Passioned out

Ok, people really have to stop using the word ‘passion’ so much. It’s to the point that it’s losing any real meaning. Especially when it’s used by companies trying to sell their services or attract possible employees. “Do you have a passion for in-store merchandising?” “We at Boston Basement Technologies have a passion for basements!” “Follow your passion for retail sales!” (all actual ads screamed at by yours truly)

A passion for basements? Really? Not for nothing, but if your passion in life is installing sump pumps or removing mold from somebody’s damp cellar, you lead an empty life. Truly you do, and for society’s sake you must be monitored at all times and slowly drained of your bodily humours so we can study them and develop a vaccine for that sort of nonsense. If your mission in life is to sell sweaters at the Gap, you need a team of psychiatrists – stat.

I always thought when somebody had a passion for something, it meant that there was something in their life that they just had to do no matter what. I’ve known a few artists, musicians and actors through the years, and a few of them just had no choice about it: creating was something they just did- like breathing- every day. If any money was earned doing it, then that was gravy. It was something that was a part of them always (incidentally, that’s when I realized I was not cut out for the creative life – I enjoy having food in the fridge on a regular basis). Now that is passion. Sorta like the way I have a passion for watching television.

But cleaning basements or selling overpriced clothing made in Malaysia – that’s a job, nothing more. Let’s call things what they are, and we’ll all be better off.

Like Bill Maher once said: If your morning coffee has crushed ice, whipped cream and caramel – it’s a milkshake!

 

Distraction-free writing

For those of you who are writers, you may want to check out this link for the word processing software Writeroom

http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom

Writeroom is billed as ‘Distraction-free writing’ for those who “prefer a typewriter but live in the digital world”. You can download the software for free to your Mac if you don’t want to make the $24.95 donation. For people in the Windows world (my sympathies), they also make an app called “Darkroom”, which basically is the same thing for the Windows OS.

It’s like having a fullscreen Alphasmart.

 

How sausage is made

Nobody likes to see how the sausage is made.

That doesn’t just apply to the cylinder of Jimmy Dean that’s been sitting in the fridge for months, either. Seems most people don’t want to know the nitty gritty of how things are done. They just want the final product. At least that’s my experience. For instance – if most people really knew the entire process of turning a cow into the hamburger patties wrapped in plastic that are sitting in your local supermarket right now, I would bet more than a few would think twice about buying them. Better to not even acknowledge the cow ever existed, and be on your way. (If you do want to know, read ‘Fast Food Nation’ – there’s a chapter called “What’s in the Meat”. Yum.)

I’ve been receiving a little typewriter adjustment advice from a gentleman I met at my collector’s meetup last month. He was in the business for over 20 years and knows a thing or two. Let’s just say the process involves needlenose pliers and a hammer. The good news is I’ve discovered just how durable my 1950’s Silent Super actually is (I’ll leave it at that).

He was telling me about how he’d be in an office somewhere doing a repair call, and would wait until the secretary turned her back before he made one of these “adjustments” to a very expensive desktop machine. Sometimes he would get a “what the hell are you doing?” look after they heard the noise. He told me, “People usually don’t want to know how the sausage is made, I guess.”

 

Lomography?

Has anyone had any experience with one of these cameras?

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?itemdescription=true&itemCount=60&startValue=1&selectedProductColor=&sortby=&id=16606592&parentid=A_COLL_NEWELECTRONICS&sortProperties=+subCategoryPosition,&navCount=54&navAction=poppushpush&color=&pushId=A_COLL_NEWELECTRONICS&popId=APARTMENT_WHATSNEW&prepushId=

If that link is not working, it’s for a Lomography Diana+Aviator plastic medium format camera being sold on urbanoutfitters.com. I’m curious about these, but have not really heard of them before.

Anybody? Beuhler?

 

A few new machines

I’ve added a few new machines over the last week. One was a machine I had been trying to get for a while, and one was an unexpected find.

Smith-Corona Silent Super (1950's)

I’ve wanted to try one of these for a while, and this one is in very good condition both cosmetically and mechanically. Really a sweet typer, and very well made with a newly re-covered platen (that pops out with the flick of a lever). The next one I found at Sal’s Boutique for the princely sum of $5 – it’s a model 5TE, one of the first electric portables. I’ve never bought an electric before, but I figured I could use it for parts in a pinch. It actually works very well. I may keep it…

Smith Corona Model 5TE electric (late '50's ?)

I know it’s sacreligous (sp?) to go electric since I usually only get manual machines, but it looks just like the Super, so I made an impulse buy. It looked like it needed a good home anyway…

 

We’ve all done it

 

Meetup roundup

Mr. Clark brought the Dayton portable, and a photo compilation of some of the machines in his collection. Unreal – he literally has hundreds of pieces, all from before 1930.

1920's era Dayton portable

Mr. Brown brought a few other pieces of retrotech along with a portable, aluminum Blickensdorfer (not pictured)…..

Probably the coolest pencil sharpener I've ever seen

Mr. Strange brought a few German-made portables from the 1930’s, like this DM (actually an early Olympia), and a Rheinmetall portable with removable carriage (not pictured), both in beautiful condition…

DM portable (1930's)

To get a sense of scale on this next one, just know the wood base is around 8 inches long…

More machins were there, but in my haste to try them out, I forgot to get a picture. D’oh! Thanks again to everyone who made the trek – I really appreciate it. Next time, I’ll drive south to meet all of you.

 

She Rides Again!

I’ll post some new photos on my flickr stream (link on the lower right) later today. I’m really surprised how well the Liquid Wrench works on these machines. It’s Like Magic! ™

 

Thinking back

I was reading some books to my daughter the other night, in particular one called “Ms. Nelson is Missing”, about an elementary school class, their missing teacher, and the awful substitute teacher who makes them appreciate Ms. Nelson even more. I started thinking back to when I was in elementary school, and how everything about it seemed huge: the stairs I climbed every day, the big wooden desks with flip-up lids and the holes where the bottle of ink used to fit in, the humongous blackboards, windows that seemed ten feet high, massive erasers, and those big metal pencil sharpeners that were mounted to the wall.

My daughter is really getting into drawing and writing her letters and numbers over the summer, to the delight of her mother and I. Unfortunately, the cheap handheld pencil sharpener we had broke, so I’m down to sharpening her pencils with a tile knife. I was thinking again about those heavy duty, metal pencil sharpeners, and frankly about how much I enjoyed using them. I remembered the smell of the shavings, and I said, that’s it, I have to find one for her to experience. Plus, she’d get a kick out of sharpening her own pencils.

Now I just have to try and find what I’m looking for. Maybe eBay?

 

I swear, it’s the same machine.

I know what you’re thinking – What the heck did you do to that poor Librarian!? Trust me, it’ll work great when I’m done with it. I finally had some time to put into it, and after a little wrangling, was able to get the exoskeleton completely off without stripping any screws or losing any washers. Now she’s ready for brushing off loose dirt and dust, then my Liquid Wrench/Blow Dry treatment, followed up with alcohol scrub, a little selective oiling, and Bam! she’ll be ready to be a daily workhorse again. I’m sure in its heyday, this baby was cranking out daily type, doing yeoman’s work like the rest of us. All she needs is a little spa treatment, and she’ll be tanned, rested and ready. I may need to send the platen out to Ames to be re-covered, though- it’s pretty darn hard as a rock. We”ll see…oh, and I love the shape of the carriage return lever, like an upturned hockey stick worn smooth from use.