Month: August 2026

Cook Books Published as Recipe Cards

What I wouldn’t give to have some popular cookbooks like Rombauer’s The Joy of Cooking, Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, Better Homes & Gardens’ New Cook Book, Brown’s Good Eats, America’s Test Kitchen books, or Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street published as recipe cards in 4 x 6 inch index card format. 

While their book formats are lovely and lend themselves to lean back aspirational food content, they’re not so great in an actual kitchen. If all the content was on the front of the card, perhaps with those aspirational photos on the back, and a reasonable tabbed index and packaged for sale in a nice cardboard card index box , I’m sure my kitchen life would be far better. 

Can one of the recipe giants produce something as functional for use in the kitchen as their recipes? 

If they wanted to go crazy, they could also: 

  • offer a deluxe wooden card index with a thin, angled notch on the top to hold the recipe as an easy display while cooking;
  • print the cards in high quality in such a manner as to make them liquid/splash proof or alternately include a reusable plastic sleeve or two for covering the cards while in use in the kitchen;
  • add all their “methods” information on individual cards  in a separate section;
  • number them to allow for cross-indexing them to related recipes or methods (color or textual effects like bold, italics, underlining could also be used to cross-reference these)

Some quick examples in the space:

Other than these and some magazines that occasionally publish one or two recipe cards, is anyone in the food space already doing this at a bigger scale anymore?

Royal Standard Typewriter Collection

I’m slowly closing in on a completist collection of Royal standard typewriters. 

Here’s most of my collection so far. Only a few major must haves left, but also still a few to finish refurbishing. Seven are fully refurbished, though two still need some small tweaks; all type but two need some reasonable work, and the rest need a full clean/oil/adjust.

A wire metal shelving unite on concrete in front of a grassy yard with some bushes and flowers in the background. On the 5 shelves are a collection of Royal Standard typewriters with three on each shelf except the top which only has two.

From bottom to top, left to right: 1935 H (with 5 key decimal tabulator), 1935 KH, 1936 KHM; 1945 KMM, 1946 KMM-18 (with a 10-key decimal tabulator), 1950 KMG-P; 1950 KMG-E, 1955 HHE, 1954 HHS (pica double gothic); 1957 FPP (cameo pink smooth), 1961 FPE (sandstone), 1959 FPP (sea blue smooth); 1960 FPE (light green smooth), 1961 FPS-18 (clarion double gothic, pearl light gray smooth).

Anyone with a nice Royal 10, please inquire within.

Two new additions to the Royal FP collection this year give me most of the major colors. Anyone want to join me for a type in? 

A dining room table with two rows of Royal FP standard typewriters set up for use. In the background are two different bookcases and a library card catalog with a flower arrangement next to a black typewriter

Overhead view of five Royal FP standard typewriters in pink, yellow, green, blue, and a pearl-gray.

Acquired 1971 Hermes 3000 (3rd Generation) Portable Typewriter (Paillard S.A. Yverdon Switzerland)
Serial Number: 7084044
Hermes Epoca typeface, 10 pitch, slugs: SNO, 6 lines/vertical inch, portable, bichrome, segment shift, tabulator, U.S. keyboard with 44 keys and 88 characters
light green plastic body, grey-ish cream colored plastic keys
Manufactured in France
Purchased from from Jan M. Macho in Pasadena, CA. This was the personal typewriter of his father John J. Macho, Sr., an émigré from Czechoslovakia who was in regional sales for Paillard in America and sold millions of Hermes typewriters. 

Jan Macho, Sr.’s grandson Chris Macho eulogized his grandfather on Instagram:

This is a Hermes 3000. My grandfather, Jan Macho, “Deda” to me, made a living and a small fortune as an exec at Hermes Typewriter Co., and he sold a million of these. I admit, I don’t think of him as often as I should, and it takes hints like these in the wild to remind me of him. Fuck me, he was just so legendarily amazing, kind, generous, and plain THE SHIT in how he carried himself (and now I’m tearing up as I write this). I mentioned him and the Hermes thing to the people at this place here and they gave me a beer. So here he is, still hooking me up from the other side. Love you, miss you Deda.

A greenish gray 1971 Hermes 3000 with a boxy plastic body sits on a library card catalog next to three gift bottles of Scotch.

Generally his typewriter is in solid condition aside from some cosmetic issues in the rear body plastic possibly due to heat exposure. It’ll need a full C/O/A and some new rubber, but will be resurrected to be a spectacular little portable typewriter for a few more generations.

I was so enamored of the provenance of the typewriter that I  barely managed to get through a preliminary check of the functionality before buying. I completely didn’t even notice the Epoca typeface until I got it home. Somehow I’ve always been the bridesmaid when it comes to Hermes machines, but it seems I’ve jumped right over the bride title straight to princess.

yellowish card tag featuring the san serif epoca typeface sample of a 1971 Hermes 3000 typewriter

Close up of the slugs on the left hand side of a 1971 Hermes 3000 featuring a san serif Epoca typeface. The foundry mark on the slugs is "S NO".

