Typewriter Fest at Appalachian State U.

Chris Osmond, typecaster and professor of leadership and educational studies, recently organized a Typewriter Fest at Appalachian State University.

It's nice to see this delighted student discovering typewriters (with a copy of Margin Releases nearby).

Click here for the full story.

I appear in the Cincinnati Enquirer

Every decade or so, I get highlighted in Cincinnati media as a local oddball. (Here's a story from Cincinnati Magazine, 1999.)

Recently (though not very recently) Cameron Knight of the Cincinnati Enquirer interviewed me by letter. His story has now been published—and I was surprised to find myself on the front page of the Sunday paper, looking all too serious. I'm called an "eclectic." (Is that the polite version of "eccentric"?) 

It's a fine story, not just about me but about today's typewriter culture in general. Click on the image below for a PDF.

.

If you happen to subscribe to the Enquirer, you can find the digital version here, complete with animated typed captions and a few extra photos.

Free thoughts at the end of the school year

 I'd been hoping to be joined by two friends for public typing on the last day of the Spring semester, but one was overwhelmed with work and the other was sick. So I was typing solo—which takes some courage. Fortunately, I had just listened to typewriter poet Kro's recent podcast on this very topic, so I was good to go.

I found myself sitting alone at the Voss, on a cool and overcast day, with no one in sight. Would I have any takers?

Here they come!

Students from Xavier's Montessori school were going around campus, planting trees on Arbor Day. They crowded around the typewriter and were full of questions and ideas.

Here are my thoughts for the kids (on topics of their own choosing).

Another crowd came up—this time, a soccer team. 

Though the typing isn't in focus, the gist of it was: the thrill of the game will be worthwhile even if you don't win, but I bet that you will.

There was a steady stream of more people wanting thoughts for over an hour. Here are some of the results.

This one I typed back in the office for my fellow associate dean, who knows Hebrew (I looked up the word for "headaches" and typed it on my Remington 92).

All told, though I would have loved to have fellow typists, I had a great time serving as typewriter bard today. But the best moment came at the end of the day, when a wonderful student came by my office to share the speech she will be giving at our commencement ceremony—a speech that remembers a thought I typed one year ago. 

Maggie's speech