and New Yorkers, I guess

I love David Sedaris' writing. His book "Me Talk Pretty One Day" was pretty much the only reason I smiled during the latter half of 2004, when I was in the Navy and deployed to Fallujah, Iraq.

Here's a bit from that book on typewriters and the noise they make:

David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day. Little, Brown and Company. 2000 wrote:

When forced to leave my house for an extended period of time, I take my typewriter with me, and together we endure the wretchedness of passing through the X-ray scanner.  The laptops roll merrily down the belt, while I’m instructed to stand aside and open my bag.  To me it seems like a normal enough thing to be carrying, but the typewriter’s declining popularity arouses suspicion and I wind up eliciting the sort of reaction one might expect when traveling with a cannon.

“It’s a typewriter,” I say. “You use it to write angry letters to airport authorities.”

The keys are then slapped and pounded, and I’m forced to explain that if you want the words to appear, you first have to plug it in and insert a sheet of paper.

The goons shake their heads and tell me I really should be using a computer.  That’s their job, to stand around in an ill-fitting uniform and tell you how you should lead your life.  I’m told the exact same thing later in the evening when the bellhop knocks on my hotel door.  The people whose televisions I can hear have complained about my typing, and he has come to make me stop.  To hear him talk, you’d think I’d been playing the kettledrum.  In the great scheme of things, the typewriter is not nearly as loud as he makes it out to be, but there’s no use arguing with him. 

“You know,” he says, “you really should be using a computer.”

Phil Forrest

I spent over 12 years collecting not only German Lugers but Swiss-made Lugers as well.  And matched them up, where I could, with a period-correct holster.

I sold off my collection when we retired and moved.  It helped us be able to pay cash for our retirement home.

I love how affordable collecting typewriters can be.

In Luger pistols, you can routinely spend $ 2,000 to over $ 8,000 on just a single, nice & rare pistol.

Phil_F_NM wrote:

How my recent post turned into an icky block of text is disappointing. 
I should have put it on a typewriter...

Phil Forrest

Use the Preview function to help you tweak it before Submitting.

Thanks Uwe! I'll use preview from now on to make sure the extra HTML bits don't interfere with the actual text.

As for the firearms comparisons, I've noticed that folks who collect and use (or simply collect) firearms are often those who also enjoy collecting and using mechanical cameras, fountain pens, old bicycles (usually made of steel), and automobiles with carburetors. ...and of course, typewriters.

Phil Forrest