Dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot

How many times have you seen a scene like this in a movie? An important character is separated from the rest of his group and trapped in an isolated space. Maybe he's being held captive. Maybe he's trapped in a cavern after a cave collapse. Regardless of why he's separated, the character's situation seems desperate, and you can see the discouragement on his face. Suddenly, though, his expression changes to a sly one, and he pulls out something hard and starts furiously tapping.

Meanwhile, the other characters are valiantly trying to get to this distraught character. They're doing their best, but it sure looks like the bad guys are going to get there first or the walls are going to collapse or whatever. But then one of these characters shushes everyone else and says, "Quiet down, everybody! Do you hear that?" Everyone stops talking, and the faint sound of the other character tapping can be heard.

Another character jumps up. "Hey! Wait a minute!" this character says. "I know that! That's Morse Code! I took a semester of Morse Code as an undergraduate!" And then this character puts his ear to the wall and without batting an eyelash is able to translate the code without even having to refer to a Morse Code guide or anything.

This always strikes me as just plain silly. I've been alive for more than 40 years, and I have literally met NO ONE who knows Morse Code, at least not well enough that he or she could type out a message using Morse Code. Worse, even if a character in a story DID know Morse Code well enough to type out a big long message--what are the chances that there's going to be another person on the other side of the wall who knows Morse Code, too? And who could translate it so quickly? No one takes a semester of Morse Code as an undergraduate!

And I worry about this second Morse Code character, too. How do we know he isn't ALWAYS jumping up and shouting that? The first two years I worked as a teacher I taught in a room with the old steam radiator style heating system. And let me tell you, when that system got cranking it sounded like someone was pounding on the radiator with a plumbing wrench. If that character had been in my class would he have jumped up? "Wait a minute!" he would have shouted. "Do you hear that banging? It's Morse Code!"

"What's it saying?" someone would ask.

After a moment the character would frown. "I'm not sure," he'd say hesitatingly. "I think he just said his glassware has rabies!"

I think, in the same circumstance, I MIGHT be able to figure out that the person on the other end was using Morse Code. But I wouldn't be able to translate it. I'd jump up and say, "Hey! Wait a minute! I know that! That's Morse Code!"

"Well, what's he saying?"

"Oh, I don't know," I'd say. "It's Morse Code, but who knows how to translate that stuff?"