Frazz by Jef Mallett for November 06, 2019

Try not to snicker when she explains what a ‘typeball’ is, Caulfield.

I was at a restaurant today that had an old Olivetti typewriter on display.

Typewriter: What formula fiction writers use to create characters?

Wait until she explains carbon paper and white out.

Some people are so sensitive.

I teach computers in an elementary school. I’ve learned to refer to the weird squarish icon in the upper left corner of MS Word and other programs as a “Save” icon and not mention that it’s a picture of a floppy disk, which is not as old as a typewriter, but just as obsolete.

Began with standard typewriter in the 1950’s, then electric, then Selectric typeball, then typewriter with small lcd screen that held two lines, and, finally, on to what is to me after so many years, just another keyboard with a different display. Identical input, identical output, and the paper piles that just continue to grow. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.

And slate boards. Don’t forget the slate boards!

My father wrote 38 books on a manual typewriter…with two index fingers no less. My brother still has the typewriter on display in his den.

You can find said sticks Underwood.

We still have IBM selectric typewriters in the office. Certain pre-printed government legal forms MUST be completed by typewriter (or by hand) – there are still no online options.

Until just a couple of months ago, the nuclear missile silos, used a computer system that had floppy discs. It was finally upgraded this year. Due to ancient technology it was unhackable. The scary thing is there are still floppy disc systems in use in our government.

back when I struggled to learn to type well, and didn’t ever really succeeded, never would I have imagined that I"d be “typing” as much as I do now. And thank goodness for the backspace key!

I remember all of these things and am proud of it. I don’t consider myself old, either (early 60s). One of my funniest recollections of the transition from typewriters to word processors was when I was working for IBM in marketing. One of my client’s admins said she liked the other admin’s word processor better than hers because the other admin didn’t have to keep inserting and removing disks. I immediately realized the other admin’s PC had a hard drive, but this admin had no clue and blamed the software!

Took typing in high school (early 70’s) because I was sure it would be a handy skill to have and I definitely guessed right on that one! Three careers and four college degrees later and I’ve never regretted learning to type in high school.

…and I don’t miss white out (sp?) or erasers or carbon paper or all the fun stuff we needed when typewriters were still in common use. Of course I typo all the time (still) but at least now it’s so much easier to correct (once (if) I spot the errors)… 8^)

Wanna blow his little mind? Tell him about physical word processors.

In high school we used typewriters to write our newspaper stories. Often they were referred to as tripewriters. Tom Hanks collects, maintains and uses old typewriters. One of them can be seen in his movie about Mr Rodgers.

!952 Japan. We surveyed bridges from Sendai north to Morioka to determine what it would take to cross a river if the bridge was out. We had to type the reports in triplicate using carbon paper. That was a lot of fun for someone who couldn’t type.

Blog PostsFrazz18 hrs ·

http://www.gocomics.com/frazz/2019/11/06Sure, sure, there’s typewriter old. I’m manual typewriter old. I’d be curious, after decades of being spoiled by feather-touch computer keyboards, to try an old manual, to see how long it would take me to remember to throw enough weight into each keystroke. It would also be fun to watch someone skilled do their thing on a Smith-Corona. What a glorious marriage that was, between physical skills and some pretty astonishing mechanical engineering. If computers, or just about anything anymore, is some intersection of tech and magic, a good typist on a manual typewriter is the intersection of art and industry. And music. Oh, that sound.

I do miss a Selectric typewriter with changeable balls. So wonderful.