MAY I begin the thread for this monnth?

[Little Jack Horner]

I have nothing original to say so perhaps I may raise the question I have asked before concerning the assertion sometimes made on this forum that the “rule” about avoiding split infinitives derives from Latin grammar. I have still not seen any definitive evidence for this assertion. I like to think, also without evidence, that the “rule” was a simple codification of long established English good practice which just happened to be similar to Latin usage.

Whatever the answer, split infinitives are ugly and I will continue to eschew them.

[Verbivore]

Indeed, LJH, you may.

FWIW:

To boldly go for it: why the split infinitive is no longer a mistake

I don’t have an issue with split infinitives, provided their use is moderate and effective, effective being the key term.

At the article’s end is a reference to the misuse of disinterested for uninterested. This is an issue I find increasingly frequently, along with the re-/misappropriation of epicentre to mean “very centre”.

[Verbivore]

A YouTube poster’s response to a video about schools included: “… stop dumming down the curriculum so that more pass and fail the ones that can't hack simple math and science. Can't read? No high school diploma.”

To which I felt obliged to reply: “Is ‘dumming down the curriculum’ what happened to your schooling? Dumb indeed!” Perhaps the fellow is a dummy?

[Little Jack Horner]

There is, of course, the series of books “For Dummies” published by John Wiley and Sons. Wikipedia says it is “an extensive series of instructional/reference books which are intended to present non-intimidating guides for readers new to the various topics covered. The series has been a worldwide success with editions in numerous languages”. Apparently over fifteen million copies of Windows for Dummies have been sold. 

So perhaps dumming down is now acceptable in the context? My spell checker doesn’t like dumming but only offers dumping, drumming and summing as possible corrections.

[Verbivore]

Perhaps of interest only to type fans – 1891 Williams 1 Typewriter 

Of particular interest to me was to see keys for æ (ash) and œ (ethel)! @ 0:50 (though I wondered how to invoke the uppercase versions of those – Æ and Œ – as the lowercase were already on 3-layer keys).

Never had I previously seen those glyphs on a typewriter, not even my golfball Selectrics or daisy-wheels.

[Dave Miller]

Uh-oh. That’s a whole new series of Youtube videos I now need to follow.

I too have never seen a typewriter that attempts æ or œ, but I’d love to find one! As I now have 13 typewriters, I’d promised myself that I’m allowed to buy another only if it has a cursive or modernist typeface … but I reckon an æ or œ would justify another purchase.

[Verbivore]

Dave: I had no idea you were that type! That makes me glad to have posted the link.

Q: Do you have a Mercedes typewriter (manufactured by Mercedes Büro-Maschinen Werke AG, not the car company)?

[Dave Miller]

May 4, 2021 20:31:47 GMT Verbivore said:

Dave: I had no idea you were that type! That makes me glad to have posted the link.

Q: Do you have a Mercedes typewriter (manufactured by Mercedes Büro-Maschinen Werke AG, not the car company)?

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No, sadly not.
It’s been a “lockdown” thing. For some reason, I suddenly remembered having an (Adler) electric typewriter back in the late 70s, on which I used to do my case paperwork (rather than use the provided thunky thing) and fancied one again. EBay produced a “spares or repair” electric Silver Reed locally for £8, and another for £8.50. I repaired both, but didn’t like the cheap-and-nasty feel, so sold both and moved to manual machines, getting my first Olympia. I now have eight of those (from 1951 to 1970s), and I love the utter solidity of the 50s and 60s models, but mainly the styling of the 50s. Plus two “Empire” ultra portables (Hermes Babys, but assembled in Britain) and then a Hermes 2000 in a VERY clean state, but advertised as faulty, because “the carriage stops when it gets to a certain point”. I got it for about a quarter of its normal price and when it arrived … I reset the right-hand margin. Works nicely! Then, an East German Erika.

In the just over one year since I started, prices have tripled. It must not be just me who has caught the bug. The most I’ve had to pay has been for a Hermes 3000, and for that I blame Tom Hanks. (When he was on Desert Island Discs, he was, as usual, asked what luxury he would wish to have on his island. His answer: my Hermes 3000.)

Bringing us back more directly to language, I have been fascinated by how some sellers, obviously too young to have used a typewriter and now selling off one from grandad’s estate, try to describe them:

I think it needs a new tape.
Doesn’t seem to have a return key.
It’s like a sort of instant printer.
There’s a key to go back one character, but it doesn’t delete.

[Verbivore]

May 4, 2021 21:19:34 GMT Dave Miller said:

May 4, 2021 20:31:47 GMT Verbivore said:

Dave: I had no idea you were that type! That makes me glad to have posted the link.

