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February 28, 2012
"The typewriter is a mechanical device with keys that,"
Posted by gerardvanderleun at February 28, 2012 9:01 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
One good class X 43 coronal mass ejection in the wrong direction and the mechanical typewriter makes a comeback- big time.
Oh, and did I mention a little thing known as EMP.
Posted by: Stuart at February 28, 2012 9:29 AM
The wife still has her college typewriter in the basement. Still works. How long till they're featured on Antiques Roadshow?
Stuart, time to stock up on ribbon?
Posted by: Soviet of Washington at February 28, 2012 9:44 AM
I could kill myself for giving away my mother's dainty Smith-Corona. It was truly a portable---about four inches tall and about eleven inches square. She bought it new in 1966, to teach herself how to type---before going off to college at the fine old age of 39. She was a sweetheart, and so was that little typewriter.
Posted by: Deborah at February 28, 2012 11:50 AM
Being the last of my age to learn "typing" on a manual, I shall not shed a tear. When I watch Mad Men, I do go a bit misty for the Selectric. The day of days though was when we got our first memory typewriter. No longer were we at the mercy of clerk/typists.
Posted by: Casca at February 28, 2012 12:16 PM
All typewriters from the venerable Underwood to the Selectric had a singular problem. None can spell any better than the typist.
Posted by: Peccable at February 28, 2012 3:44 PM
I have two typewriters I inherited from my father: A Smith-Corona Coronet XL electric which dates from the 1980s, and a Royal Quiet De Luxe manual from about 1950. (I can't find a date on the machine itself, but the owner's manual is ©1950.)
I just hunted both of them down and looked them up online before typing this comment.
I remember playing around with the Royal when I was a kid, but I never did learn to type properly. When I was in high school, it was mostly girls who took typing. I went through about half of a beginner's typing book when I got my first computer in the early 1990s, so I can plod along adequately.
Nowadays I still use the Courier font for e-mail, and also for those rare occasions when I have to type a paper letter. I may do it using Adobe InDesign on a late-model Power Mac, but I make it look like a typewritten letter, just for the hell of it.
Posted by: rickl at February 28, 2012 4:24 PM
Read it again. There's an update.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at March 1, 2012 9:13 PM
Thanks. Got a new item from that.
Posted by: vanderleun at March 1, 2012 10:05 PM