All Episodes Discussion: 2017 Season

[Morrigan2575]

13 hours ago, Hanahope said:

Rachel asking a lot of good questions.  Where’s the rest of the money?  Who are the ‘high-ranking’ trump campaign officials?  How high did Papadopoulos’ emails go?  Why did P’s indictment say so much about Russia while  the others did not?  Are there more to come? I’m sure.  I’m curious as to what real estate Manafort bought or from who?

The lack of leaks of such blockbuster information is fantastic and amazing. 

I'm really glad she asked about the rest of the money. I was on news sites all day yesterday and I think she was the only person to actually wonder about that other 55 million.

I'm surprised more people (reporters) weren't asking that question because it was one of my first thoughts.

[ahisma]

Rachel always does great coverage of attacks like the one in NY—all the facts, all the right people to interview. Her guests tonight were great. 

But I increasingly feel that focusing all this coverage on the perpetrator, his methods, his motives, etc., feeds into future attacks. I think we'd be better off if terrorist attacks and mass shootings got two minutes, max, of just-the-facts on who and how, and more time given to first responders, people helping out, measures being implemented to prevent future attacks, etc. 

I did like that Rachel and her guests pointed out that New Yorkers were still going on with their Halloween revels. (All the different parade puppets were really fabulously beautiful.) Good for NYC for saying f.u. to ISIS. 

[attica]

Boy, was that story about the kangaroo court at Guantanamo interesting, or what? Holy cats in a sidecar!

[Morrigan2575]

59 minutes ago, attica said:

Boy, was that story about the kangaroo court at Guantanamo interesting, or what? Holy cats in a sidecar!

I'm glad she covered it, I came across the tweets and article earlier in the day but, couldn't figure out what the heck was going on.

[ScoobieDoobs]

Oh man, Rach, thanks for the belly laugh!  I was wondering why the hell you had a pic of a tree behind you.  Manafort's idiot lawyer misspelling Cyprus the country -- as Cypress the tree?  Oy, no words for this stupidity.

What an awesome show.  Rachel was on fire -- all over Clovis, then Jared, Jared, Jared, and then onto Sessions.  Good stuff, Rach!

[jjj]

I also was walking into the room periodically where my screen is, wondering what that tree had to do with Iowa or Clovis.  Then I thought it was a ink blot.  A Rachel Rorschach test.  A butterfly's lady parts?  But no, it turned out to be a visual pun!  Brava!  

[ScoobieDoobs]

I'm no Chuck Schumer fan, but he was great tonite -- succinct, articulate & very strong & cool & casually confident, even in discussing Trump.  Rach seemed to be beaming with approval when saying bye to him.  Me too, Rach.

I just wish you'd stop showing Carter Page's awful smiling mug, Rach.  Sheesh, I can't stomach looking at that sleazy character.

Anyone else notice the Rach signoffs to LOD are now in MSNBC commercials?  Gosh, I luv those signoffs to LOD!

Edited November 3, 2017 by ScoobieDoobs

[jjj]

Yes, today I saw the MSNBC promo where she tells the diner breakfast story about getting a nomination for Larry for President! 

45 minutes ago, ScoobieDoobs said:

Anyone else notice the Rach signoffs to LOD are now in MSNBC commercials?  Gosh, I luv those signoffs to LOD!

[M. Darcy]

Please stop it MSNBC with the book plugging of the anchors.  I like Lawrence but with him and also Chris Matthews showing up on every show, its a tad annoying. 

[Medicine Crow]

I love Nicolle Wallace, but I think the thing that bugs me the most is "sneaking in one more break" too many!!!

[jjj]

Too bad Rachel never got to follow up with Richard Engle, post-speech in South Korea, as they had planned in the first fifteen minutes, pre-speech.  But they mentioned that he will be airing a live show on Friday; and he said over the weekend that it will be in Rachel's time slot on Friday, so a holiday weekend for Rachel.  He will be broadcasting live from South Korea in her time slot. 

[M. Darcy]

Stupid Trump, he cut into Rachel's show - I wanted to hear more about how we kicked ass last night. 

[ScoobieDoobs]

7 hours ago, M. Darcy said:

Stupid Trump, he cut into Rachel's show - I wanted to hear more about how we kicked ass last night. 

That was an MSNBC choice.  I didn't have the stomach to watch, so I tuned out.  But I switched back -- to see Rachel's awesome signoff to LOD, where Rach summed up that he said nothing he hasn't already said a zillion times before, just in a different locale.  

