the grapevine

On May 24, 1844, Samuel B. Morse introduced his telegraph to the world, via a line stretching from Washington to Baltimore. The telegraph radically changed communication between communities, due largly in part to the speed at which information could be shared.

Around that same time, a new phrase was introduced into American culture. That phrase was "heard it through the grapevine", which was popularized by the Marvin Gaye song in 1968. "Heard it through the grapevine" provided an ironic comparison between the twisted stems of a grapevine and the straight lines of the telegraph that was rapidly spreading its way across America. To hear something through the grapevine was to learn of something informally and unofficially, by means of gossip and rumors. The usual implication is that the information was passed person to person, by word of mouth, usually confidentially among friends and colleagues.

Both the straight line telegraph and the "grapevine telegraph" were successful in passing information over long and short distances, although because the "grapevine telegraph" was used by individual to individual, the facts often became distorted and untruths reported (which mirrored the gnarled and contorted stems of a grapevine).

It seems that although the straight line telegraph has gone the way of the dinosaur, the "grapevine telegraph" is still in service, distorting facts and reporting untruths.