The world has lost an Uber-Geek

From the New York Times:

Manson Whitlock, Typewriter Repairman, Dies at 96
For eight decades, Manson Whitlock kept the 20th century�s ambient music going: the ffft of the roller, the ding of the bell, the decisive zhoop ... bang of the carriage return, the companionable clack of the keys.

From the early 1930s until shortly before his death last month at 96, Mr. Whitlock, at his shop in New Haven, cared for the instruments, acoustic and electric, on which that music was played.

Mr. Whitlock was often described as America�s oldest typewriter repairman. He was inarguably one of the country�s longest-serving.

Over time he fixed more than 300,000 machines, tending manuals lovingly, electrics grudgingly and computers never.

�I don�t even know what a computer is,� Mr. Whitlock told The Yale Daily News, the student paper, in 2010. �I�ve heard about them a lot, but I don�t own one, and I don�t want one to own me.�

A bit more:

In recent years, however, until he closed the shop in June, Mr. Whitlock was its entire staff, working with only a bust of Mark Twain for company. He reported each day in a suit and tie, as he had from the beginning. On Sundays he sometimes cheated and dispensed with the tie.

Mr. Whitlock was older than most of his charges, though by no means all of them. (Among the shop�s resident machines was a 1910 Oliver, with its type bars arrayed vertically, like harp strings.) He owed his longevity, he told The New Haven Register last year, to �cheap Scotch and strong tobacco.�

I have two IBM Selectrics that I just adore and I use them regularly. A lot of business requires filling in forms and multiple 'carbon' copies. Try doing those on your @#$% ink-jet. Both machines were picked up at auction for under $20 -- people do not realize their worth. The link in the first paragraph goes to a YouTube video of Jerry Lewis mugging along to composer Leroy Anderson's The Typewriter. I really like this version of the piece -- watch the soloist's body language -- he is having a lot of fun! Hat tip to Maggie's Farm for the link.