So thanks, Rach, for filling in those of us who refuse to watch or listen to him.

[jjj]

You *have* to see Rachel's handoff to Lawrence O'D tonight on the repeat-- where he makes Rachel guess who was in the front row at his book signing-- JUDY from the diner! And there is a picture!

Rachel's opening segment about the women who won in Virginia gave me chills of appreciation for their success.  

Edited November 9, 2017 by jjj

[M. Darcy]

Quote

That was an MSNBC choice.

Oh, I blame Trump.  He could have waited another 20 minutes to start. 

Quote

You *have* to see Rachel's handoff to Lawrence O'D tonight on the repeat-- where he makes Rachel guess who was in the front row at his book signing-- JUDY from the diner!

Darn it, I watched the midnight repeat and fell asleep before that.  Judy! 

[attica]

Rachel's eyes widening when she guessed "Judy from the DINER?!?!" was everything. SO good.

[sum]

The Rachel & Lawrence handoff from last night :D https://streamable.com/rxwak

[alias1]

Rachel was on fire tonight. Trump talks so tough about China when he's safely in the U.S. and then he gets to China and can't stop complimenting them.  I loved her word for it: suck-up-itude. 

[jjj]

I don't know how anyone with children can have the sound on during news evenings like this.  At one point, Rachel said 'you might want to cover the kiddos' ears,' but by then, she had already quoted the breast touching.  That secret recording was just as icky a year later.  

[Quilt Fairy]

There are nights like tonight when I f*cking love her A block.  She just calmly, rationally explains stuff and puts it in (historical) context so you can understand it. Some nights, yeah, it's a bit of a stretch and you're yelling at the screen "Rachel! Just get to the damn point!"  And then there are nights like tonight when it's magic.  I confess to not watching much news except MSNBC but I have to think she's unique.

[attica]

Goddammit. Rachel PROMISED us that she'd never play that Bentley audio again. SHE PROMISED!!! And what does she do last night? Play all of it (I know it was only a couple of minutes of actual time. In attica-time, it was end.less.)! Auugghhh! Ah well, that's what mute buttons are for: for when RACHEL BREAKS HER PROMISE.

That said, I'm amused (i.e. horrified) that Alabama Dude thinks that Moore voters won't mind about the child molesting. If anybody's old enough to remember the Lewinsky scandal, you'll remember there was a concerted effort by the right to paint Monica as much younger than she was, to make Bill look like a child molester. Not defending Bill; his behavior was bad, but that's not my point here. My point is it's apparently OKIYAR. No pearl-clutching in this case!

[jjj]

Probably I was fascinated by the IBM Selectric bugging episode because I used a Selectric in the 1980s.  But I never heard about the Selectric bugging by the Soviet Union in the 1980s.  http://www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/bugs/selectric/   That was a great lead-in to the larger stories of bugging in the Soviet Union/Russia. 

Wicked Rachel:  "Remember...The Art of the Heal?" (After mocking Trump saying "we need to get back to healing the world")

More wicked Rachel:  "Today Jeff Sessions updated his memory stick again..."

And:  why were Trump and Putin wearing the same blue tunic shirt?  (Video at the end of the bugging segment)  It looked like pajamas, and I thought the look would have been more meaningful if one of them were wearing the top and the other the bottoms.  Sharing and healing. 

[Sharpie66]

The ASEAN summit they were at always has a group photo of the countries’ leaders in matching outfits.

[Calvada]

32 minutes ago, jjj said:

And:  why were Trump and Putin wearing the same blue tunic shirt?  (Video at the end of the bugging segment)  It looked like pajamas, and I thought the look would have been more meaningful if one of them were wearing the top and the other the bottoms.  Sharing and healing. 

It is the custom at this summit to wear matching shirts or jackets, something that is traditional in the host country.  I think all the men had this shirt on, but I don't think they were all blue.  But of course Trump made sure he matched his good friend Vlad.  

Rachel did seem sort of giddy tonight - what's that about?  And something is going on with her hair.  I'm not sure what - either she needs a hair cut, or has just had a bad one.  That sweep across the top of her forehead looks flatter than it usually does.  Editing to add - seeing Joy's hair during the handoff seems to indicate the problem is with the MSNBC hairdresser, because her hair looks sort of strange too.  But I loved her and Rachel laughing about the mystery of the teeth left at the Portland polling site.  It's a new Bridgegate!  

