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Tuesday 4 November 2014

Headliners Good and Bad. Good - Varityper; Bad - Chicago Sun-Times

I have been asked by a lady in Melbourne about finding a good home for this Varityper Headliner 820. It is listed on eBay at $1 but has failed to attract any interest. As much as I would be keen to try it out, I am downsizing my collection and the cost of transport to Canberra might be excessive. If anyone is interested in it, please contact me.
It was owned by an editor and engineer at the CSIRO. The Varityper comes complete with 14 typesetting discs and operator's manual. It was made in New Jersey. Images below are not of the actual items on offer:
This operator's manual doesn't contain geography lessons, which is what headline writers at the Chicago Sun-Times urgently need. After the New Zealand All Blacks beat the United States 74-6 in a rugby union Test match at Soldier Field in Chicago on Saturday, the Sun-Times ran this subhead:
In fairness to the editor of the Sun-Times, he has since apologised for this gross show of ignorance. One does have to wonder what American kids are taught about the world in their schools! Do they think the world begins at the redwood forest and ends at the Gulf Stream waters? Or perhaps they think those places are in Canada.
The image above shows the All Blacks performing the pre-match haka. The haka comes from Māori culture. The Māori are native to New Zealand. New Zealand is across the other side of the Tasman Sea from Australia. It's a different country. Different flag, different government, different people, different culture. Gettit? 
What I really did appreciate was that before the match, the Chicago Tribute got its dance writer, Laura Molzahn, to write a lengthy piece about the haka, in which she described it as more ballet than war dance. Ten out of 10 for the Tribute for this brilliant bit of thinking, minus 10 for the Sun-Times for not thinking at all!

8 comments:

Scott K said...

Sure Rob. Gluck me an email.

Robert Messenger said...

Please contact at Andrea Daly at daly.andrea@bigpond.com

Ted said...

That seems quite similar to the Kroy 80K that I have:
http://munk.org/typecast/2012/08/14/kroy-80k-lettering-system-and-a-dayton-portable-typewriter/

note: it probably prints on a special glue-back strip of media using a media-integrated carbon ribbon, rather than printing on plain paper like a typewriter. Finding consumables might be problematic. /:

Curious to see how it works if Scott nabs it! :D

Bill M said...

I wonder how many Americans know the Nile is in Egypt and the Mississippi is in the USA.

The Varitypwer sure looks like a Kroy machine we used to have in the lab where I previously worked.

Spiderwebz said...

You should watch Fox news when they show a "map" of the middle east...

Slibno said...

I want it! Is it still available? Thanks

Slibno said...

I want it! Is it still available? I used one of these back on the seventies... Thanks

Robert Messenger said...

Slibno, if you could provide a clue or two as to who and where you are, I might be able to help.