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The New Zealand Journalist and His Jeeves Called Watson
At Christmas 1933, the place to be in London was the palatial mansion owned by American romantic novelist Baroness von Hutton zum Stolzenburg in highly fashionable Clifton Court off St John’s Wood...
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GULLIVER’S TYPEWRITER
In his 2017 paper “The Life, Death and Rebirth of Typewriters”, Richard Polt says the 1714 patent of English engineer Henry Mill reads as if it is describing a typewriter, but “We do not know what...
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Backspacing to 2016
With this blog passing two and three-quarter million page views tonight, six weeks shy of its sixth anniversary, I thought it opportune to backspace over 2016. My “output” last year was a mere 145...
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The Typewriter as a Double Entendre: Smitten by Tubby's New Yöst
Tubby's Typewriter is a short silent film from 1916 directed by Frank Wilson, the second in the series of comic The Adventures of Tubby produced by Cecil M. Hepworth. Sadly the original print was...
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The Barbie Cipher Typewriter
My grand-daughter Ely and I found some respite from the crippling heat wave yesterday by going to the Australian War Memorial. I was delighted to see another typewriter had been added to the...
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The True History of the British Oliver Typewriter Manufacturing Company...
An Italian-made Oliver portable sold by the BOTMCOf all the British typewriter manufacturers,the British Oliver Typewriter Manufacturing Companyof Croydon, London, has remained themost mysterious....
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Addendum: The Mowers and the Oliver Typewriter
Charles Hudson Mower (1866-1930),George Augustus Mower's younger brother,who was a director of the Oliver Typewriter Company from 1905 and manager of the French branch of the OTC.A typewriter...
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RIP Mary Tyler Moore (1936-2017)
Mary Tyler Moore died yesterday in Greenwich, Connecticut, at the age of 80. The actress was born in Brooklyn Heights on December 29, 1936. She was best known for her roles in the television sitcoms...
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Cactoblastis Day
Mural at the Cactoblastis Mexican Kitchen, Neutral Bay, Sydney THE day before yesterday, ABC TV had the good sense of timing to screen an episode of Murder, She Wrote called “Southern Double-Cross”,...
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Works in Progress
A "working" cover designJust before Christmas I mentioned, in passing, that I had started work on a new typewriter book. I was delighted, though somewhat taken aback, by the number of encouraging...
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Allāhu akbar! Ice cream cart at the ready for jihadi attack in the Battle of...
Vivian Leigh Stevens’ Corona 3 portable typewriter felt red hot from the belting it got in the literary office of The Barrier Miner in Broken Hill, in far western New South Wales, on New Year’s Day in...
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The Unpalatable Truth About Trump, Turnbull and Phonegate
Above, Trump as Snoopy; below, Turnbull as a child with a Mercedes.I admit to feeling touched the other day when this comment from an anonymous American was posted on my blog: "Speaking as an American,...
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Claude Sitton's Olivetti Lettera 22: Covering the Civil Rights Movement
"During his six years covering the South, he wore out four portable Olivetti typewriters." - The Washington Post, March 10, 2015.Claude Sitton's Olivetti Lettera 22 portable typewriter was on display...
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The Lady with the Brightwriter Typewriter
I've used this image before, three years ago, with others - of Twiggy, Pearl Bailey and Duke Ellington* - from the 1969 Henry Wolf series advertising the Olivetti "Brightwriter", the Studio 45...
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Peggy Hull, Pioneer War Correspondent
American war correspondent Peggy Hull (Henrietta Eleanor Goodnough-Hull-Kinley-Deuell, 1889-1967) at her Corona 3 portable typewriter for a Newspaper Enterprise Association publicity shot taken in New...
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To Dora, on Valentine's Day
DORAWritten by Sydney typewriter technicianWarren IngreyI had a typewriter to repairwhich I bought the other dayAn Olivetti DoraFrom down Barcelona wayNow this little typewriterWell, it was quite a...
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Free Air Typewriter*
*All one has to do is post a video of air typing online and a free air typewriter will be on its way. See image of typewriter above. No shipping cost involved (the package is small and light). Failing...
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A Curious Time
It’s 20 years today since I arrived in Canberra. That’s by far the longest I’ve ever spent in one place. I left Greymouth when I was 19 and for the next 30 years roamed about the place: Auckland for a...
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The Press as Public Enemy No 1? Tell that to the Ghost of Ernie Pyle
I have no idea what Ian Farmer is up to these days. He would be 18 or 19 by now. But at age 12, in November 2010, he could have taught a future President of the United States more about the real value...
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Six Years Before the Mast
February 27 marked six years of this blog. It's a significant date. It's also the birthday of writers (in descending order below) Irwin Shaw (1913), James T. Farrell (1904), Peter De Vries (1910), John...
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