I'm flashing back to that Simpsons episode ("Girly Edition") in which Lisa anchors a kids' news television show, competing with her brother to produce sappy human interest stories. In one scene, she stands next to a forlorn-looking train track and intones wistfully, "The old Union Pacific doesn't come by here much anymore." Just then, a thoroughly modern Union Pacific train barrels by - proof that nostalgia may be popular, but it's not always accurate.
So I will offer no tearful tributes today to the passing of another icon of the past; I merely note that the last company in the world to make typewriters - Godrej and Boyce - sold its final batch this week, and they're not making any more. Think of it. No more typewriters. Me, I don't miss them - except on those occasions when I'm required to fill out an important form that doesn't have an electronic version. When I first arrived in my academic department, we had one just for that purpose. Then one day it was gone.
Oh well. At least my office still has that old-school metal pencil sharpener bolted near the door in my office.
Learn more: Last Typewriter Factory in the World Shuts Its Doors
1 comment:
I'd like to find an old school typewriter someday, just for fun. That is, I want to buy one. Perhaps an Underwood, or Corona. The really old ones are so darn cool. Also, really hard to use, compared to the modern keyboards we're used to on our computers! I feel for the poor novelists who used those old typewriters. Maybe journalists had it even worse, though.
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