Reappearing Ink

I was changing Remington's ribbon this morning and was getting really up & personal with his paten. That's when I noticed this:

The next line is less legible, but says "AND THIS TOO". 


                   Who is Joe, 
   
                         and what was he writing‽

Geographic Crossword

6th grade geography in the crossword grid. The difference between a plateau and a mesa? 5:2.

Cover me, I'm Goin' In

Songs I found on YouTube last week:

This Must Be the Place (Cover) - Miles Fisher
Party & Bullshit in the USA - Notorious B.I.G. & Miley Cyrus


I don't know why it's taken me so long to find them but I've been working on making up for it.

The Mark

'Writer Party

[Ezra W. L. Pound, Remington Steele, Guy Vandertype, Paige]

Last Thursday weather.gov was predicting thunderstorms in Madison over the weekend. It also claimed saturday's high was going to be 30°F. I've never been in an ice thunderstorm, but it seems like just the right precipitation for staying up all night typing our murder mystery novels by candlelight. 

The government was wrong—it was 35 with light flurries. So we went to Shutter Island instead. I hated it by minute 35. If I had had a pen with me I would have stabbed myself in the jugular sometime around minute 75. When it was finally over at minute 138 I had started to give myself a frontal lobotomy. I'd rather live life never knowing what Ben Kingsley was up to than ever relive those 2 hours again. Zero Ws out of 10.

Blogging Regularity

Are you getting a load of that yearly consistency‽

Naming Your Conventions

I saw this reference to an old This American Life episode today. I'll forget most of the actual episode by tomorrow, but Evan Harris and her messianic take on the powers of The Quit will still be there, showing off with her boy-turn-girl's name, proving once again that my parents gave all 3 of their sons girl's names of the future. It might have been impressive if they were foreseeing the current onomastic sortie into appropriating male names, but they continue to maintain that they were looking to choose securely masculine names for each of us. I'm still not sure how to take that given the resulting Taylor, Evan, & Whitney. 

It's a classic lose-lose-lose situation too; for every 3 names the girls get, we get zero back in return. G1 crossovers like Ashley, Leslie, Hillary, & Whitney are already gone. G2s like Blake, Jordan, Kelly, & Taylor aren't coming back. And G3s like Alex, Jack, Drew, Kennedy, Elliot, Cory, & every other boys name ever are on their way. It's a oneway boulevard of taken names. 

I learned to stop worrying and love my name a long time ago, but that doesn't mean I've forgiven Cissy Houston. I'd like to think that we could have an interesting conversation about her impressive musical career when we meet, but we'd have to avoid how she single-handedly turned my uncommon male name into a run-of-the-mill girl's name. 

Topics we could discuss: her time spent performing under her maiden name Drinkard, the ups & downs of Newark, who she likes more—Whitney or Dionne, Bobby.

One For Each Hand

Let's start by acknowledging what I did not buy: The Olivetti Valentine. If you follow me on Google Reader you already know about how that typewriter has been haunting my online dreams. And if you don't, it's time you got aboard the Reader wagon. Time and technology wait for no man. Neither does the internet/Google. [Evan, if you're reading this, I don't mean you. I'm cutting you out of my digital lifestyle.]

That being said, I am in ownership of a second 'writer. Guy Vandertype will always hold a special place in my heart, but my new Remington Rand has a TAB key! And his action really feels right. Not to mention his Ws —classy even in lowercase. Some notable typeface distinctions:

And a (Japanese) Poem:

Voice Memos

They're all the rage right now.

Step 1...
If You Want To View Paradise

Both are disturbing in their own special way.

Reaching the Masses

Despite our pretty awesome internet connection, we only have the very basic-est of cable right now. This prioritization shouldn't surprise anybody. I watch most of my TV on the Command Center anyway, so it doesn't have much of an effect on the actual volume of programming that I consume. It does affect my exposure to knife and knife collections though through the third of our 3 shopping networks: The Cutlery Corner Network. Justen claims he once saw an offer for a 300 piece knife set, all for the low low price of  $100 (+ S&H) and I pretty sure he almost called in. Usually it's not nearly as exciting, just an assortment of pocket knives and switch blades with weird stone handles and/or engravings sitting there in between ABC and NBC. All day long. Selling knives. And sometimes swords. And staying in business. 

Let's get a cable access show.

Room For One More...

Our newest gang's membership roster is almost complete. It had to be manually mailed out to Eastern Iowa so that its final lines could be struck by Joanna's Paige. She's French, so I'm expecting some stylish typeface out of her. I bet she's got some great acutes on her. And really, you can't have too many hats, even letterhats. 2013 will be here before you know it.  

TypeTUB's Highlights:

Katie's 'J'

Jeremy's numerals

Whitney's 'Q'

For Your Next Tour of The Capitols:

In case you're planning to see them via air, a quick reference map of state capital airport codes. The South Central has a couple of gems with JEF, LIT, and MGM; what I'm more surprised by is Bradley Internationale's lone status in the Nutmeg State as the one capital airport with non-city based call letters.

Except for Topeka [FOE], which doesn't exist on my map.

A Play, In 1 Act

Dramatis Personæ: Anna, Justin

There was a time when I thought I was open-minded.

Last week I finally gave in to Facebook's continuing pressure to accepted a friendrequest from some guy I went to college with. Zuckerberg's unabating onslaught of people we both know finally got the better of me and I clicked ok. I should have known better because I already knew he was a vocal Libertarian, and those are people I don't think like. I've de-friended for a lot less than the steady stream of Tea Party and Pro-Bachmann updates my feed has been full of ever since, so tonight I'm finally hitting that big blue button. And it feels so good.

Mustache On My Shoulder (Makes Me Happy)

I made a life-sized paper mâché mustache for my birthday party last year. Then Leslie sat on it. I spent the next several months completing crosswords, making a pile of completed crosswords, and mâché-ing crosswords. It's been a linguistic journey, but the crosstache is finally ready to be wrapped in twine and hung from our ceiling.

Hey, Ladies...