I think I’ve bought yet another typewriter: a late 60s/early 70s Remington Streamliner. I bought it in part because it looks beautiful, but also (I’m not going to lie here) because it’s very similar in color to my mint blue TWSBI Eco-T fountain pen and my General Fireproofing Co. desk

I swear this is my last one for a while… at least until I find a reasonably priced and superb condition late 50s Olympia SM3 preferably in either green or maroon.

Irked by the overinflated prices on Ebay for typewriters, I’ve been casting about for other sources of reasonably priced machines to purchase. Today I purchased two I saw at auction: 

  • Smith-Corona Classic 12 in metallic green for $18.00
  • 1969 Smith-Corona Galaxie Deluxe in steel blue for $23.00

Both appear to be in good shape and functional though one is going to need some reasonable cleaning and repair of a few linkages. I can’t wait for them to ship to see what I’ve got. They both look like a lot of fun… 

On a quick front-of-the-index card calculation, I realize that with the recent Steelcase cabinet acquisition, I now have 8 boxes comprising 61 drawers and 103.25 feet of storage space for approximately 172,296 index cards. Having spent a total of $786.52 on them over the past year this comes out at about $12.89 per drawer, which is fantastically under the $14-25 ubiquitous 11″ cardboard boxes for such a massive step up in quality and longevity. 
Three notebooks stacked up next to three separate piles of 1,300 index cards.

On average, the typical A5 sized notebook (Leuchtturm, Hobonichi, Stalogy, Moleskine, Midori, Clairefontaine, Apica, Kleid, etc. ranging from 192 to 368 pages) has an equivalent square footage of writing surface to the front (only) of about 420 4 x 6 inch index cards. On a cost basis, for the same amount of money, on average one can buy 1,200 index cards for what they’re shelling out for equivalent notebooks.

Surfing around with respect to library card catalogs, I ran across John Blyberg‘s Library Card Generator this afternoon. Anyone who’s playing at the intersection of analog and digital zettelkasten is sure to love the possibilities here.

Yellowed library card catalog card with top red horizontal line and two vertical lines that split the card into three colums. Printed on the card are a red 9/8j on the left with the contents of Niklas Luhmann's jokerzettel card typed out. There are a few scribbles handwritten onto the card as well.

Incidentally, if you’re still into the old-school library card catalog cards, Demco still sells the red ruled cards!

David L. Solin passed away this morning after several trying days in hospice care. We spent most of the day with him yesterday as he struggled to hold on, but his body ultimately gave out.

I was just a few blocks from the nursing home going to see him when I got the call that he had passed away at 9:44 AM. After spending much of the last 4 years with severe dementia, its a relief that he’s left us, undoubtedly for a better place. 

His memory will be a blessing.

Congratulations to Christoph Adami (@ChristophAdami) on release day for The Evolution of Biological Information: How Evolution Creates Complexity, from Viruses to Brains! I’m awaiting the post for my own hardcover copy.