Q: Do you have a Mercedes typewriter (manufactured by Mercedes Büro-Maschinen Werke AG, not the car company)?

View Attachment

[…] I have been fascinated by how some sellers, obviously too young to have used a typewriter and now selling off one from grandad’s estate, try to describe them:

I think it needs a new tape.
Doesn’t seem to have a return key.
It’s like a sort of instant printer.
There’s a key to go back one character, but it doesn’t delete.

That's a laugh!

My first – bought used when I was 15 – was a Remington portable. Next was a Facit portable. Following those were an IBM Selectric II ("golfball"), an IBM golfball Selectric Composer, an Adler daisywheel, and a Brother daisywheel. After that I started typing on computers and gave up on typewriters.

[Little Jack Horner]

A couple of years ago, I saw a “vintage” LUX typewriter in a shop in Rethymnon in Crete that looked much like the ones we had in the office when I was a lad except that it had Russian characters including some that were eliminated in the orthographic reforms of 1917/18. Not sure why I am posting this because I didn’t buy it but the name LUX on the machine was in Latin script. I never discovered anything about the manufacturer.

[Little Jack Horner]

Today is the bicentenary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte. The occasion brings to mind the current attitudinal conflict between recognising from a 21st century viewpoint the positive and negative activities of historical personages.

I think, for most Britains, Napoleon is only remembered for the Napoleonic wars that created such havoc in early 19th century Europe.

But, in Napoleon: A Life, quoted in Wikipedia, Andrew Roberts says, "The ideas that underpin our modern world—meritocracy, equality before the law, property rights, religious toleration, modern secular education, sound finances, and so on—were championed, consolidated, codified and geographically extended by Napoleon. To them he added a rational and efficient local administration, an end to rural banditry, the encouragement of science and the arts, the abolition of feudalism and the greatest codification of laws since the fall of the Roman Empire.”

So was he a megalomanic warmonger or a major benefactor of modern civilisation?

[Verbivore]

May 5, 2021 8:53:23 GMT Little Jack Horner said:

Today is the bicentenary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte. […] So was he a megalomanic warmonger or a major benefactor of modern civilisation?

Why not both, LJH? It seems not uncommon in histories that such people have operated as "split personalities", achieving much that could be seen as beneficial in parallel with the most evil horrors.

In my observations (some from far too close-up!) a certain narcissistic sociopathy appears necessary to long-term political ambition/survival.

1. An erstwhile longtime acquaintance and former colleague did much to drag his part of AU into the 20th century. He was instrumental in so many social and humanitarian advances that the town moved forward 40 years in ten. He received numerous local, state, and national awards for his part.

He also held elected places in local government.

What we later learned (though had often suspected) was that he was an absolute control-freak nutter, a bully who psychologically, sexually, or politically abused people behind closed doors, even driving at least one to "successful" suicide. He received a sentence of "cancellation" once his duplicity was revealed.

Were his social advances worth the abuses?

2. Is the church (particularly the Roman) doing the rest of the world a favour by preserving/hoarding great treasures? Has it been the source or inspiration for the (Western) world's greatest art, architecture, and music?

Perhaps.

But how do all those benefits (?) weigh against the centuries of horrendous tortures and abuses?

3. Rolf Harris, with his numerous talents, provided much pleasure and amusement for many, thereby enriching society (consumer tastes considered).

Then when Mr Wobbleboard's reputation fell down the hole, people started calling for the destruction of Harris's unrelated creations. Apart from showing disapproval of Rolf's behaviour what does such destruction or denialism achieve, I wonder.

Unavoidably, everything comes at a cost (that doesn't automatically justify it, though). Perhaps that's all it is, LJH: the cost of things. I'm prepared to give Monsieur Bonaparte his due for both the good and bad he led.

[Verbivore]

This YouTube channel features some odd typewriters.

[Verbivore]

More weird, wonderful, wacky writers – the pre-internet WWW(W)

1912 Blickensderfer #6


1913 Hammond Multiplex


1895 Williams 1 (This shows someone using the machine – it’s not quite the artistic son et lumière paean of the previous video.)


1915 French Typo (also a working demo)

My fascination with type began when I was around nine years old and was treated to a tour of the local newspaper press. As part of that adventure I cast my name in hot metal (and carried that slug with me for years). I have been intimately involved with text/type/-ography ever since. Going with the flow, I moved on to computer-generated page layout (desktop publishing as it was then) in the late '80s.

[Verbivore]

While typewriters are being aired, here’s a serious typewriter geek who has “about 250” of the things and wants more. Some of his machines are truly beautiful pieces in which art and engineering meet.