Since we're on the topic of low-tech...

I know. We weren't really (on the topic of low-tech).
But I am.

Somehow I collected quite some low-tech classics lately.

It started with an old Bakelite telephone, a black Ericssons model from the early sixties. You probably know the kind, it's your quintessential telephone with rotary dial and a heavy receiver.
Since our land line is digital, T. bought an easy analog-digital decoder at a hardware store to make the phone operational for incoming calls.

A few weeks later I bought an old Technics Quartz gramophone at a local thrift-store. We had to order a new stylus on-line, which cost us more than the actual record-player did. But now we can enjoy listening to old records, and -more importantly- we can now shamelessly collect and display all those magnificent vintage record covers (before, it would've been just plain silly).

And yesterday I received ....

*drum-roll*

.... My very own Brother Deluxe 850TR portable typewriter!

Here she is, my beauty:


I didn't realize it when I bought the typewriter on-line at 'Marktplaats' (a kind of Dutch Craigslist), but this typewriter has an 'Azerty'-keyboard. Most letters are where they usually are, but the A, Q, W, Z and M are differently placed, as are most of the punctuation marks. Another 'weird' thing is that the numbers are in the capital position, so you have to turn on caps lock or use shift to be able to type numbers. Also, there's no zero (0). I guess you're just supposed to use the letter O (come to think of it, this could also be a philosophical message about the non-existence of nothingness....).

Anyway.
Great feature on this machine is that you can type in both black and red. Wow! This must have been state-of-the-art at the time!
The thing I am most taken with however, is the little sad face that keeps staring at me from its position on the right-hand side of the keyboard.
Didn't notice it yet?
There you go:

Anyone want to give me a reason to use this typewriter?

J.

My name is Jana, this is where i collect things