Free Thoughts (with a Blick)

My friend and I continued our end-of-the-academic-year tradition for one last time, before she's off to a tenure-track position in Minnesota.

This time, I ramped up the eccentricity by typing on my 1912 Blickensderfer no. 6.

Her Underwood Champion definitely typed thoughts more neatly—and excellent thoughts, too! But fun was had all around. A steady stream of students and faculty stopped by to request words on topics both silly and serious.

Spelling correction: keratin

That's "outrageous bag."

In memoriam

Poet Tyrone Williams, who typed with me five years ago,

died last month after a brief illness. I visited him shortly before he passed away.

He chuckled as I recited the poems he'd written on that day in May, 2019.

This is my favorite.

My interview on Techtonic

Mark Hurst interviewed me on Techtonic, his great show about the dangers of big tech, on April 15. You can hear the interview here (click on "Pop-up player"):

https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/138921

Vinukonda

I was paging through the first volume of my journal today and was delighted to find this story, written by hand on February 8, 1982. I had forgotten its details and didn't know whether a copy still existed. I decided to type it up on my trusty RNP7 and publish it in a way I couldn't have imagined back then.

When I wrote this story, I was 17 years old. I'd been reading Borges and Cortázar. The name Vinukonda came from a small dot on a page of a world atlas. 

 

WCPO story on WordPlay Cincy and Urban Legend Typewriters

Kristen Skovira of local TV station WCPO visited my basement last week for a story on WordPlay Cincy, the kids' creative writing center that my typewriter repair work helps to support.

You can see the story here:

Jewett no. 2 typewriter

This 1895 Jewett no. 2 is a recent addition to my collection. I haven't bought a 19th-century typewriter for years—much less a big one—but this was so pretty that I couldn't resist. It's in near-mint condition, with the original pinstripes and hand-painted details. There's even an original purple ribbon.

This serial number looks like 8113:

But note the 6113 painted inside the front frame:

That interesting notched wheel is part of the ribbon mechanism. As the carriage moves, the shaft of the ribbon spools moves horizontally, and the wheel turns one notch, ensuring that the entire 1.25-inch-wide ribbon is used in a zigzag pattern.

Take a look:

The name of the company still reflects its initial, disastrous attempt to market a typewriter that could print two characters at once. The Duplex is one of the rarest collectible machines.