One Space, Two Space; Old Face, New Phase

A friend of mine just started a blog, and I just got off the phone with him after saying that I would not attack the subject matter of his first post. This, of course, was a lie. First of all, I already kind of responded to it preemptively 4 months ago. Secondly, I have a major issue with his first post:

This is a typewriter, kids. Long ago, people used it to convey important messages and information, or to just record their thoughts. Those thoughts were then turned into “books” or “news-papers.” It was kind of like Twitter, but with content. Anyway, in spite of this being the leading technology for personal writing for decades, it had its flaws. Mainly, it used a ribbon or cartridge of ink to print on to paper (“paper” was a mixture of moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, dried into flexible sheets). Sometimes that ribbon would be running low, and part of a character wouldn’t be printed. For the most part, content of the sentence or usage could provide an explanation for what the partially printed character was, but in the case of punctuation, a clever little system was devised: simply make two spaces after a period, so nobody thought it was a comma.

Well, guess what, kids? It’s the 21st Century now. Our shit’s all evolved and shit, yo. Computers typically don’t miss part of a character, and the standard became one space for all, and for all one space about 15 years ago. Don’t believe me? Read ANY article on ANY webpage anywhere. The two space era is dead. We’re slick and efficient now.

Welcome to the Internet, Max.

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Bobby Vee - The night has a thousand eyes

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

“The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” by Bobby Vee from The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1963).

You know how sometimes you hear a song you’ve heard a million trillion times before, and suddenly it’s brand new and awesome? This came up while I was scrubbing the toilet.

This is Tucker’s favorite song today, and it’s an amazingly fun tune.

40 plays

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This location is also right in front of a magical place called the South Loop Club, where The Joe Moran and I would always go after class for a libation. Sometimes we’d even go before class, or when we found that we were lacking class entirely. They had the strangest rule: you couldn’t have 2 glasses in front of you. If you ordered another beer but had a splash left in your current one, the bartender would make you finish it before placing the new one down. Odd, but effective. I always left the SLC having had more than I should have, but with a sense of completion. No halfsies. This was back in the 20th Century. A totally different time. chicagoscreenshots: Running Scared, 1986  (This location was also used in the 2008 film Traitor, though by then it looked a little different.)

This location is also right in front of a magical place called the South Loop Club, where The Joe Moran and I would always go after class for a libation. Sometimes we’d even go before class, or when we found that we were lacking class entirely. They had the strangest rule: you couldn’t have 2 glasses in front of you. If you ordered another beer but had a splash left in your current one, the bartender would make you finish it before placing the new one down. Odd, but effective. I always left the SLC having had more than I should have, but with a sense of completion. No halfsies.

This was back in the 20th Century. A totally different time.

chicagoscreenshots:

Running Scared, 1986 

(This location was also used in the 2008 film Traitor, though by then it looked a little different.)

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