Hey gopherites!

Macro news:

There were a couple of rain showers 
today. The air has cleared up from 
"smoking a whole pack of Export A 
cigarettes at once" to "1980s LA 
smog."

Down in the Kelowna area, it sounds 
like just under 100 houses burned. 
They haven't announced how many burned 
in the North Shuswap. Needless to say, 
more rain would be great.

Micro news:

I bought a manual typewriter on eBay. 
It's a Brother. They're very common 
(over 10 million made between 1961 and 
1980), boring, cheap, and apparently 
really nice to type on. I read a 
number of forum posts and blogs and 
many of the self-annointed experts 
express surprise at Brother's quality.

Growing up, we had a couple of 
Smith-Coronas. I think one was a 
Silent-Sterling and the other was a 
Corsair. Later, when I was in 
university I had a couple of the 
Smith-Corona PWP word processors. The 
first had a six-line LCD display. The 
second was an upgrade with a full 
amber monochrome monitor. Back then, I 
used to compose and edit papers by 
hand and then type up the finished 
product. That seems like a million 
years ago.

The last typewriter I owned was in the 
late 1990s. It was a beautiful green 
Olympia SM4, purchased in the era when 
there was nothing as despised and 
useless as a typewriter. It cost $20 
and would surely fetch about $800 on 
Etsy now. It was really nice to type 
on -- as long as you didn't need to use 
the shift key. Lifting the carriage 
involved putting about 800 pounds of 
pressure on your pinky finger.

In any case, I'm looking forward to 
the new typewriter. There will soon be 
'no computer Fridays' at the office. I 
think I'll bring my transistor radio.

- V.