For those who missed it, the UK’s Guardian ran a pretty good April 1 leg-puller along the same vein.

I’m not the first to speculate on possible intellectual damage from text messaging*, but I tend to agree that today’s instant, stream-of-consciousness forms of communication are harming our ability to think. Twitter’s entire premise not only reinforces blurting out minimalist, choppy thoughts, it actively discourages taking the time to form full, well-rounded ideas. It also conditions the brain to quickly abandon its previous thought and immediately move on to the next, popping (and pooping) ideas with the mental length of enjoyment and nutritional value of jelly beans.

I realize that the same complaints were made about MTV in the 1980s, and about television in general for years before that (anyone remember “Television, the Drug of a Nation“?). The lamentation that Interstates destroyed our appreciation for roadside America began almost the moment the system’s ribbon was cut. I do believe that this has been an ongoing, accelerating process for quite some time. A daylong road trip cut down to a race from Point A to Point B; storytelling reduced from four-hour epic films to one-hour television dramas to 3 1/2-minute music videos. Today, I fear that the ever-reducing drain on our attention spans has minimalized them to the point where our world view has exploded into fragments, and as a result we’re now seeing the wholesale erosion of  this generation’s critical-thinking skills and ability to process ideas.

* “Texting”: not a verb. Knock it off.

If Michele Bachmann were an Afghan Taliban or Iraqi cleric talking smack like this, we’d have blown up her car with a Predator drone by now.

…..

BTW, Al Franken won. Again. (What, fourth time now?) Now look for Norm “Scorched Earth” Coleman to appeal to the State Supreme Court…then the Federal Appeals Court…then the US Supreme Court. Then look for him to slink back to Brooklyn in a few years after he tries to run for Governor and discovers that he’s completely squandered whatever support he had even within his own party. For the most part, we Minnesotans are a patient, tolerant bunch. Our idea of road rage is to pull alongside a lousy driver and shake our head in disappointment. But this whole affair has got most of us–liberal, moderate, and conservative alike–ready to run Norm out on a rail.

Better-than-usual commentary from Jon Stewart on the current political santa anas. Our own state bird, Michele Bachmann, makes a cameo partway through.

Side note: to all the non-Minnesotans reading: sure, we may have inflicted upon you the crazypants likes of Michele Bachmann, Norm Coleman, Al Franken, Jesse Ventura, and Prince. Those of you not living in a state governed by an Austrian weightlifter might be tempted to view us Minnesotans as having, shall we say, questionable taste. To you I would just like to point out that we also gave you F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Garrison Keillor, the Mayo brothers, Winona Ryder, Bob Dylan, and the Coen brothers. Oh, and Kevin Sorbo. Hercules, huh? How ’bout that?

(Oh, was Winona not a good example?)

In the words of Monda, I am heartsick. The typewriter I have lusted after for ages, the Monarch 101, matched in its elegance only by its elusiveness, just went to someone with far deeper pockets than I. I hope whoever won it loves it as much as I have from afar.

I’m going to go cry into some vodka now.

I don’t know if any of you typewriter folk out there are subscribers to ETCetera. If you are, then you know what a well-written, high-quality publication it is. If you aren’t, well…you’re missing out. I myself put off subscribing to it until this year, and boy, what a twit I am for not having done it sooner! I used to think that it was only for high-end collectors and talked about only typewriters I could never hope to acquire. Yes, scarce machines are prominent in the publication, but in more of a “Cool! Lookit that!” way. There really is something for every level of typewriter enthusiast. If you have a collection of hundreds of typewriters, or half a dozen, or even one solitary but special typer, do yourself a favor and go to the link above and sign on. Tell’em Machines of Loving Grace sent you. If enough new subscribers come their way through this posting, I may come up with a little something as a thank you.

It’s my birthday, and I received an ironic item in the mail this morning. Folded in along with a birthday card from my mom was a recent newspaper clipping, an obituary. It seems that Dr James Anderson, the doctor who delivered me, has died. He was a pilot in his spare time, and there’s a great picture of him from I’d guess the 1950s wearing a bomber jacket and looking a little bit like Sky Captain.

