Typewriter on Parks & Recreation

I don't know how many of y'all watch Parks & Recreation (I do, it's a pretty good show), but there was a funny bit about an Underwood typewriter in a recent episode.

Underwood Standard Champion #4680705

The term "thereabouts" in the above text doesn't make sense, on second read. But I guess you know what I meant?

Where are my manners, please see links to Olivander (Collapsing World), A Treatise on Pedestrianism, and Manual Entry under "The Typosphere" at left.

And hey, that's my dad. He's a swell guy.

The Great Petaluma Haul

I feel compelled to update this post with information from one Olivander, ubercollector, who has set me straight on what the heck this machine actually is. In his words:

The "11" indicates platen length, not the model #. The base unit is that of a No.6 (you can tell by the ribbon selector switch being set up on top of the front plate instead of facing out). Think of how Olivetti turned the Lettera 32 base machine into many, many different models.

The name on the space bar positively identifies the model name as Champion. I don't what was different about the Champion to separate it from the regular No.6. Maybe it was only marketing. I've seen them called Master, too, and they look the same to me.

So what you have is a Champion built around a No.6 chassis.

Thank you Olivander!

Name that typewriter: Viracocha, San Francisco

Viracocha, on Valencia Street in San Francisco's Mission District, sells typewriters. I sent my envoy Scott over there to check out the offerings a week or two ago, and here's what he found.

Can you name that 'writer? No looking anything up. (For encyclopedic types, this will be a no-brainer). I'll add my lame remarks, this is where you'll see how little I actually know about typewriter model specifics, only really being familiar with the typewriters I own. This general ignorance is why I never make appearances among the sages on Yahoo's Portable Typewriter Forum.

Some kind of big ol' Olympia SG standard. I have never paid any attention to the standard models made by Olympia.

1950's Remington Quiet Riter. I want one!

An Underwood standard whaaat? It looks 1950's.

Royal Quiet de Luxe, 1950's.

A Royal KMS? KM-something? 50's? 60's? Man, I don't know thing one about standards.

What is this?? A Torpedo? Is this a German brand? I only know Torpedos as imposing antique standard type machines, didn't know they made any in the 60's or whenever this was made.

Voss... another German brand? If I had to pick one of these 'writers, I'd take this one. I don't know anything about Voss machines and have never seen one in the wild.

Smith-Corona clipper. Now I am on more familiar territory. 40's?

Some kind of early IBM electric typewriter. I know even less about electric typewriters than I do about standards.

What's that goofy long green lever on the right side? This is a quiet de luxe, right? It's kind of hard to tell from this picture.

_____

Oh my, that was disgraceful. Please tell me you can do better at identifying these machines.

My typewriters: a catalog

The other day I noticed Clickthing had added a visual catalog of his typewriters. I can't believe I haven't done this before. I can't believe we ALL haven't done this before. And lastly, I can't believe how often I have the repetitive thought when reading all of your blogs: "I wonder what so and so's typewriter collection includes in its entirety?"

And so, here's all the typewriters I currently own (there's now a permanent link to this at left, as well). I plan to add a sample of the typefaces shortly (to the copy linked at left, that is).

Consider this an official challenge for you to follow in Clickthing's lead.

The Collection

I'm in a constant battle to reduce the number of typewriters I own, because let's face it, you can only store so many typewriters (unless you have a system, like one Olivander). That said, here is the latest roster, which totals 8. Soon I plan to add typeface samples to the image gallery as well.


Here is the story of how I came to acquire this Hermes Rocket at Acme Business Machines in Arkansas. This day I spent with my dad is one of my favorite memories. Thanks Monda. Rest in peace, Ed Cordon.


Found this Lettera 22 at Deluxe Junk in Seattle, a great antique shop that usually has a good selection of typewriters.  It came with the manual and brushes and the whole bit, even a decomposing plastic typewriter cover.  I had another identical Lettera prior to this one, which I gave to Olympiaman.


This cursive Olympia SF is from Cambridge Typewriter, by way of Speculator in Maine. (See the comments of the post to hear the story behind that).  This typewriter has been my holy grail machine for some time, owing to my disappointment with my other cursive machine.


Here is a random post blathering about my Olympia SM-9. Everyone seems to have one. Here's a scan of the SM9 manual. This is by far my most mechanically superior typewriter, with a resurfaced platen, or perhaps a new one, I forget. I bought it from a refurb place online. The typing action is literally like a new typewriter.


