View from behind a typewriter's paper table looking into the type basket. We see a blood red ribbon and what appear to be bloodstained typeslugs inside the type basket.
Quoted Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith by Walter Winchell (Naugatuck Daily News)

Red Smith was asked if turning out a daily column wasn't quite a chore. ... "Why no," dead-panned Red. "You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed."
---Walter Winchell, April 6, 1949 in the Naugatuck Daily News, p4, column 5

Index card typed in red ink with the Red Smith quote from Winchell

If opening up your veins at the typewriter and bleeding means something with respect to writing, then it must surely mean all the more when typing with a red ribbon on a Remington 666 typewriter which gives the type slugs the appearance of being covered in blood.

Red Smith quote typed in red ink on an index card which is coming out of the platen of a Remington 666 typewriter

Published by

Chris Aldrich

I'm a biomedical and electrical engineer with interests in information theory, complexity, evolution, genetics, signal processing, IndieWeb, theoretical mathematics, and big history. I'm also a talent manager-producer-publisher in the entertainment industry with expertise in representation, distribution, finance, production, content delivery, and new media.

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