This Is Drivel

Category: hobby

  • Man Buys IBM for Three Dollars. Film At Eleven.

    I can’t believe my good luck: I am now the ecstatically proud owner of an IBM Selectric II. And I paid just a little over three dollars for it! How does this even happen? Well, just like this: I found it on the bottom shelf in the electronics section of a Goodwill store here in… Read.

  • Finders kee … how much?

    While I was prowling the aisles of the Madison Antique Mall this morning I spotted this Corona Sterling sitting amongst the china, figurines and other bric a brac. Carefully picking my way past the tightly-packed shelves so as not to become the not-so-proud owner of a newly-broken Humel, I managed to get a close look… Read.

  • Just Hanging Out

    I’m of two minds when it comes to recycling parts of old typewriters for jewelery or other artwork. My first reaction is revulsion. Typewriters have an intrinsic value to my nerdy sensibilities that is so great I could probably be persuaded to sentence key-cutters to jail terms that would raise an eyebrow on Charles Manson.… Read.

  • Books!

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    I finished off the last of the books I’ve been reading this month: Of A Fire On The Moon I’ve never read anything by Norman Mailer before. This is one hell of a way to start. I’ve picked up Of A Fire On The Moon at least twice, once when I was in high school… Read.

  • All the live-long day

    Gloomy & wet all morning, cold and gray all afternoon – perfect day to stay in the basement, playing with trains. Haven’t done that in quite a long time, and the neglect is apparent in one glance at the layout: track torn up, box cars lying on their sides. You wouldn’t look at it and… Read.

  • Smith Corona Super Coronet

    I stumbled upon this Smith-Corona Super Coronet waiting on the counter for someone to take it home from the Willy Street branch of the Saint Vincent de Paul’s thrift store in Madison. Unfortunately, I didn’t take it home because I couldn’t figure out how to make it fit in my book bag and carrying it… Read.

  • A lunar-licious treat for space geeks!

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    I can no longer fight my space-geek urges. I have to show you this amazing model of the Apollo lunar lander, assembled by Vincent Meens, a guy with way too much free time on his hands. That model is one-hundred percent scratch built! That means he didn’t assemble parts from a kit. It began life… Read.

  • Honeydew

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    Day after Labor Day, back to the grindstone. Oh, wait. I’m still on seven-day weekends. Never mind. Or not. I’ve still got some yard work to do before the snow flies, and from the way the weather’s been acting that’s probably going to be at about noon on Thursday. I’ve pledged that I will finish… Read.

  • Rolling Rock

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    I had a late lunch today and needed a drink that I chug along with the calzone I was going to wolf down before I scampered back to the work shop to play with power tools some more. When I opened the fridge this bottle of Rolling Rock was in the front and I thought,… Read.

  • Hangar Dance

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    There were two or three other Rosies at the hangar dance last night, but only I had the privilege of dancing with the one who looked just like the one in the poster. The entertainment at Madison’s annual hangar dance is provided by Ladies Must Swing, an all-girl band that plays tunes made famous by… Read.

photo of the author and the author's best friend