We were allowed back into our neighborhood over the weekend and were excited to find our poor wind battered and smoke damaged house still standing.

Naturally I brought back a daily typewriter, but it was eerie to see what I’d last typed on it two weeks ago just before we had to evacuate.

A Remington Standard typewriter sitting in the front seat of a car.

Typed index card that reads: 2025-01-07 Crazy winds kicked up this morning around 5:30AM and woke up both Sonia and I early. I went out briefly around 6:00 A to batten down the hatches and move the car out from under the tree. Evie was already up and working on her math homework. I'm really proud of her for this as well as going to bed at a reasonable time last night. The trip to school wasn't too bad this morning, though I did have to navigate around a Christmas thee that had blown into the middle of the street. Winds are supposed to be bad all day long. I'm sort of worried about going to class tonight at UCLA, but I suspect that winds there probably aren't as bad based on what Sonia has said about her drive into the office earlier

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