I used an IBM Selectric at various jobs in the 80s and I loved it.  Such an improvement over the manual typewriter I used in college.  My younger family members laugh at me now when I tell stories of having to type out footnotes ahead of time so I would know how much space to save at the end of a page.   I can't imagine how easy college would be now with a computer to format all those papers I had to write, or even to do drafts.  I used to do research using index cards, and then I would lay them all out as I wrote a paper by hand.  I would then type the paper from the handwritten draft -  4 to 5 pages per hour.  With a history and political science double major, and a sociology minor, I did nothing but write papers, so I spent hours hunched over my manual typewriter.  Yes, I am old.  And get off my lawn!

Edited November 15, 2017 by Calvada
more to say!

[TexasGal]

OMG the teeth!  I was laughing so hard I scared my dog.

[Medicine Crow]

22 minutes ago, Calvada said:

It is the custom at this summit to wear matching shirts or jackets, something that is traditional in the host country.  I think all the men had this shirt on, but I don't think they were all blue.  But of course Trump made sure he matched his good friend Vlad.  

Rachel did seem sort of giddy tonight - what's that about?  And something is going on with her hair.  I'm not sure what - either she needs a hair cut, or has just had a bad one.  That sweep across the top of her forehead looks flatter than it usually does.  Editing to add - seeing Joy's hair during the handoff seems to indicate the problem is with the MSNBC hairdresser, because her hair looks sort of strange too.  But I loved her and Rachel laughing about the mystery of the teeth left at the Portland polling site.  It's a new Bridgegate!  

I used an IBM Selectric at various jobs in the 80s and I loved it.  Such an improvement over the manual typewriter I used in college.  My younger family members laugh at me now when I tell stories of having to type out footnotes ahead of time so I would know how much space to save at the end of a page.   I can't imagine how easy college would be now with a computer to format all those papers I had to write, or even to do drafts.  I used to do research using index cards, and then I would lay them all out as I wrote a paper by hand.  I would then type the paper from the handwritten draft -  4 to 5 pages per hour.  With a history and political science double major, and a sociology minor, I did nothing but write papers, so I spent hours hunched over my manual typewriter.  Yes, I am old.  And get off my lawn!

Me too!!!

[BuckeyeLou]

Me too Calvada!  And trying to fit in footnotes was the worst!  And if I was using carbon paper to make copies, yikes: even harder!  Kids today don't know how easy they have it!  And yea, get off my lawn!  :)

[jjj]

Thanks for the background on the matching shirts -- clearly, I am not up to date on summit traditions.  And I agree about the hairstyles -- both Joy and Rachel look so good almost always, so a hair issue is more noticeable in comparison.  And yes, I typed and spaced footnotes when you had to plan for them. 

1 hour ago, Sharpie66 said:

The ASEAN summit they were at always has a group photo of the countries’ leaders in matching outfits.

 

1 hour ago, Calvada said:

It is the custom at this summit to wear matching shirts or jackets, something that is traditional in the host country.  I think all the men had this shirt on, but I don't think they were all blue.  But of course Trump made sure he matched his good friend Vlad.  

Rachel did seem sort of giddy tonight - what's that about?  And something is going on with her hair.  I'm not sure what - either she needs a hair cut, or has just had a bad one.  That sweep across the top of her forehead looks flatter than it usually does.  Editing to add - seeing Joy's hair during the handoff seems to indicate the problem is with the MSNBC hairdresser, because her hair looks sort of strange too.  But I loved her and Rachel laughing about the mystery of the teeth left at the Portland polling site.  It's a new Bridgegate!  

I used an IBM Selectric at various jobs in the 80s and I loved it.  Such an improvement over the manual typewriter I used in college.  My younger family members laugh at me now when I tell stories of having to type out footnotes ahead of time so I would know how much space to save at the end of a page.   I can't imagine how easy college would be now with a computer to format all those papers I had to write, or even to do drafts.  I used to do research using index cards, and then I would lay them all out as I wrote a paper by hand.  I would then type the paper from the handwritten draft -  4 to 5 pages per hour.  With a history and political science double major, and a sociology minor, I did nothing but write papers, so I spent hours hunched over my manual typewriter.  Yes, I am old.  And get off my lawn!

[Calvada]

10 minutes ago, BuckeyeLou said:

Me too Calvada!  And trying to fit in footnotes was the worst!  And if I was using carbon paper to make copies, yikes: even harder!  Kids today don't know how easy they have it!  And yea, get off my lawn!  :)

The worst was when you would get to the end of a page, thinking you had left sufficient space and being one stinking line short,  and having to re-type the page.  We used to beg professors to let us use endnotes, rather than footnotes, but there was usually one jerk who was a stickler for proper format.  

