True Confessions: After reading this article on The Typing Explosion (writers who create instant poetry using typewriters) a big nostalgia wave whacked me and I started reminiscing about my typewriter. It was a wonderful, small, portable one, not electric; never had mechanical problems. I pounded out all my college applications on it. I was practically addicted to it. I would roll in sheets of scrap paper, the backs of used giftwrap, the thin cardboard you get with nylons, anything that fit (I even used leaves once) and I’d tap out odd musings, midnight poetry, rants about Maddie and David, senior slump soliloquys, a ludicrous plea proposing “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ’round the Oak Tree” for the prom theme song, and a business proposal to market different shades of Wite-Out in college application colors to frustrated seniors (Wellesley Blue, Amherst Buff, Brown…uh, white?). I’m beginning to understand why I wasn’t nostalgic before. You gotta grow up to have things to be nostalgic about. On the other hand, I had recently had a conversation which went something like:
“Hey, remember musicboulevard.com?”
“Hey yeah! That’s where I made my first ever online purchase!”
“Well, they’ve become part of cdnow.com.”
“Oh. Huh. You know you’re traveling in Internet time when you can be nostalgic about an ecommerce experience.”

I guess the web is now my typewriter, or at least the paper that was in it (my computer is just my word processor). I don’t need Wite-Out much anymore. And, for the record, the prom theme was “I Melt With You” by Modern English. Great song.