Impromptu Birthday Bash Type-In

Post-Script: The niece's husband tried his hand at the little Olympia SF, and he blazed away using the middle finger of each hand. It turns out his first book was written, years ago, on a larger Olympia, using the same typing style.

He asked her why a typewriter, isn't a computer more efficient. Her answer was something along the lines of wanting to get into typing again; she also has a desire to do some serious writing, and feels a typewriter would suit her best, as least in the initial phases.

They both live an hour up the highway in Santa Fe; I told her in my letter that should she need ribbons or other assistance, just call.

I think she made the right choice of the SM9 as a serious writing tool. Nothing wrong with the Smith-Coronas, except they're older, have seen a harder life.



I also had her try Adobe Rose, the Royal QDL, seen above next to the Brother Charger 11, which still had its lid attached, one of her other choices. Unless portability were her main concern, she was wise to steer clear of the Brother, as it's not nearly as easy to type on.

She made some interesting observations about the feel of the keyboards of these various machines. The spacing of the keys, and slope of the keyboards, has a lot to do with typing comfort, as she wisely discerned; to her, the SM9 felt easier than the Hermes 3000.



Above is the 1930 Underwood Portable with a roll of paper; we used it during the birthday party for people to type comments upon. Always a great machine to have handy.



This morning I stopped in at Rust is Gold, a new coffee shop + artists collective, on Eubank near Constitution, with the Olympia SF, for some blog writing and coffee slurping. Fun was had, and I struck up a conversation with a fellow patron who was interested in the typewriter. I didn't have business cards with me, so typed him one on a scrap of paper.

Just in Case

Post-Script: I must also make mention of the fact that these SM9s are "half-space" machines, meaning that as the typebar is moving up toward the platen, the carriage moves one half space, then another half space as it returns. This means that it is capable of inserting a missing character from an already printed word, as is evidenced in the word "local" in the seventh paragraph. To accomplish this, the errant word is first erased, then the carriage moved to the last letter of the previous word. Then the space bar is held down as each successive letter is printed. About half the machines in my collection have this feature, which I've come to appreciate, given the errors common to my typing.

Just in case you might think that I've gone off the deep end, gushing with pride over the acquisition of a battered suitcase, my wife, whose opinion in matters of aesthetics I trust more than mine, approves.

I did a bit of online research on this Hartmann Skymate suitcase, and it appears to be the pigskin version. There appears to be a significant history behind this brand, which I had not previously appreciated. Also, if online prices are any indication, I might have gotten a good deal on this.

Photos via Fujifilm X10.