Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/03/01/tom-hanks-changes-the-ribbon-o.html
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This is one of the tests to reach the status of a 33rd degree Mason.
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How does he do it? I axe you…
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I was helping my teen daughter with a school project last night (which coincidentally, included her choice of the typewriter as a significant invention of the late Industrial Revolution). I was doing the typing (not because my daughter can’t type, but rather because I can’t stand being the observer in such situations). Just before we finished, I remembered to check between sentences for two leading spaces. Those old enough to remember typing class will understand why … 
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I love watching the horror on the faces of young people as I regale them with stories of producing a term paper on a typewriter.
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One key feature of the typewriter, productivity-wise, is that it is not hooked up to a worldwide web of interesting things to read and see…
But his comment about the sound of the typewriter makes me wonder again how different the “input” activities of handwriting, calligraphy, typewriting, and typing on a laptop are in terms of individual brains’ functioning: With handwriting, the speed of getting the words on the page is like a weird off-speed thing where you alternately catch up and speed ahead; calligraphy must have some graphic/artistic thing going on as you also write? no idea; typewriting seems almost like a faster, frustrating form of handwriting (you can’t just go back immediately and slash stuff out right then and there); and laptop typing I can see being another kind of thing where you can go back and revise as you type forward, so removing that sometimes helpfully offspeed thing about handwriting?
But of course it’s individuals being used to a certain way of doing things, really.
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Imagine their confusion when they had to type a “1”.
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Anyone notice he replaced a red/black ribbon with a plain black? I would have flipped the ribbon over and typed my damn paper in red (because it is 11:35 at night and I need to make these pencil scribblings into actual sentences stat so I can get SOME sleep tonight). Who has the foresight to have a spare ribbon on hand? T.Hanks
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That’s nothing. I know how to drive a manual transmission automobile!
AND use a rotary dial telephone.
(looks out window, starts yelling) YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!!!
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Cute video, but it appears to have been edited by a coked out music video producer. You don’t have to put a cut on every third word Vanity.
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I’ve got a couple of old beasts I haven’t used in a long while - but I still type on my laptop like it was the Remington so a few of the keys are cracked. I shouldn’t type angry. I also got myself one of those kits where you can turn a classic typewriter into a USB keyboard and mount your iPad on the carriage - but haven’t gotten around to putting it together yet.
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Do devices really become obsolete? I recently needed to remove a lot of very jammed screws from a wall, and the power drill was unable to deliver the delicate combination of torque and pressure to remove them without stripping the heads. Luckily, the old guy at the house had a bunch of old tools, and also luckily, I knew how to use a brace and bit. Worked like a charm.
It’s an editing style that has been around for a while now (too long IMHO), and – from so much repetition – has now become almost a parody.
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It seemed especially jarring on a bit about Tom Hanks talking about an old typewriter. If there was ever content that called for a slower and quieter pacing this was it.
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Am I seriously the only person to notice the “Look Around You” reference?
For shame, boingers. For shame…
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I never get looks like that when I talk about plays, short stories, and papers produced. Just looks of boredom.
Maybe I’m not telling it correctly.
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The reference—if it is one—eludes me.
Yes, I did notice. And I wondered if installing an all black ribbon was easier. Maybe, maybe not, I don’t know. But I don’t recall ever having a two-tone ribbon in my dad’s old black manual typewriter (probably vintage 1940s). He wouldn’t have wanted to shell out the bucks for such luxury. Hmm, I’ll have to pull that thing out sometime just to scare my kids.
