Musings of a Modern Day Cyberneticist
Dr. Michael Miller, a retired researcher at RAND, has been teaching upper level undergraduate/graduate level math courses for fun at UCLA Extension for over 50 years. This fall he ll be introducing the areas of groups, fields, and Galois theory from abstract algebra to those interested in abstract math: Groups, Fields, and Galois: Part 1. His Continue reading Groups, Fields, and Galois: Part 1…
Found at The Predecessors while typewriter hunting in Anacortes, WA. It was paired with another similar green Olympia SM3, but I immediately picked this one up because of its beautiful and uncommon typeface. It ll need several new parts including rubber, but this portends to be a fantastic typewriter.
Papa s got a brand new in-box. Picked up at thrift for $3.30.
You just picked up a dusty, but somewhat functional Olympia SM3 and you know that you need to replace the rubber body bushings to prevent your carriage from hitting the body panels and scratching the paint job. The problem is that you ve got a lovely new-to-you typewriter in front of you, and you don t have Continue reading A Stopgap Repair Solution for Impatient New Olympia SM3 Typewriter Owners
I picked up this vintage card index meant for filing business cards on July 20th for a fantastic $1.50. I hadn t seen a card index this small before and suspected that it was designed as a sort of Rolodex for storing 2 x 3.5 standard business cards. It makes an excellent storage for those as Continue reading
I saw these while browsing through a thrift store and correctly clocked them as thick tabbed dividers though the person who rang them up for $1.50 thought they were folders because of their heft. I ve been wanting some for use with 8.5 x 11 index cards, but thought that most major stationers had quit manufacturing Continue reading
I ve been thinking about typewriter stationery and carbon copies lately, as has our friend Joe Van Cleave. Has anyone used or had NCR paper stationery made for themselves? I tried some half-sheet stationery at the International Printing Museum not long ago and that seemed like a lovely way to write and keep copies of typewritten Continue reading
How could I not pick up his avocado beauty at Acts Thrift for $17.36?! A day s worth of cleaning ought to bring this bad boy up to snuff. I m most shocked at the fantastic design of its case. This is a re-branded Messa typewriter manufactured in Portugal with other known re-badgings as the ABC 3001 Continue reading
I really ought to get back to bookmarking things on my own site again
Yesterday at the QWERTY Typewriter Festival in Carson, CA, Bryan Mahoney of The Typin Pint released Issue 01 of his new zine Clack! I ve just finished reading it this morning (from cover to cover, though I admit I haven t finished the crossword yet) and it is truly fantastic! There s so much to love inside its Continue reading Clack! Analog Attitude for the Digital Age Vol. 1 Summer 2026
The Spring issue of Etcetera: Journal of the Typewriter Collectors Association arrived in the mail today! Just in time to celebrate National Typewriter Day tomorrow on June 23, 2026.
I acquired this Woodstock Typewriter crate earlier this month to pair with my 1938 Woodstock No. 5 standard typewriter. Usually it s only portable typewriters that come with cases. But often unseen and unsaved are the cases that came with the larger standard typewriters. These are usually unseen because they were heavy wooden crates that standard Continue reading
Tonight, I noticed you can t spell typewriter in German without IBM: SchreIBMaschinen. Surely that ran across someone s mind before in an advertising campaign, right?
Shohei Ohtani, a designated hitter and pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, is one of the biggest superstars in baseball right now. If you re Jose Siri on the Los Angeles Angels, you know that to get Ohtani out, you re going to need some serious notes on an index card to score the out. The problem Continue reading Jose Siri gets Shohei Ohtani out while using an Index Card in an MLB Baseball Game
Last year s event was fantastic, so I m looking forward to all the things on tap, tap, tap for this year. Come and celebrate National Typewriter Day in Southern California.
In a pre-web analog world, this is what a CMS really was. (Hint: there s actually two in this photo.)
The Stanley Kramer comedy classic film It s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (United Artists, 1963) has a handful of Royal KMG typewriters featured in the office settings at police stations throughout the film. The KMG was Royal s top-of-the-line office standard machine and was manufactured from 1949 to 1952 before being replaced by the Royal Continue reading The Royal KMG Standard Typewriters of It s a…
Along with Ron Rosenbaum, Steven Levy, Patricia Highsmith, and the fictional Frank Navasky of You ve Got Mail fame, I have joined the Quiet Cult of the Olympia Report de Luxe Electric Typewriter. I acquired this at thrift for $21.95 on 2026-05-10 for Mother s Day in immaculate condition! It s as if someone used it to type Continue reading
My first ever Woodstock. Acquired via thrift for $50 on 2026-05-08. Possibly a bit more expensive than it might have otherwise been, but the key rings are in stunning shape, and the work to polish them is easily worth several hundred in labor! The decals are also in exceptional condition. Aside from some cosmetic damage Continue reading
The question How do you use your typewriter(s)? pops up for me fairly frequently. Often it s collectors who love the machines and only think of using them for writing the Great American Novel . However there are a variety of tasks one could use them for besides conversation pieces or functional art in the home. Below Continue reading FAQ: How do you use your typewriters?
Acquired at Goodwill Southern California for $20.28 including tax on 2026-05-06. Needs a full clean, oil, and adjust, but not in generally bad shape. Two or three mechanical issues to sort out, but it s got some new ink and a quick wipe down/dusting has helped immensely. I m in love with the Art Deco chrome styling. Continue reading
Had some Cuzcatlan brand Cola Champagne (aka kola shanpan) at a Salvadoran restaurant the other day. Is it me, or is this the same formulation as Scottish Irn-Bru?
Picked up at thrift for $2.39. What can I say? I m a sucker for card index boxes I can t make out the smudged black-stamped bottom of the box to determine the manufacturer who used a sphere and a triangle in their logo.
Acquired via thrift on April 10, 2026. It finally fills my itch to have an italic typeface for use in personal correspondence. It s in spectacular starting condition though a bit gamey, but this should clean up nicely. It immediately needed a bit of forming on the carriage lock and a new ribbon, but it s generally Continue reading
I watched the fascinating documentary Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal (Magnolia Pictures, 2015) last night. An hour and thirteen into the picture, William F. Buckley Jr., who is known to have used a Royal HH and an Olivetti Lettera 32, can be seen abusing what appears to be a Hermes 3000 portable typewriter.
I ve expanded my index card database storage by 30 new drawers of 13 3/4 of space each. This model appears to be a Gaylord Bros. card index, but is missing explicit badging. It has the appropriate size for the modular Gaylord system and seems to be missing a few pieces including some of the dovetail Continue reading
I ve slowed way down on acquisitions in my typewriter collection, but when I saw this magnificent exemplar with Art Nouveau decoration pop up at thrift, I could not resist. For a near complete exemplar, it seemed to be better priced than most of the market that I looked at before purchasing. I suppose that perhaps Continue reading
#TIL Smith-Corona Marchant (aka SCM) not only made typewriters, but they also manufactured index cards! They apparently had an office supplies group in Marion, Indiana. I can t wait to take some of these for a spin in my Sears Cutlass.
In reflecting on my own typewriter collection, I thought I d look through it to see how some of the models I gravitate toward compare to those others are collecting. As a potential proxy for this, I took a look at the most popularly collected typewriter models according to the Typewriter Database and compiled a list Continue reading Most Collected Typewriters on the Typewriter Database
From 1957, the year the Dodgers announced their move to Los Angeles, I ve got my Dodger Blue Royal FPP typewriter ready to go to score the home opener! Blue ink at the ready, I can already hear a military bomber circling my neighborhood on the way to a flyover of the stadium. ⚾🏟️