Bought this Hermes Rocket at Blue Moon Camera and Machine in Portland, OR. It used to look like this. Then I spray-painted it pink. People ask about how I painted it, but I really didn't use any particular technique. Here is a post about it.


This is a really gorgeous typewriter, in person. All the details and writing on the back and whatnot is perfectly intact. It is a 1941 Royal Quiet De Luxe that I got at Deluxe Junk in Seattle, and I had it cleaned and tuned up at Ace Typewriter in Portland, OR.


This Underwood Champion 11 from 1937 is the only typewriter I've kept out of seven I got from a shuttered museum in Petaluma, CA. Here is a post about this dubious haul, and here is another. I still have done nothing with this typewriter; it remains in my garage.


Here is the cursed cursive Hermes 3000. Here is a post about it when it was new and I was not yet truly versed in its cursed ways. Thing is, it has a lovely typeface. Otherwise I would rehome it to the bottom of Lake Washington.

Cursive typewriter: the redemption

Thank you Tom! It's no surprise that you had exactly the typewriter I needed.


Cambridge Typewriter
Mimeographin' at the IPRC
The curse of the cursive typewriter

This just in! Hear radio report on Snohomish type-in

Here's a KIRO news article about the Snohomish type-in on Sunday (with a link to the radio segment, which you really must hear).

You'll hear the voices of the typosphere's own, including Little Flower Petals, A Treatise on Pedestrianism, Manual Entry, and of course, the event host, Snohomish Writer (and his wife, who also did tons of work for the event and is very kind).

Also, KIRO has posted photos.

Snohomish type-in: at which a world record is set

Behold this photo, depicting a table in Snohomish's Upper Case Books around which is seated 5 members of the typosphere.

I hereby proclaim this to be the world record of typecasters seated in a single venue. (From left counterclockwise, are the respective bloggers from Strikethru, Manual Entry, A Treatise on Pedestrianism, Snohomish Writer, and Little Flower Petals.)

Several of us made the trek from random parts of Western Washington state for the occasion, and it was entirely worth the trip, as Justin (Snohomish Writer) and his wife did a great job of advertising the event and conducting fun raffles and typing contests, with prizes contributed by Uppercase Books. (I won this most excellent journal made from vintage bookcovers. Allow me to add that, regarding typing contests, Little Flower Petals is a scary-fast typist.)

Lest you think it was only us five die-hards in attendance, in fact a room full of perhaps 15 - 20 machines were kept busy during the entire event, with many curious local folks stopping in to type letters, compare typewriters, and test their typing speed while a photographer from the Everett Herald snapped photos of everyone at work.

As a bonus, the two Smith-Coronas I brought were successfully re-homed (the Galaxie with a lady who stopped in looking for one to buy to fill out forms. She said she missed the feel of a typewriter. Sold, free of charge!).

Thanks to Justin for a great event. Here's his post that contains all the links to the news stories about the event from KIRO radio and the Everett Herald.

Quora.com: A public record of retrotech?

I've lately been fooling around with a web site called Quora.com, which is a trendy new social media question and answer portal (probably there are several ways to describe its functionality; that's as close as I can come). Here is a Time Magazine article about it, and another on Mashable.

Quora is complicated. It incorporates aspects of different social media platforms (voting answers up and down like Digg, followers and following like Twitter, the ability to edit others' entries like Wikipedia) and currently, in its early adoption phase, seems to favor social media hot shots who've brought a lot of acolytes with them onto the service. The nattering nabobs of interweb tech blogging are not sure whether it's The Next Big Thing or A Terrible Idea, and they're currently burning up the social media echo chamber with their bloviations on the topic.

As retrotechies, why should we care? Perhaps we shouldn't. All I know is this: Quora has a 'typewriter' category. I've populated the five or so questions that have been posted there with my answers, as part of my ongoing attempt to evangelize the typecasting movement. To quote Speculator:

"Like Tom Furrier says, "all it takes is a reminder." And that's just it. People see how practical and instantaneous and portably efficient typewriters are- combined with the charm of the mechanisms, and ideas are born- such that more folks go looking for their own typewriters."

I'd like to see all of us take opportunities, where they exist, to provide thorough, thoughtful information about typewriters and retrotech for this reason. The more typewriter users and fans we can create, the more hope there is for typewriter shops, ribbon manufacturing, snail mail, and typewriter social networks and events.

For some time, Wikipedia has had a definition of "typecasting" (I do not know the author, do you?) which is the only example I know of a reference to typecasting outside of the typosphere itself (although, recent stories in local newspapers about type-in events certainly qualify as such, now that I think about it). I'd like to see more. As a technical writer, I have long worked in organizations that think first to evangelize products within their own web sites, but the truth of the matter is, social media platforms are where people hang out. You have to bring the message to the platform if you want the word to get out.

