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L.T. Hanlon

Day: May 20, 2019

Analog breadfruit comin’ at ya!

May 20, 2019May 20, 2019 L.T. Hanlon1 Comment

Frank Zappa pedals his talent to Steve Allen.

This is a photo of a typewritten page that contains the following text. Monday, May 20, 2019. Chicago, USA. Hermes 3000 (1968). Like breadfruit off the HMS Bounty. The much-overrated but nonetheless witty Frank Zappa said that it isn' t necessary for the world to end in fire or ice — it could just as easily be done in by paperwork or nostalgia. I’m convinced that nostalgia is what fuels most eBay transactions. We finally acquire what we coveted in our youth.	In my case, that's mostly been film cameras and lenses whose prices were hopelessly stratospheric in my teens and 20s. And now that I own a Widelux, an f/ 2.8 Stereo Realist or a near—complete set of Super Takumar lenses with their gloriously yellow radioactive thorium tint, I t m left trying to decide what to do with it all. I've just stumbled into semiretirement and the sad reality has dawned on me that photo equipment is of no use unless you use it. And I 'm not just talking about taking random shots of streets, buildings, power lines, trees, and fields, I 'm talking about people. Unless you' re photographing people, cameras are worthless. I’m by no means a hermit, but these days I’m seldom in situations where people need or want to be photographed. So I 'm going to unload just about all of my analog equipment.	Nostalgia has a way of taking up space, both in closets and in your brain. Note: Unedited. Typos are Easter eggs.

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How valuable is this typewriter?

May 20, 2019 L.T. Hanlon3 Comments
Screenshot of the results of a search for typewriters in Facebook Marketplace show two typewriters and one opened waffle iron. The waffle iron looks sort of like a typewriter.
Facebook Marketplace finds a rare typewriter for me.

The following text appears in a photo of a typewritten page. Sunday, May 19, 2019. Chicago, USA. Canon Typestar 5. One of these things is not like the other. Foreword — I had planned on writing this earlier today but got distracted. So now, at around 11:15 p.m. I can't haul out a mechanical typewriter and pound away. Well, I could ... but that  wouldn't make me a very considerate neighbor. So ... Canon Typestar 5 to the rescue! The quiet, electronic Typestar uses a thermal element to transfer type to paper. When these portable wonders were in production, Canon sold ink-ribbon cartridges about the size of a mini DV cartridge. Those ink cartridges haven't been manufactured for many years. I have a few NOS  ribbons I bought off eBay but I use them sparingly when I need to type on traditional paper. The rest of time, I remove the ribbon cart and load the Typestar with thermal fax paper. That l s what I'm using for this typecast. You’re probably familiar with thermal paper already; it's that lightweight  paper used for store receipts. The main part This is going to be much shorter  than the foreword. It's just a funny little incident from earlier today. While wasting time on Facebook, I searched for typewriters in Facebook Marketplace and among the illustrated results was a WAFFLE IRON. I guess it wound up in the results because to an Al program it looks like of like a typewriter; sort of how the openings in automobile wheel covers look enough like faces to Google Street View's  algorithms that they're always blurred. Well, that's it. Note: Unedited. Typos are Easter eggs!

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