Popular Culture 101: June 2014

Monday, June 30, 2014

New Deadline, Old Typewriter

Hello, friends. And fellow steampunk typewriter fanciers!

Now that I've got your attention, I wanted to let you know that Kathy and I have set up a new deadline of 27 July 2014 for more essays. This is for people who weren't able to meet the 15 June deadline for whatever reason.

We are very thankful to those of you who got your essays in on time. We are still looking at them and will get back to you soon about whether they're in or not. Thanks for your patience.

So what about that steampunk typewriter? The cool thing is that it's not a fictional or theater-prop machine. It's an actual typewriter: the Malling-Hansen Writing Ball originally unveiled in 1867. Here's another picture below, with the case it came in. You can also see here how the keys were set up. It ain't QWERTY or Dvorak or even good old ABC. Crazy, huh?

Okay, now, who's going to write that steampunk typewriter essay? Take care, all.

Who We Are

Kathleen Lawrence is a Communication Studies professor at SUNY Cortland. She teaches courses in advertising, intercultural, gender, and popular culture. Some of her interests in Pop Culture Studies are Barbie, Beauty Icons, Hollywood, Magazines, and all things Television. As a girl, her favorite toy was an Easy Bake Oven. She also loved the implications for success and failure in the board game Chutes & Ladders and wanted to grow up to look like That Girl.

Vince Gotera is Editor of the North American Review and an English professor at the University of Northern Iowa. He teaches creative writing (especially poetry) and literature. Vince hates to be pinned down but if he must name pop culture interests, they would include rock 'n' roll, science fiction, dragons, and zombies. As a child, Vince loved tin rayguns and robots that walked. He blogs at The Man with the Blue Guitar.