Hmmm, topic?  I would pay money to end every day with Rachel Maddow laughing over some ridiculous item in the news.  

Edited November 15, 2017 by Calvada
correct spelling is important

[ahisma]

1 hour ago, Calvada said:

Yes, I am old.  And get off my lawn!

When Rachel asked for a show of hands, who used a typewriter, I raised my hand, alone in my room. :D I had the old family manual, there was a basic, old-style electric in my parents' room, and my dad got to have the fancy Selectric at his office. I do not remember the Russian bugs, though, nor the Russian-built American embassy. That was an outstanding A-block. I need to go see whether John McCain has blown his stack yet over the no-bid contract, because, seriously?! Argh!

I am surprised the dentures have not been claimed; those things are expensive! 

[Medicine Crow]

6 minutes ago, ahisma said:

When Rachel asked for a show of hands, who used a typewriter, I raised my hand, alone in my room. :D I had the old family manual, there was a basic, old-style electric in my parents' room, and my dad got to have the fancy Selectric at his office. I do not remember the Russian bugs, though, nor the Russian-built American embassy. That was an outstanding A-block. I need to go see whether John McCain has blown his stack yet over the no-bid contract, because, seriously?! Argh!

I am surprised the dentures have not been claimed; those things are expensive! 

I'm thinking someone was "delivering" the choppers to a family member & forgot them in the booth.  Just wondering why the family member wasn't asking???

[Tunia]

2 hours ago, jjj said:

And:  why were Trump and Putin wearing the same blue tunic shirt?  (Video at the end of the bugging segment)

If there were a "Who Wore It Better?" contest, I'd vote for Putie!

[Sharpie66]

I read Tom Clancy’s earlier books so I know about the bugged embassy but I didn’t know that they didn’t completely demolish the compromised building. Also, I actually yelled at the tv, “Are you fucking kidding me?!?!!”” when she said that the State Dept was contracting a Russian company to provide security. Reagan would roll over in his grave hearing that. 

Another manual typewriter user here! Learned on the family’s Olivetti in 8th grade. Used a Selectric in college where I earned cash typing friends’ papers for them. This English major (and future proofreader/editor) also would proof the paper as I typed from the handwritten draft. 

[Quilt Fairy]

I can do you one better on the "We are old, we used typewriters" front.   (And yes, I raised my hand when Rachel asked that question.)  Many, many years ago I got a call a few days before my college graduation saying that I wasn't going to graduate because I failed an anthropology course and therefore didn't have enough credit hours.  I knew that was impossible, so I contacted the professor who told me he never received my final paper (which was responsible for our entire grade and which I had turned in to his secretary several weeks earlier) so he gave me an F.  I had not made a carbon copy, so I ended up frantically recreating the paper from my handwritten notes overnight and then had my uncle drive me to the professor's house to turn it in.  I ended up getting an A and more importantly a diploma but it was, needless to say, a traumatic experience.

Edited November 17, 2017 by Quilt Fairy
Too many commas! Removed a few.

[meowmommy]

I was an Air Force intelligence officer in the late 70s and early 80s, and we used IBM Selectric typewriters to type classified briefing notes, etc.  But we could only use them in a secured area because it was assumed that the bad guys could collect signals from our typing activity, and the ribbons had to be disposed of in a secure manner as well.  So what Rachel described about the embassies' lack of security surprised me.

I learned on a manual typewriter in my personal typing class in 9th grade (hands down the most useful class I ever took), and got through college with a $30 cheapie.  There were other electric typewriters on the market but they weren't an IBM.  When I got back from my AF tour in Korea in 1982, my mother, who worked for IBM, surprised me with my own IBM Selectric.  They cost about $800 at the time. 

4 hours ago, Sharpie66 said:

Used a Selectric in college where I earned cash typing friends’ papers for them. This English major (and future proofreader/editor) also would proof the paper as I typed from the handwritten draft. 

I did some freelance typing for college students, but usually the papers were written so badly that it pained me to have to type their crap, so I would ask if it was ok if I edited as I went along.  They never said no.  Poli sci major not English major (future clinical documentation expert and author), but still pretty damn particular with words.

The next big innovation was the electronic typewriter, which allowed you to go back and edit about three lines of text, and then word processors came out. 

