Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Another Adler J5

If anything I am haunted by the blog post "Is the Adler J5 Junk?" That post is the third most-often looked at post I have ever written. How could it be then that another Adler J5 has come into my life? Goodwill.

We were cleaning out some things and I said that I would take all the donations over to the local Goodwill. I haven't had any luck at the local GW since I passed up an IBM Selectric in light blue.  (The same machine pays a part in Catch Me If You Can.) I walked over to the electronics department and I did not see the tell-tale typewriter case. Scattering the shelves was the usual bevy of printers, odd remotes to long dead televisions, and cheap 35mm cameras. I walked by without even noticing the black plastic case. Rummaging around another section, I found a nice old Polaroid Land Camera 600 (you can still get 600 film from the Impossible project) and not much else. On the way to the check-out lane the black case caught my eye. Every thought turned to it being an electric typewriter, but I was surprised to find it was a manual Adler J5 in fair shape. After a once-over the machine seemed solid and so I went to the check-out Polaroid and typewriter in hand. $9.00 would have been a good price to pay, but 4.50 is even better. It was my luck that the yellow tags were %50 off that day.

Is this typewriter Providence showing me the error of my Adler-hating ways? Perhaps, but this typewriter is headed for the classroom when we return in August.

Those keys are brown, not black. Black would have been much better.

A coronet.

A badge.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Eduardo's Criticism

Coming out of retirement.
When Eduardo authored this typecast he was using a less-than-svelte Remington Performer. When he was working on the second draft I pulled out the "retired" Hermes 3000 and suggested that he try using it for the second draft. His experience was far better when he used the Hermes. On reflection, Eduardo said that if the Hermes was the one he started with his opinion would be much different. I think that goes to show that perceptions of the typewriter can be informed by the machine that had been used. If your typewriter was really nice you would have fond memories of the experience. If it was a terrible, clangy, Adler J5-like machine you might have a totally different response.