Right Royal Misinterpretation of the Typewriter Signs

Symbolism allegedly found in the tattoo of a Royal portable typewriter on the back of a Texas woman called Jo was misinterpreted as a Mayan prophecy that the world's last typewriter would be made in 2012. As of December 22, typewriters continue to be made. I checked today with my friend Betty at the Shanghai Weilv Mechanism Company at No 161 Huan Dong Er Road, Fengjing Industrial Zone, Jinshan district, Shanghai, and yep, Royal portable typewriters are still being churned out from that factory.

Papers found following the death earlier this month of famed British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore reveal an incorrect reading of the signs.

Quite what anyone imagined an 89-year-old British astronomer was doing looking for apocalyptic signs on the naked back of a tattooed American woman cannot be explained here, and I shall make no attempt to do so. What I can categorically state is that Moore wrote all his books on a Woodstock standard typewriter, not a Royal, which might explain the confusion over the false prophecy. Or not.

It turns out Sir Patrick, a sports lover,  had actually read a December 21 [note the date!], 2011, online posting by Sports Illustrated of an October 31, 1955, tribute to Grantland Rice. It was Rice's New York Herald Tribune lede to his report of the October 18, 1924, Notre Dame-Army football match, in which he fatefully referred to Death, Destruction, Pestilence and Famine while writing on a Royal typewriter.

Jo, however, says her Royal typewriter symbolises "passion, purpose and liberation". By the way, none of the Four Horsemen were called Jo or Betty and none was a wreck from Georgia Tech. Thank you and goodnight ...

This is also a Royal.