Resources

Oblique angle from above the left side of a green Hermes 3000 typewriter

Groups, Fields, and Galois: Part 1 | UCLA Extension

Dr. Michael Miller, a retired researcher at RAND, has been teaching upper level undergraduate/graduate level math courses for fun at UCLA Extension for over 50 years. This fall he’ll be introducing the areas of groups, fields, and Galois theory from abstract algebra to those interested in abstract math: Groups, Fields, and Galois: Part 1. His intention is to do a follow-on class on Galois theory in the Winter which will use this class as a foundation. If you’re in the Los Angeles area his class starts on September 22, 2026 at UCLA on Tuesday nights from 7-10PM. Register here: https://www.uclaextension.edu/sciences-math/math-statistics/course/groups-fields-and-galois-part-1-math-9001

His courses are thorough and rigorous, but geared toward lifelong learners and beginners in abstract mathematics to allow people better entry points into higher level mathematics. His classes are interesting and relatively informal, and most students who take one usually stay on for future courses. The vast majority of students in the class (from 16-90+ years old) take his classes for fun and regular exposure to mathematical thought, though there is an option to take it for a grade if you like. There are generally no prerequisites for his classes, and he makes an effort to meet the students at their current level of sophistication. For this particular class, if you’ve got some experience in high school algebra and know some preliminaries about mathematical proofs you’ll be ready to dive in.

There are regular commuters joining from as far out as Irvine, Ventura County and even Riverside. Most in the class are dedicated hobbyist and professional mathematicians, engineers, physicists, and others from all walks of life (I’ve seen actors, directors, doctors, artists, poets, retirees, and even house-husbands in his classes.)

If you’re unsure of what you’re getting into, I recommend visiting on the first class to consider joining us for the Fall quarter. Sadly, this is an in-person course. There isn’t an option to take this remotely or via streaming, and he doesn’t typically record his lectures. I hope to see all the Southern California math fans next month!

Course Description

Group theory is recognized as one of the great unifying mathematical disciplines, with far-reaching applications in virtually all scientific (and many non-scientific) fields. This course, the first of a two-quarter sequence that concludes in Winter 2027 with a course on fields and Galois Theory, is geared toward developing the tools of group theory needed to establish the Abel-Ruffini theorem on the insolvability by radicals of the general polynomial of degree five or greater. Results established along this journey will also be applied toward addressing the three classical ruler and compass construction problems of antiquity: trisecting the angle, duplication of the cube, and squaring the circle, as well as Gauss’ surprising characterization of constructible regular polygons.
September 22 – December 1
Tuesday 7:00PM – 10:00PM PT
REG# 410697
Fee: $450.00

Recommended textbook: TBD 

Dr. Miller provides enough background and thorough notes that if you’re taking notes on his lectures, you typically won’t need a textbook.

If you’ve never joined the class before (Dr. Miller has been teaching these for 53 years and some of us have been with him for nearly that long; I’m starting into my 20th year personally), I’ve written up some tips and hints.

Acquired 1959 Olympia SM3 portable typewriter (Olympia-Werke AG)
Serial number: 1477358
Professional Elite No. 41 typeface, 11 pitch, 2.3m/m, 6 lines/inch, bichrome, carriage shift, tabulator
American keyboard, 44 keys, 88 characters
green crinkle paint, black plastic keys
Manufactured in Wilhelmshaven, Germany
Found at The Predecessors while typewriter hunting in Anacortes, WA. It was paired with another similar green Olympia SM3, but I immediately picked this one up because of its beautiful and uncommon typeface. 

It’ll need several new parts including rubber, but this portends to be a fantastic typewriter.

Typed manilla card with sample of a 1959 Olympia SM3 typewriter with a Professional Elite No. 41 typeface which is a small sans serif slightly italic face.

1959 Olympia SM3 portable typewriter in green crinkle paint on an oak library card catalog next to a silver plated cocktail shaker in the shape of a zeppelin.

A Stopgap Repair Solution for Impatient New Olympia SM3 Typewriter Owners

You just picked up a dusty, but somewhat functional Olympia SM3 and you know that you need to replace the rubber body bushings to prevent your carriage from hitting the body panels and scratching the paint job. The problem is that you’ve got a lovely new-to-you typewriter in front of you, and you don’t have the patience to not type on it until you’ve done this easy repair. 

I’ve never seen it mentioned anywhere, but I’ve got a quick, temporary solution that’ll get you typing in just a few minutes. (Incidentally squished, old rubber bushings is the number one issue with vintage Olympia SM3s, and if you’ve not come across it, I’ve written out the details for a permanent repair/replacement solution.)

One can remove the two front smashed bushings near the space bar on either side and pair/stack them up with the two smashed bushings in the rear. It may take a bit of removing some of the “proud” protrusions to smooth the bushing pairings, but it’ll work. In my case, I used an X-acto knife (though a pair of scissors might also suffice) to slim down portions of the bushings that were sticking out. This also helped to keep the bushing combination from being too tall and not allowing me to get the shoulder bolt back into the machine. 

Close up of the left rear of the bottom of an Olympia SM3 typewriter featuring a stacked pair of black rubber bushings in the corner of the machine.

The one issue you may encounter with this solution is potentially while typing with the shift lock engaged. This is because the front bushings help provide the proper clearance for the space bar while the shift lock is enabled. Typically one doesn’t type in all caps, so you might not notice this subtle issue at all.

Another possible solution depending on your particular machine is to swap the front bushings with the back ones as the rear ones typically carry more weight and are more squished than those in the front. Your mileage may vary based on your particular machine.

If nothing else, hopefully either the swap or the stack hack will help get you typing right away while you wait to pick up some replacement bushings from the local hardware store.

Good luck and happy typing.