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Monday, October 4, 2010

Plotless

9 comments:

  1. So...is knowing exactly who A.S. is without even having to think about it sort of the equivalent of a secret handshake? I feel special...

    I'm even more plotless than usual this year. Real life drama and a busy work schedule aren't going to leave me a great deal of time to plan, either. I figure worse case scenario, I just make up a single character based on the first person to walk by on November first, and run with it. Or something like that.

    I so love the paint job on that there Twolympia!

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  2. I essentially have a plot down for this year, and it will be my first attempt! I'm either going to use the SC 88 or the Royal 10. And please post pictures of that Olympia in gold trim!!

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  3. So what did you discover about carbon ribbons? was it a bad or good thing?

    I'm planning on having one of my new ebay purchases outfitted with carbon when I get it in, is that a bad plan? :D

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  4. OK -- what I discovered is that you mustn't use a "correctable" carbon ribbon on a manual typewriter. It's just too easy to smear. Your best bet is a non-correctable ribbon for the IBM Selectric 71 (Selectric I). If your ribbon advances too slowly, characters will overlap on the ribbon and it won't look good; if the ribbon advances fast enough, you'll get very pretty typing such as in my typecast above. It's worth a shot!

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  5. Can't seem to get the carbon ribbon to work on any of my machines. I'm starting to develop a complex about it.
    There's a new Royal Empress hogging a huge chunk of my work desk; it might be a good candidate to try, what with its nice, roomy spools...

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  6. Duffy, inside I'm jumping up and down that you finally found an Empress. It's a beast, but yer gonna love it.

    My own discovery about carbon ribbons is that, like film spools, they fit much better in the old metal spools than the newer plastic ones. The flanges aren't quite as thick on the metal ones, and that seems to be the half-millimeter that makes all the difference.

    I was disappointed to find that the Underwood De Luxe Quiet Tab is one of those that overlaps the characters on the carbon ribbon. I was really looking forward to seeing that lovely slab-serif typeface in the typewriter equivalent of HD.

    And you're welcome.

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  7. Hmmn, sounds problematic. with Nano coming up and an unknown number of friends who might decide to mooch one of my typers for November, I might need to go the safe route and stick with a plain inked ribbon for every functioning machine. I suppose I could try out carbon after November.

    It's definitely a great idea, and the type looks really good, though. :D

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  8. A.S.: I didn't MEAN to pick up an Empress. It was one of those craigslist ads that you see from time to time with exactly NO identifying info w/r/t the typewriter being offered, and I still had no clue after exchanging about 10 e-mails, and just decided to drive out and have a look-see. I don't know about you, but I pretty much NEVER come back empty-handed from a typewriter Look-See. (And for $10? I'd pay that for the nice cover this Empress came with.)

    I'm green-eyed and swooning over the fact that, impossible though it may seem, Richard: you got that Twolympia typing just as beautifully as it looks.

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  9. What a beautiful "combomachine" you made! And I'm very intrigued about all this carbon ribbon stuff. Down here, in Mexico, the only type of typewriter ribbon you can get is made of fabric, in the best of cases inked in red and black, or only in black; and in the bestest best cases, it comes with those rivets on each end of the ribbon that activate the spool mechanism. Sometimes you have to make do with some ugly knots tied on each end of the ribbon.

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