And so, Quora provides one such opportunity to sign up, answer questions, and ask others, thereby building an official and high-quality external record of information about retrotech. I think it's worth considering as an act of "typostolate," a term coined by Speculator to describe the act of evangelizing retrotech.

New typecasting blog: Analog Dog

Over the last year I have been in and out of the typosphere, and whenever I wasn't looking, great new typecasters seemed to pop up. I try to pride myself on having a comprehensive typosphere blogroll in "The Typosphere" section to the left of this blog, but sometimes blogs get missed. Today I just stumbled across Analog Dog in the blogroll of Magic Margin. Analog Dog has it all -- typecasts, gorgeous photographs, typewriter ponderings, even videos! (Been meaning to post about the general lack of videos in the 'sphere - I even bought a flip camera intending to do them myself and still haven't managed it).

I wonder which other typecast blogs I haven't found yet? Are there any I'm missing?

Typecast: the revolution

Powell's announces layoffs

About the Typewriter Collector's Alliance on Facebook
News article about this weekend's Snohomish type-in

The curse of the cursive typewriter

I own but one cursive machine: this Hermes 3000. Here is an example of its typeface. This typewriter, purchased from eBay several years back, puts the curse in cursive: it arrived with shattered platen knobs, which cause me to cut my fingers every time I try and advance the carriage. Whatever that mechanism is that causes the platen to either slide paper or click from one line to the next (techies, help me out here) never seems to stay put. Plus, it's a Hermes 3000, which is basically a mouse-colored anvil with very complicated tab stop mechanisms. It has not satisfied my dreams of owning a cursive typewriter even a little.

In its place, I dream of an ultra-portable script machine like Clickthing's Olympia SF. (Retro tech Geneva has one too). At times I rage at the fates for not placing a splendid machine such as this in my path.

Tell me about your cursive machine(s). I must know about life beyond the prison walls of my mouse-colored Swiss anvil. Such talk gives me hope that eventually, I will find the cursive machine of my destiny.

Vintage airmail stickers from Laughing Elephant

A couple of years ago, I bought a packet of vintage airmail stickers from a Portland art supply store. There were 46 stickers total, and each one was a different design - no duplicates. They're great - I've been using them on letters and such, but I was down to just a few remaining, and so decided to hit the Laughing Elephant web site the other day to order another set.

Now, there's lots of cool stickers on the Laughing Elephant site; Monda would love these, for example. And gosh, some of you sci fi nerds would be crazy to pass up the world of tomorrow set. But! No vintage airmail labels to be found online. Surely some kind of administrative oversight.

I called the Laughing Elephant customer service line to ask how to order them, and was given the harsh news:

Discontinued!

Apparently for some time now! Aaaarg! My mind returned to the scene of the initial purchase, where there was a small bin of them by the register of that art store... I should have scooped up all that remained when I had the chance! Where is a world of tomorrow time machine when you need one?

Just then, the guy on the phone said that someone, on hearing of my despair (My exact words were, in fact, "noooooo!"), dug two remaining packs out of the warehouse... the last two.

THE LAST TWO!

However, if you suddenly find, like me, that you can't live without vintage airmail stickers, there is a very cool-looking handmade set on Etsy right now. Check out the plush typewriter while you are there.

The Pocket Square camera

I just learned about the lo-fi Pocket Square camera ("Miniscule square-format photos and videos with analog edge") on the blog Miss Doxie (jump to point #4 where she provides a funny interpretation of the user's manual) and although it is $100 dollars more than I should be spending on thingamajigs at the moment, I am intrigued.

It's a super small digital camera with no viewfinder that takes square 6" x 6" photos and has lo-fi filters (yellow, 'noise,' and monochrome).

Thing is, probably even a cool camera like this would result in crummy photos if I was behind the lens, because of the following fact: I am a terrible photographer. If you lay your mitts on one though, I want to see the pictures.

Note: image shamelessly lifted from Photojojo web site for this post.

Type-in in Snohomish, Washington!

The typosphere's own Snohomish Writer has coordinated a type-in to happen in Snohomish, WA. Here are the details!


Ryan of A Treatise on Pedestrianism also hosted a type-in at Seattle's Inner Chapters bookstore in January and plans to repeat the experience soon, check his blog for details.

This just in, Philadelphia is having another type-in in February! Also, Phoenix is having an event in March.