Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Frockin' Tuesday!

Character Hall of Shame: The Typewriter



Hey, it's in a comic, so it's fair game. Those of you who like to get all "when I was your age" about dot-matrix printers can just close your pie-holes right now, because nothing compares to the horrible inconvenience of a typewriter. You know that little "delete" key you use to get rid of mistakes? Not happening on a typewriter. If you messed up and didn't see it immediately, odds were huge you were going to have to type the whole thing over to get an error-free copy.

I can recall many assignments cranked out on the manual typewriter my parents had (which meant that I had to *bang* on the keys to get them to do anything). Some sadistic teachers even made me use footnotes, which meant guessing how much room I would need at the bottom of the page before I even began and putting a little pencil mark on the paper so I would know when to finish typing the body text. It was every bit as fun as it sounds.

So, imagine a world with no "cut and paste" or spellcheck or even backing up projects, and you can imagine how much fun school was for those of us over 40 years of age. Ya whippersnappers!
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courtesy of sPat:


See, it just goes to show how you can over-complicate a problem. Imagine how embarassed the Green Goblin will be when he learns that all you have to do to render Spider-Man imobile is to shine a bright light in his face. It's like when you go hunting frogs. If the Cat had been toting an oversized butterfly net, we could have been spared the entire Clone Saga.

Seriously, Peter. Besides having web-shooters and the "spider sense," the guy is two steps in front of you and talking. Do you think a little extra effort might still win the day here?
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Remember, orphans: A good frock will land you parents. If you haven't been adopted it's because your frock is not neat and lovely. Frock, frock, frock....

7 comments:

Siskoid said...

I used to have what I think may have been laughably called a word processor. It was a typewriter that could remember a couple of lines of text, and had a corrector tape, so you COULD backspace over your mistakes.

Wow, can't believe I went through college with that thing.

Thanks for the frog-hunting tips by the way. I always did it the hard way. By jumping into the pond.

Frock.

Jeremy Rizza said...

It's a good thing Nancy remembered to buff herself with Turtle Wax before meeting her adoptive parents! (Of course, the protective coating on her undercarriage will cost them extra.)

SallyP said...

Awww...I LOVED my old IBM Selectric with the ball thingie that printed the letters! None of this frying your eyeballs on a glowing screen, nosirree! You banged on a key, and by God, a WORD was there!

Heck, I'm so old, I can remember turning in hand-written papers. And they graded us on our penmanship. Do they even teach cursive writing anymore?

I have to go and yell at the kids on my lawn. In my LOVELY frock.

the frogster said...

And don't forget when we would have to write our reports in pen and there were no erasable pens and Mr. Dearden, our 5th grade teacher, said he would mark points off if we used that gloppy white out. Mr. Dearden. The horror.

Siskoid said...

Do high school kids do everything on Word and PowerPoint these days?

I don't remember ever seeing Windows until I had my degree.

Anonymous said...

Why is the switch labeled "Switch?"

Anonymous said...

Siskoid: not at my frockin' high school. When I graduated over a decade ago, they had approximately 40 computers for the school of a thousand. Now they probably have 80. Ah, city life...

I've always been amazed at how the people in comics can make extended speeches in the midst of action. I can sort of understand the long thought bubbles since it's conveying complex thought in only words. But dialog? Do they just stand there, frozen in space, arms in the air, pupils contracting wildly?

I guess it's just part of the reason why, well... Comics Make No Sense(tm). (You can use that, Adam)