Pan Yan Pickle

[Penners]

Well, if it doesn't work, let me know. For that kind of reward I'll come and tidy them myself.

 

[Aidan]

Come to think of it, all the dogs' poo I've seen these days is brown. I wonder what it was that made the white stuff?

Ash in the mixture apparently. Discussed at great length on another forum I frequent.

And is there Camp coffee still for tea?

 

[Moo]

Thank goodness there still seem to be people who use Camp coffee. Without it, how on earth does one make coffee icing and that sinful coffee cream filling for sponge cakes?

 

[Nemesis]

You make strong espresso and add Tia Maria.

 

[Gervase]

Ah, Butterscotch Angel Delight! Marvellous stuff (and ten times better than white dog crap - though apparently that was the stuff for tanning ladies gloves. The poo, not the pud, of course).
Talking of memory lane, the memsahib liberated an Imperial tripewriter from the dump yesterday when she was there. I came back from a job and it was sitting on the kitchen table, and it was love at first sight. My first newspaper office had a battery of old Imperials, and to hear them all at full pelt was awesome.
This one needs a bit of TLC (and finding a new ribbon may be a problem), but I find I can type faster on it than on this nasty plastic keyboard, and it makes that wonderful clunky noise.
And, as an aside, it made me realise that to make an exclamation mark one has to type a single quote, backspace and then a full point. Three keystrokes (or four if one includes the shift for the quote) in all. These days one can litter one's copy with exclamation marks with just one keystroke, and writing is the poorer for it. Dog's-cocks, we used to call them, and in many newspaper offices they were banned apart from in headlines over 72pt (and even then thought a little vulgar).
Sorry, I'm rambling. But my Imperial is almost a period property in its on right, and I'm looking forward hugely to fettling it and actually using it.

Edit: As for the Guardian correspondents' insistence that pallid poo comes from eating bones; all I can say is that our Toby is never without a mutton bone in his gob, and his turds are resolutely brown.

 

[Moo]

I haven't got an espresso machine.

But I shall add Tia Maria to my tincture of Camp next time I make a coffee sponge.

 

[Nemesis]

Strong real coffee.

 

[Nemesis]

And, as an aside, it made me realise that to make an exclamation mark one has to type a single quote, backspace and then a full point. Three keystrokes (or four if one includes the shift for the quote) in all.

Yes - it all comes back!!!!!!!!!!

I have an Imperial somewhere (and a tripewriter eraser!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)



Can't do that on a tripewriter either. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


8)

 

[Gervase]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now stop it - you're just showing off with your newfangled gadgetry and smilicons.
The thing I love about the typewriter is that it is a proper, mechanical thing, beautifully engineered and put together, with every part playing a function, and every function completely understandable. Not noughts and ones, binary coding and hexadecimals - just solid British iron, steel, bakelite and rubber. Marvellous!
And the noise...not the stuttering, whey-faced, constipated putter of a computer keyboard, but a proper noise, like a proper motorbike.
Oh, to be able to plumb it into the Mac so I can type on it every day (USB conversions, anyone?).

 

[Flyfisher]

If you fit a microswitch to every key, I'll interface it to your computer for you . You might have to do without function keys, alt, ctrl and Numlock and cursor keys though. Otherwise it shouldn't be too difficult (microswitches excepted!).

Nostalgia apart, I challenge anyone to type faster on a mechanical typewriter than on a computer keyboard. They were already on the way out in favour of electric typewriters before the rise of the PC. And didn't 'proper' motorbikes always leak oil?

Split cane fly fishing rods are a similar example (something I modestly claim to know a little about). Absolutely lovely things, skillfully hand crafted with natural materials, a real thing of beauty . . . until you try fishing with the bl**dy things. Not a patch on a modern carbon fibre fly rod. Still, they look very nice on the wall.

 

[Gervase]

Oh, I don't know - a 5ft6in palakona cane brook rod in a 2 weight is much more fun to use than a super-twitchy carbon fibre job. But, for anything bigger, I'll concede that modern materials are better. I certainly wouldn't like to Spey cast all day with a 15ft cane rod (and modern synthetic fly lines are infinitely more 'user friendly' than oiled silk).
I type faster on a mechanical machine because that's the keyboard on which I was taught to touch-type (complete with metronome to keep the cadence right!) - the advantage being that the keys are farther apart and steeply banked, which suits my sausage-like fingers. And, by 'faster' I mean more accurately - correcting the literals and typos made on a modern keyboard slows me down significantly.

 

[Flyfisher]

Fair point for very light rods (I was thinking double-handed salmon rods) and, yes, I hadn't even considered the advantages of modern lines compared to dressed silk.
Ah, the good old days :wink:

 

[Nemesis]

Can I put in a good word for my ancient Kenwood Chef(s)?

I am sure that modern things are all very well, but they aren't a patch on these things, built to last.

 

[Cloudscape]

Talking of older is better - it's also sometimes better looking. I used an Atomic coffee maker every weekend for ten years, after I found it in a junk shop. Some of the nicest frothed up coffee I have ever had.

In the end, London limescale did it in... the threads were almost ground away.

I can't believe I threw it out. I had no idea how much it was worth, and that the threads could be replaced. :shock:

 

[Penners]

finding a new ribbon may be a problem

Specially one of those futuristic ones that had black at the top and red at the bottom (or was it the other way around?).

Might this help?

Or this? (Scroll down for a list of all the typewriters it will suit).

 

[Penners]

Can I put in a good word for my ancient Kenwood Chef(s)?

My old Mum (aged 90) still has her Kenwood Chef that she had when I were but a lad. I reckon it's well over 50 years old.

 

[Moo]

I've inherited my mother's Chef, and it works perfectly. But it does tend to smell a bit when used for more than a short burst. My instinct is that it needs a spot of oil somewhere, but where?

I also have my grandad's spring scales which I think are still in perfect working order but unfortunately the numbers on the dial have become too indistinct to be useful. So I rely on his cast-iron balance scales with their proper imperial weights.

 

[Moo]

I double-posted.

 

[Penners]

it does tend to smell a bit when used for more than a short burst.

I think Mrs P would probably say the same about me.

 

[Moo]

What? Sort of dry and oily?