With all the flap about forged documents, suspiciously modern typefaces,

etc, I dragged my old manual typewriter up from the basement, blew the dust

off the case, and opened it up. Haven’t used it for 10 years or so.

Something horrid has happened to the ribbon — the exposed section is

covered in a sort of turquoise mold. A couple of the keys stick. Otherwise

it works fine.

The kids came over, started playing with the thing, and got totally hooked.

They LOVE it. Nellie has typed pages of stuff — mostly gibberish, but hey.

Now, for the kids’ amusement on rainy days, I’m thinking of sprucing it up.

Need a new ribbon, some of that special typewriter oil,… No, this isn’t a

bleg, I can look the stuff up on Google. I know it’s out there, because I

occasionally get a typewritten letter from a reader.

Literary quiz: What was the first novel to be delivered to its publisher in

typescript form, as opposed to hand-written?