Thursday, June 20, 2013

Typewriter Day 2013

Egad! It's nearly Typewriter Day! One hundred forty-five years since Sholes was awarded a patent for this lovely drawing that morphed into the machines we know and love.

Drawing for a Typewriter, 06/23/1868, Page 1/2

The date sneaks up on me each year, preceded by a nagging sensation that something important is happening in late June... but what could it be? Clearly this is a serious oversight on behalf of the calendar markers of the world. June 23, everyone -- that's this coming Sunday.

I know a certain Mad Professor of Typewriterology who has a collection of missives from about the 'sphere. In honor of the recent non-shocking revelations about government-run data harvesting and wireless eavesdropping, how about marking the day with a typed postcard or letter to the good doctor, or to your own favorite rabble-rouser?
 
Please document the occasion with a photo, video, podcast, engraving, crayon sketch, or some other bloggable means and we'll gather them up and post on the page here on the site, linking back to you.

Bonus Typosphere Points* will be awarded for incorporating one or more of the following elements into your work:
  • Colorful ribbons or other means of tarting up the result.
  • Cryptic messages, symbols or iconography. Double points if a government bureau actually intercepts and intercedes with your missive (and owns up to it.)
  • The wearing of tinfoil headgear or other hilarious folk remedies for shaking off the mind-control rays of The Man. Triple points if you manage to attract black helicopters overhead with your typing.
No time to waste, everyone!

* No monetary value. No redemption. No shirt, no shoes, no service. No woman, no cry.

2 comments:

Richard P said...

Great idea.

If you send something to the professor, his address is 4745 Winton Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45232, USA. But be advised that he's going to be traveling from June 29 to August 18.

Rob Bowker said...

Joke about black helicopters at your peril. I get Merlins, Chinooks and the odd boy racer Apache choppers all the time. Could be I'm paranoid. Could be I live a mile downwind of an Air Force base. Thanks for the nudge!

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