I gave in and bought an electric wedge.
Gross late model electric wedge or not, Olivetti still made them sleek.
The wedgie. Unrelated to typewriters, but part of many children of the 80's/90's childhoods.
Source: http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Martin_Prince
3 cups of coffee? around here, perfectly sparkling wedges (and more beefy daisywheels) are commonplace for $5-$10. Either you have great coffee prices or you're paying too much for wedges. (:
ReplyDeleteHa, a little bit of both Ted. My standard is a small cappuccino at a reasonable $3.30 and this wedge was $10; convert that to USD (~$9) so in theory, the wedge price should be pretty similar on our respective sides of the Pacific!
DeleteI was almost tempted by a very stylish Facit wedge I spotted on ebay uk. Of course I came to my senses before bidding. It did look pretty though and I can't blame you for falling for the charms of the big O.
ReplyDeleteThe 'sense knocker' is a good one for such conundrums. (1) Spot wedge on ebay (2) Stop yourself from bidding straight away (3) Ask a willing family member to hit you on the head (4) If you still feel the urge to bid, the wedge is meant to be.
DeleteLet me just commend you for making your choice of plastic an Olivetti. (:
ReplyDeleteHa, thanks Ton, it sure was a selling point!
DeleteYou're a collecting pioneer. So far, hardly any typewriter collector ventures past 1980. But 50 years from now, I bet people will be fascinated with the surviving wedges.
ReplyDeleteSo where's your "guilty pleasure" wedge, Professor? I see none in your collection:
Deletehttp://typewriterdatabase.com/typewriters.php?hunter_search=7
Personally, I have no objections to these wedges, and I know that John has about a dozen in his collection.
ReplyDeleteThat said, they fail the 'beautiful design' requirement to attract my eye. Not to mention the reliability factor.
Wedges are fun to type on , but I doubt they will be around and working nearly as long as a good manual typewriter.
ReplyDeleteI've seen uglier than that! But ugly can be interesting.
ReplyDeleteThanks gents, yes, looks particularly don't evoke memories of art deco and Frank Sinatra. That said, I wouldn't go as far as to say ugly. I think they will definitely be sought after in 40 years time and go for stupid amounts of money on ebay or whatever the future medium of online buying/selling happens to be. I actually think quite a number will be around, these are the sorts of things that can easily be stored in attics and forgotten about and the sheer quantity of them produced, means that statistically, there should be at least a few in 40-50 years time. For the time being though, I think I'll just wedge mine back into that corner beside the desk....
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