• All I Really Need is this Typewriter.


    Typecast 5-23-09

    This typecast brought to you on a 55 year-old Remington Quiet-Riter that may look exactly like a squatting river toad, but types like it's dancing - even when the typist is an almost-two-year-old with a fascination for the zip and zing of tab, return, tab, return, tab, smash all the keys down, return.

    15 comments → All I Really Need is this Typewriter.

    1. Did the virus physically damage the computer? How about reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling the OS? Or putting in a new hard drive?

      I do this quite often, because it's not as hard as you might think, and because my love for old machines compells me to make the old computers last as long as I can (though they will never compete with typewriters for longevity). Plus I get a little tingle whenever I get to open up my machines.

    2. I knew the Quiet-Riter reminded me of something, but it had eluded me until I read "squatting river toad." I've been watching the toads at the pond (Ebay) for a bit now, waiting for one to be yummy enough to catch.

    3. Nate, my friends in the I.T. department, who winced and apologized when they gave me the crappy university computer, will attempt an exorcism after the holiday. I took it to them Friday. Three of them looked it over for a while - one just kept saying, "damn" over and over, one started laughing, and the other fellow offered me a cup of coffee and a chair as if I were the widow at a wake. None of this made me feel confident. We'll see.

      Faustgleich, I have a soft spot for pretty typewriters and my house is full of them. The Quiet-Riter is a doorstep-orphan I planned to give away, but I just can't. You couldn't kill it with a sledgehammer, and the feel is pure magic. Not bouncy and light like an Olympia, but stern and exacting. And it has the best bell of all my machines. I hope you find one soon. They do come in a couple of other colors, though, besides River Toad Grey-Brown. I strongly suggest choosing another color.

    4. My laptops have all broken charge pins off, or they get tea dumped in their keyboards and refuse to type, or my rotund younger brother sits on them and decimates their screens. I have a feeling that any of these Very Horrible Things could happen to any of my typewriters and they would keep on ticking. Yet another reason I love them so much, even if my cohorts at school cannot comprehend why I'd want something that can't possibly get viruses. "Typewriter...you can text on that, right?"

      I feel your pain. You'll get a nice shiny new thing soon, and it'll all be better. And there are always typewriters.

    5. I am sorry to hear of the computer troubles. I can only suggest if at all possible buy a mac. I have had mine 4 years now with out any issues. I have had my desktop longer and both run amazing. I do remember my HP though, I think I reformatted the hard drive 4 or 5 times in the two or three years I had it. Needless to say my macbook after almost four years now turns on in about twenty something seconds. And I got it right when the first macbooks came out for school. I can't even tell you though the difference. I will only take about a month and a bran new windows pc will slow down to its usual crawl. All I am saying is consider it and once you go mac you don't go back IMO. -James-

    6. Julia - that's true about typewriter texting, actually. It used to be called "mail" and was slower to arrive. Just hearing about your typewriters gives me hope.

      Ah, Olympiaman. You Mac folk are rabid in your allegiance. With good reason. I'll be outfitting our literary magazine layout staff with Macs in the fall. My students swear they'll make a Mac woman out of me yet, but old habits die hard.

    7. My Quiet-Riter, June, takes offense to your squatting river toad comment. With her gunmetal gray paint job, she at very least an implacable boulder of some kind (with accents of moss).

    8. I'd never intentionally offend June, who I'm sure resembles a fine statue carved out of said boulder. Dolores, Our Lady of the Unfortunate Paint Finish, cannot say the same.

      I've seen one or two with sort of a pale gunmetal/greenish cast and a few more that almost appear off-white. Both lovely, but imagine one of these in a delightful shade of powder blue, or a deep tomato red. Sigh.

    9. The tomato red would be awesome. It would be like having an old Plymouth that types.

    10. You know what I wish someone would invent? Some sort of special paper that you could type or write on and have it automatically and simultaneously be beamed to Google Documents or some such thing. If the technology piece failed, you'd still have your paper. And it'd work with solid technology like typewriters and pens that don't flake out.

      If typecasters ruled the world....

    11. Mike, I'll bet WriterTypes could turn my river toad into a tomato-red Plymouth. It would be more like a Merry Christmas Plymouth, though with those green keys.

      Little Flower, if typecasters ruled the world there would be no more war, famine, or Ebay shipping prices over $1.00. Keychopping would be a class Y felony. We would make this world a better place.

    12. Nodding in agreement as I read...
      ...and I've said similar things to anyone within earshot, while my previous laptop self-disintegrated. Somehow, the new laptop (Dell Inspiron) cost less than half of what the old one ( a Compaq Armada) had soaked me for- all with more bells, whistles, and mem.
      In the meantime, the Olivetti perched sparkling, willing, and road-ready.
      Things used to better made.

      Golly, if typecasters did rule, there would be a renaissance of patience (and eBay would become a department store chain- like Woolworth's- with people, stocked shelves, and lunch counters)!

    13. Sunflower hulls. Heh.

      I got a five year run out of my last Mac Powerbook-- not bad for a product of the disposable machine era. That said, manufactured obsolescence is an offensive concept on so many levels. My SM9 will still be typing a century from now. Imagine how many electronic devices will become toxic chemicals and twisted bits of wire and plastic in landfills during that time? It's breathtaking, really.

    14. Coincidentally, I'm in the midst of creating a tomato-red Royal Futura, for someone who specifically requested that color. Incidentally, that crinkle paint they used in the late '50s & early '60s is a [bleep] to strip.

      FYI, while it's theoretically possible to create a piece of malware that can cause the drive heads to thrash themselves to death, a virus can't physically harm your computer. (Virii running rampant through a college network? I'm shocked! Shocked!) Next time, keep those AV defs up to date.

    15. I was going to ask about the ethical issues of pimping your typing machine over at the Yahoo forums, but after the *last* time I went against official typewriter orthodoxy, I'm understandably jumpy about it. I have three big standard machines, not collector's dreams to be sure, all in finishes as grey and cracked as an Ohio creekbed in August. Would love to try my hand at re-finishing one of those poor homely things.

      Not sure what that has to do with your original post, Monda - I'm usually so late to the party anymore I just ride whatever tangent is recently in evidence.

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