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Chris Aldrich

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Musings of a Modern Day Cyberneticist

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Great! Another evacuation warning. This time instead of for catastrophic fire, it’s for rain and potential mudslides from the burn scar. Fortunately (?) I’m still evacuated from January 7th about 6 miles south.

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Table level view of the front of a 1929 Corona 4 Portable Typewriter
Received on Saturday 03-08, but didn’t open it up until this morning. The case is fairly worn and has the fabric peeled off in several spots, but the leather handle is in tact and in reasonably good shape. The machine has seen better days certainly and needs a thorough cleaning. The paint has some significant … Continue reading

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1920 Corona 3 folding typewriter viewed from table level
Received on Saturday 03-10 and unpacked this morning. This is now the oldest machine in my collection and the first true antique as it’s now 105 years old. The first thing I’m struck by is the tiny size and scant weight of the entire machine and the case. I’m curious to compare the weight to … Continue reading

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Typed white index card sticking out of the carriage of a typewriter with the quote: "Gladys also tell you I drink my lunch? She forgets I eat the olives. That's where the nourishment is. Gladys talks too much. I ought to get rid of her, but she has it on me ever since I got juiced up at that Christmas party and made a couple passes at her IBM machine." --Henry Rufus portrayed by Henry Jones in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (20th Century Fox, 1957)

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A pearl gray 1957 Royal FP standard typewriter stands atop an oak library card catalog
Received in generally workable shape, though without ribbon; definitely dirty; internal foam disintegrating; brights are going to need a load of polish; temporary photos to provide some idea of condition until I get the chance to clean it up. My wide carriage 1958 FPE was so nice I thought I’d try out the larger face … Continue reading

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I’ve finally broken a small barrier and am now ranked as typewriter hunter #115 on the Typewriter Database. I have a few machines that should arrive soon which in combination with doing some repairs and uploading some data should help me finally break into the top 100.

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Frontal view of a 1964 Olympia SM9 typewriter sitting on an oak library card catalog.
In what I may call the Academy 97 typewriter because I received it on the day of the 97th Annual Academy Awards on March 2nd, I’ve acquired my first SM9. It’s a solid looking machine aside from some small damage to the rivets at the back of the case, some paint wear on the hood … Continue reading

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For those interested in writing methods, Peter Elbow’s work can be seen as an interesting shift in pedagogy from the 1970s. Interestingly it relies on pieces of practices pre-dating him which inform commonplace book and related zettelkasten methods.  For my own files, from the obituary, it looks like he was using an IBM Selectric I … Continue reading

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Hero image of a 1945 black Remington 17 Standard typewriter on a wooden dining room table
When I was interested in getting my first standard typewriter last year, Ruben Flores immediately recommended I get a Remington 17. While I’ve picked up a handful of other standards in the meanwhile, I’ve kept my eyes peeled. I just couldn’t let this $21 beauty slip by. If my 1956 Remington Standard is any indication, … Continue reading

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Typewriter Market: It may be better if you didn’t get an Olympia SM3 typewriter today

I’m not out to shame people for their purchases, just to caution uninitiated typewriter purchasers and budding collectors who aren’t carefully watching the market. Olympia SM3s are well-touted and excellent typewriters. They’ve recently been selling on ShopGoodwill in unknown condition for $120-150 based only on photos. Earlier today, an Olympia SM3 sold for $334! So … Continue reading Typewriter Market: It may be better if you didn’t get an Olympia SM3 typewriter today

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A bottle of Four Roses Select bourbon next to a 1958 Royal FP typewriter in pearl gray.
My partner got me some roses for Valentines Day. 😍

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A standard-sized Royal FP typewriter in light pearl/gray paint with a red Royal badge on the front. The platen is a honking 16 inches wide. The machine sits on a wooden dining room table almost as if is ready to taxi the runway and fly off.
I’ve been wanting to score an FP for a long time. Well shipped and in generally functional shape. My first typewriter of 2025 and the first since the Eaton Fire.   

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Entrance sign at Eaton Canyon. Behind it is a partially burned tree next to a fence with a variety of red signs indicating the area is closed.
I’m not sure if it was a general sale or a geofenced one, but I was able to replace many of my Darn Tough socks today. I should have my warm, winter hiking socks well before Eaton Canyon reopens. #AltadenaTough

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Map of the burn area of the Eaton Fire in Altadena, CA in January 2025
As a 50 year old with a 13 year old daughter living in Octavia Butler’s neighborhood of Altadena, CA, it was eerie when I re-read The Parable of the Sower last summer. Today following the devastating Eaton Fire, the opening of chapter four just doubles down on the dystopia in which we’re living.

