old people

Ed Koch Replies to All His E-mails in Longhand

Former New York Mayor Ed Koch.
Former New York Mayor Ed Koch. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Former mayor Ed Koch, as you may know, is very hip to the digital age. The man writes for the Huffington Post. He posts occasional film reviews on his personal blog. Some people even suspect he’s the real person behind Hipster Runoff. But perhaps most impressive of all: Ed Koch personally replies to all of his e-mail. No one does that!  Even nonfamous people. Who has that kind of time? Well, okay, retirees. But many of America’s elderly aren’t quite as comfortable with digital correspondence as Koch. Except, as it turns out, he’s not actually doing the e-mailing part himself. 

Koch, as reported by Ben Smith in Politico, has an assistant print out his e-mails.  He then writes out, longhand, his reply. (Seen here on Smith’s new home, Buzzfeed.)  Koch’s assistant, whom he must have recruited either by calling Psychic Friends or at a cryptography class at the Learning Annex, somehow deciphers whatever Koch is saying to that particular pen pal and puts it back into the Magic Machine to be sent out into Cyber-Space. The conveniences of modern life!

Ed Koch Replies to All His E-mails in Longhand