How do you use your typewriter? [Wrong Answers Only Edition]

It’s really an over-asked question: What do you use your typewriter for?. (tl;dr: writing). To make things more interesting and entertaining in the middle of the week, let’s turn it on its ear and ask only for the wrong answers today.

Whether it’s use in food preparation:

• Throw a slab of steak into the segment and pound away for a bit until well tenderized. Then insert into oven at 400 degrees F until it’s medium rare and you’ve got some excellent typebar grill marks.

Environmental reasons:

• Creation of new coral reefs for the fishes (aka 1930s Norwegian Typewriter Olympics: Shot put competition)

Or attempting to cleverly camouflage your 57th machine acquisition from your partner:

• When you’ve got too many and you need them to be useful in other ways, you turn a Royal KMM into a decorative door stop.

Send us your favorite personal uses for typewriters… Wrong answers only.

This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich

I purchased this 1946 Royal KMM standard typewriter on October 4th via Goodwill for $22.00. It’s equipped with an extra-wide 18 inch platen and carriage with “support wings” and a 10 key decimal tabulator which means in its day it would have been used for some heavy-duty accounting.

The logos could be in better shape, but the rubber feet and overall condition are pretty exceptional. It’ll definitely need a good cleaning and some very minor adjustments. Tipping the scales at 47.8 pounds makes this the heaviest typewriter in the collection so far.  $0.46 per pound isn’t a half bad deal for something in this condition. 

Can’t wait to do some restoration work on my second Royal KMM.

This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich

I finished the Wednesday Addams and Enid Sinclair dorm room LEGO set in time for Halloween. 

The typewriter is  a tiny custom LEGO with a pre-affixed sticker and a small white LEGO attached as a simulacrum of paper. 

 

This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich

This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich

We’re spending an hour to batten down the hatches and do some preparation (yet again) for another potential emergency evacuation in Altadena, CA. This one due to potential mud slides and debris flows expected in the Eaton Fire burn scar areas with impending heavy rains this afternoon. I suspect we’re probably reasonably safe  due to our neighborhood’s location with respect to Eaton Canyon (i.e. the mountain and the canyon walls should divert flow to the Southeast of our neighborhood). This being said, having endured one catastrophe this year, I know to anticipate the worst. 

The notice came at about noon as dark clouds impinge on us from the mountains North of us and from the East. Weather reports began last night and some have predicted intermittent rain, highly uncommon for us this time of year, which may see rates as high as 2 inches per hour.  We have several evacuation routes and plans ready (including escape to the roof if necessary).

The sun is still shining overhead with a sustained breeze of about 5 miles per hour.

Fingers crossed. 

This post was originally published on Chris Aldrich