shift freedom
sexxy black, as i call her, was the belle of the post-holiday office ball. everyone who walked by had to touch her, to try her out. “the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” they typed. “it was a dark and stormy night,” was another favorite. i kept asking them how much they’d give me if i popped the top on sexxy black’s case and lugged her down to starbucks over lunch, whipped her out and started working on my novel right there. most of them just laughed and laughed. because buying an ancient typewriter is just the sort of thing i’d do.
i kept teasing webboy, who has the unfortunate luck to sit next to me, that i was gonna type the january newsletter on sexxy black– she’s really loud. louder than me, if you can believe that.
i think my favorite thing about her is the SHIFT FREEDOM key. i mean if ever there was someone who needed freedom from the tyranny of the shift key, it is me.
All I can think of when I see it is “Ducky Daddles”.
29 Dec 03 at 8:42 pm #I have a similar-looking “beauty” — I think mine is from the Paramount Typewriter Co. of Providence, RI or something like that. I found it in my grandma’s basement in excellent condition, still works, etc. Yours (like mine) is a Depression-era model, I think — probably mid-1930s. I was told that the lack of a number 1 key is a sure sign … a way to save on production costs, since you can just use the lower-case “L.” Mine doesn’t even have a right margin or an end-of-the-line bell!
The typewriter has been great for my fiction writing. By the very nature of the thing, you can’t edit on the fly as easily as with a computer or pen and paper. So, it’s provided me with some much-needed forward momentum. Plus, it’s so damn fun to THWACK the letters into the paper. Makes writing a lot more physical …
tomtom
30 Dec 03 at 8:52 am #