Thirty-eight years ago to the day you helped bring me into the world, Dr Anderson. On behalf of me and the over 5,000 other babies you delivered in your half-century career, thanks for literally everything.

“Siffy”? You’ve got to be frakking kidding me.

SCI FI Channel to become Syfy; “Imagine Greater” is new message

Building on 16 years of water-cooler programming and soaring ratings growth following its most-watched year ever, SCI FI Channel is evolving into Syfy, beginning this summer, Dave Howe, president, SCI FI, announced today.

By changing the name to Syfy, which remains phonetically identical, the new brand broadens perceptions and embraces a wider range of current and future imagination-based entertainment beyond just the traditional sci-fi genre, including fantasy, supernatural, paranormal, reality, mystery, action and adventure. It also positions the brand for future growth by creating an ownable trademark that can travel easily with consumers across new media and nonlinear digital platforms, new international channels and extend into new business ventures.

If you can get past the buzzword BS, it says, “We’ll be rerunning all of NBC’s shows that have failed to syndicate to TBS, TNT and A&E, and maybe Wife Swap. And we’re gonna license the fuck out of ‘em.”

“Imagine Greater” will become the new brand message and tagline, inviting both consumers and advertisers into a new era of unlimited imagination, exceptional experiences and greater entertainment.

What? That doesn’t even mean anything. It makes “Think Different” sound positively Shakespearean.

“Without abandoning our legacy or our core audience…”

Wanna bet?

Syfy—unlike the generic entertainment category “sci-fi”—firmly establishes a uniquely ownable trademark that is portable across all nonlinear digital platforms and beyond, from Hulu to iTunes. Syfy also creates an umbrella brand name that can extend into new adjacent businesses under the Syfy Ventures banner, including Syfy Games, Syfy Films and Syfy Kids.

Corporatespeak gobbledygook. Translation: We could care less about our audience so long as we can get kids to buy our logo-emblazoned shit.

We all understood that the Sci-Fi Channel as we knew it was dead the moment they inexplicably canceled “Farscape” and began airing pro wrestling. This only proves that the marketing droids have taken over completely and are burning the last vestiges of what once was a great channel.

See here for what triggered this letter.

Typewriter: Sears Tower Challenger

I’ve made a slew of small updates to Machines of Loving Grace over the past few days. The old Errata page that had lingered since the previous facelift has been folded into the Resources page and replaced with a Contact page. The Resources page itself has been fully updated and restructured to be a little more helpful. A new “Typewriters as Inspiration” link has been added under Special Galleries; it ties into a typewriter-themed album in my photo gallery. I wanted a place to include my more “artsy” typewriter photos, which are much different than the documentary photos throughout the rest of MoLG.

EDIT: I just now dumped my Smith-Corona serial number prefix quick-reference list into HTML and made a page for it.

Lastly, I’ve added or updated photos for several machines. Either the existing photos were too crappy, or a typewriter never got added at all because it needed to be cleaned or I just plain forgot.

Here’s the new stuff:

Remington Portable #1

Monarch

Monarch Pioneer

Royal #10 with 14″ carriage

Royal HH

Royal Empress

Underwood De Luxe Quiet Tab

Penncrest Caravelle 10

Tower Chieftain

Adler J4

Caligraph No.2

Caligraph No.4

Here’s a headline you don’t see everyday:

Pneumatic tube system upgrade planned for Saint Marys Hospital

This summer, the 4-inch black pneumatic tube system at Saint Marys Hospital will be upgraded to provide faster, more reliable service. To perform this upgrade, the tube system will be taken out of service for approximately four months. The red pneumatic tube system, 4-inch by 7-inch pneumatic tube system and Electronic Track Vehicle (ETV) will be unaffected.

The new black pneumatic tube system will include three hubs that provide greater capacity and expedite deliveries. All 128 tube stations and 60 transfer locations will be retained, but upgraded.

How many places can you think of that are expanding their pneumatic tube system?