That night, an inquiry was "What was uncommon about Gadsby: Champion of Youth, a fifty thousand word book from 1939?"  You probably know by now.  Upon additional cogitation on such a colossal task - writing a full book with such a constriction! - a trial was laid out: could our group avoid that symbol in our communications for a span of 7 days?

Initial whacks at this did not always go smoothly.  As an illustration, this is an actual IM transcript from your unassuming authors:

Flo: Stuck w folks w whom I work
Flo: Trying to go
Gadsby: No rush.
Flo: Must find out
Flo: Can go in short bit
Flo: Is local spot at 830 or 8?
Gadsby: Sweet.  I'm ok with [this location] or [that location]. Soon > not soon, though.
Flo: Is [this location at] 830?
Flo: If so, can find you at 815 in vicinity of your abode
Gadsby: Ha. That last is bad. Wyoming is at 830. Plan sounds good.
Flo: F
Flo: Habitat
Gadsby: Much, um, good.
Flo: Must find car. Will in four. Will find you in (four + four) - (four/two).
Gadsby: ? I think digits should work.
Flo: K. 6 from now.
Flo: Just finding outward canal

No doubt that difficult phrasing abounds in all that.  Particularly amusing: my pointing out Flo's flaw just down from an unconscionably atrocious miss of my own.  But all is not lost.  Improving is a major goal of ours.  Will it occur?  Who knows?


* This guy and this guy.