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Tonight, for the first time since January 7th, I made the depressing choice to drive from a friend’s on Lincoln across town on Altadena Drive. The utter devastation of the Eaton Fire is truly ghastly. So much of my town just doesn’t exist anymore. As I got to Altadena Drive and Washington, it began to … Continue reading

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A positively dry and brittle Christmas Tree in late January deddfiad by simple lights.
This is officially the latest I’ve ever taken down a Christmas tree in my life.

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When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king; the palace becomes a circus. —Turkish proverb    

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Typed index card that reads: 2025-01-07 Crazy winds kicked up this morning around 5:30AM and woke up both Sonia and I early. I went out briefly around 6:00 A to batten down the hatches and move the car out from under the tree. Evie was already up and working on her math homework. I'm really proud of her for this as well as going to bed at a reasonable time last night. The trip to school wasn't too bad this morning, though I did have to navigate around a Christmas thee that had blown into the middle of the street. Winds are supposed to be bad all day long. I'm sort of worried about going to class tonight at UCLA, but I suspect that winds there probably aren't as bad based on what Sonia has said about her drive into the office earlier
We were allowed back into our neighborhood over the weekend and were excited to find our poor wind battered and smoke damaged house still standing. Naturally I brought back a daily typewriter, but it was eerie to see what I’d last typed on it two weeks ago just before we had to evacuate.

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A small ranch home on the waning light of the day.
Against all odds the house is still standing!!!

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Crystal glass with bourbon on the rocks in front of a bowl full of oranges on a dining room table.
Circumstances have totally dictated that I chose the wrong year to try “Dry January.” In fact, it was the dry Southern California January that got us into this mess…

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I often find things inside typewriters… LEGO (multiple), a chicken leg from a Calico Critters playset, a tiny 70s photo of a child, the stub of a pencil, glitter, a pocket knife, a mini clothespin… And naturally lots and lots of eraser bits, loose screws, loose springs, dust rhinoceroses, dried white out, dirt, cobwebs, even … Continue reading

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1954 Smith-Corona Silent typewriter in brown with green keys and a gray spacebar sitting on a wooden table next to a green coffee mug and a small winter skating scene built of LEGO.
Fifteen minutes of tinkering and this machine is imminently usable. It’ll take about a half day to clean up properly, but this is well on its way to its former glory. I should be able to turn this $25 find into a proper $350 work-a-day typewriter.

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A black crinkle painted Remington Rand Deluxe Model 5 typewriter sitting on a black wood cabinet. Four shimmery gold mini decorative Christmas trees sit on the table behind it.
A belated Christmas present arrived today!

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A Solari erasing shield sitting vertically on a typed index card to count the number of typed lines of text on it. Each numbered mark on the side of the ruler counts the corresponding number of lines of text on the page.
Amidst all the typewriter paraphernalia I come across, the curved typing shield doesn’t get enough of its due. While it has some useful measurement functions, its primary functionality is as an eraser shield for erasing errors in carbon copy packs. You would move the carriage to the far right or left (to keep eraser crumbs … Continue reading

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A 1941 Corona Standard typewriter with the body panels, platen, paper tray, rollers, and paper table removed.
The restoration work on my 1941 Corona Standard is coming along nicely so far.

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Grey typewriter carriage with a typed index card that reads: Hackday.io Typewriter Projects | Folks are often asking about doing curious hacks on typewriters (along the lines of the USB typewriter https://www.usbtypewriter.com/), so I thought I'd pass along this index of some prior projects and attempts to do interesting hacks using them: https://hackday.io/search?term=typewriter

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Black wooden typewriter case covered in black material. It's split into two parts and sitting on a wooden table in front of a 1941 Corona Standard "Flat top" in the background.
Spent an hour today cleaning up the case of my Corona Standard and removing some rust from the metal fittings. Some of the material is peeling away from the case and I’m debating whether or not I ought to recover the entire thing—a restoration project I’ve not yet done on any of my machines. Took … Continue reading

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Substack and Social News Platforms - My problem with Substack is that I can't use yesterdays version to wrap up my fish. —Chris Aldrich, DABC, 2024-12-14

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Hero image of dirty 1939 Royal Aristocrat typewriter
Definitely needs a cleaning, but this may be the second or third most solid typewriter I’ve ever received right out of the box. It will be the third oldest exemplar of an Aristocrat on the Typewriter Database. This will clean up exceptionally well.

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Typewriter art composed of typewritten text in the silhouette of a shooter wearing a backpack and holding a gun. As if ejected bullet casings, the words deny, defend, and depose have flown out of the gun and are falling to the ground.