Comments on: Why we’re inordinately breathless today.

By: Justine Larbalestier » Saga of a Typewriter

Justine Larbalestier » Saga of a Typewriter — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 15:49:58 +0000

[...] I’ve been a fan of the lovely Ms Tingle Alley for some time now, but I think this is definitely one of her most gorgeous posts eva! And I speak as someone who can’t stand typewriters, though I do have a dim memory of my parents having a gorgeous red Olivetti one, and my longing to play with it, but that was before computers and word processing programs, without which I can’t even begin to imagine writing. And writing by long hand?! The utter utter horror of it! [...]

By: Edward Champion's Return of the Reluctant

Edward Champion's Return of the Reluctant — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 20:43:44 +0000

Tangerine Muumuu, You Ain’t Alone!
Jimmy Beck points to this page listing writers and their preferred typewriters, which seems apropos to Ms. Frye’s Not-So-Tangerine Writing Implement Epic….

By: murgatroyd

murgatroyd — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 20:45:13 +0000

Ditto on the giant rat kangaroo with the powerful teeth. I really would like to read this too. Hint, hint.

I’m afraid I’m one of the wired — I’ve been earning my keep on computers since 1985 — although I’ll never forget the little turquoise portable I bought at K-Mart when I was 12. It had a black and red ribbon, which was the ultimate in portable high-tech at the time (or so I thought). It was a big step up from the Iron Maiden, the 1940s vintage black Underwood whose keys would clutch up in a death grip if you typed too fast.

These days my big thing is not computer versus longhand, but sitting in one place all the time — I’ve gotta have a laptop, so I can move around the house depending on sunlight, temperature, and noise. I have to be away from the TV when it’s on, or I get so annoyed by it I can’t concentrate.

By: CAAF

CAAF — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 04:09:55 +0000

Thanks all!

I’ll post pictures this week of the Selectric beauty.

By: genevieve

genevieve — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 09:25:14 +0000

Ditto Robert, plus:
An old anonymous kind of computer which is not online can be useful – I have an Acorn…and now intend to use it thanks to your inspiring story. Wish it was aqua…or red.
Als I knew a man many years ago who rediscovered God, threw in a highly invasive pot habit and became an excellent repairer of typewriters. (He started washing his hair again too.)

By: birnbaum

birnbaum — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 03:16:51 +0000

What everyone else said.

By: ed

ed — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 22:44:20 +0000

Weird. Your blog ate my last comment, dammit. But anyway, good on you for finding your regimen. That’s what I really wanted to say.

By: ed

ed — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 22:43:02 +0000

Of course, a laptop sans wireless access (or in my case, a switch that I can turn off and that I place a small piece of duct tape over) will also do the trick. Plus, it comes with a warranty. Nevertheless, there are no bright red laptops (at least none with suitable character) along the imaginative lines that I’m now forming for your lovely little typewriter.

And an hour a day is very good writin’ indeed. Keep in mind that this stuff is hard work (and not in the Dubya sense). Synapse-burning labor. So good on you for finding your regimen.

By: Jenny D

Jenny D — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 21:26:18 +0000

Yeah, I love your typewriter repair guy! Good luck writing meanwhile. I’m a longhand-in-coffee-shop, sugar-pellet-clicking gal too, & think it’s crucial to be writing somewhere without internet access…

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 21:24:36 +0000

Oh, man. That is so much better than Apple Care’s slick DHL pick-up and drop-off, especially since my regular DHL guy is off today (he gets the “Aw, broken iBook?” look when he delivers the shipping box, then offers to wait while I pack it up). Hearing your stories really helps, as I recover from a workshop in which 10 of the other 13 were such deadline-flouting non-critiquing mental-illness-whining gits that instead of deadlines and General Readership considerations all I got was spitefully nonproductive. (Is there some scrub I can use for that? Gotham Begone?)

I totally feel you on the longhand writing thing, too. I just (just) bought two gorgeous snakeskin notebooks filled with thick creamy ruled paper and with the kind of supple bindings you can lay flat. I hope I use them for more than bookshelf-display ’start a new project, pls’ guilt, but my handwriting is not geared so much for communicating thought as for exhibiting impatience.
“Crap. Does that say ‘Sergei’ or ’scrotum’?”