[teddysmom]

8 hours ago, Sharpie66 said:

read Tom Clancy’s earlier books so I know about the bugged embassy but I didn’t know that they didn’t completely demolish the compromised building. Also, I actually yelled at the tv, “Are you fucking kidding me?!?!!”” when she said that the State Dept was contracting a Russian company to provide security. Reagan would roll over in his grave hearing that. 

Another manual typewriter user here! Learned on the family’s Olivetti in 8th grade. Used a Selectric in college where I earned cash typing friends’ papers for them. This English major (and future proofreader/editor) also would proof the paper as I typed from the handwritten draft. 

ITA!  That whole first block I'm thinking, am I asleep and dreaming Rachel is reading a Tom Clancy novel? 

FFS America. This is really starting to get embarrassing.  Why have we ever trusted Russia?   Is it "no one will fuck with us" syndrome? Because that's not a thing. Everybody lives to fuck with us. 

I learned to type in high school, I think we had Selectrics by then. We actually still have a typewriter here in the office, sometimes we have gov't forms that aren't online or something, I need to go see what it is.  My Dad had one of those big old typewriters that came in a case. He used to type his sales reports on them when he came home from traveling. 

[attica]

4 hours ago, meowmommy said:

The next big innovation was the electronic typewriter

I upgraded to one of these my last year in college. It was great comparatively, but it had a dot matrix font that was unappealing -- no lower case letters went below the line so all your ps and qs were shifted up high. Ugly. I learned on a manual, of course, and blessed daily the Monkees' Mike Nesmith's mom for inventing Liquid Paper.

Imagine Russia taking over the US in an utterly silent coup. Keys just handed over with a smile. It's (as Rachel's graphic put it) Unfuckingthinkable. (OK, maybe her graphic didn't actually use the profanity. I bet they wanted to.) We'll have to switch all our typewriters to cyrillic!

Quote

seeing Joy's hair during the handoff seems to indicate the problem is with the MSNBC hairdresser, because her hair looks sort of strange too.

Y'all know Joy does the wig-thing, right?

Edited November 15, 2017 by attica

[teddysmom]

I wonder if Russia wouldn't let us build the Embassy unless we used their people.  But that can't be, since once we figured out what was going on, didn't Rachel say we started shipping pre fab materials over? 

Five'll get you ten Russia is behind that bullshit at the US Embassy in Havana.  

[teddysmom]

28 minutes ago, attica said:

Y'all know Joy does the wig-thing, right?

She had two completely different colors this weekend. Same style. I liked last night's.  She was a hoot laughing about the teeth. 

[Hanahope]

I kept wondering where Rachel was going with the typewriter bit, but it finally became clear.  really makes you wonder how the hell we beat them, if they knew almost everything we did in the embassy that was typed.  Course, maybe we didn't beat them, as it turns out.

And then the info about bugging the embassy while it was being constructed.  I can't believe the person who negotiated that building contract was so stupid (maybe they were paid quite handsomely or blackmailed).  That said, the fact that we are now completely inviting the Russians in as our "security" is just, . . . I'd laugh if I wasn't crying.  Seriously?  And the GOP is just going along with this?  Does none of them remember the Cold War?  Reagan?  Do they really think its a good idea to allow a "former KGB agent" to run our security operations, not to mention cozy up to our president (or really vice versa)?

just smh.

I too learned on a manual typewriter with the keys painted over so I had to memorize the keys and which fingers typed which letter.  It may have been boring, fffff, jjjjj, ddddd, kkkkk, but I learned the skill.   It didn't take all that long.  Less than one semester, couple of months, when I was 13.  Bingo, I could type with all fingers, 65 wpm on a manual, 85 on an electric.  Fast forward to today when my 10 year old gets to use a notebook at school to type her papers, but she just uses the first finger on each hand.  Sure, she knows where the letters are, but it'll be a lot harder for her to learn how to type with all fingers.  My 13 year old, who supposedly learns typing in her "info tech" classes in middle school, types with two fingers on each hand.  I suppose that's some progress.  I'm not typing their papers when they get into high school/college.

I appreciate the art and music classes they get, that I didn't have, but really, the schools need to teach them how to type with their entire hand.

[sistermagpie]

26 minutes ago, Hanahope said:

I appreciate the art and music classes they get, that I didn't have, but really, the schools need to teach them how to type with their entire hand.

FYI, you can learn it online! My mom thought this was a good skill for me to have so she took me to a career center on Saturdays when I was in high school. It wasn't a class, you basically learned yourself at a typewriter. So recently when I wanted to learn a different keyboard I checked to see if there were any sites where it would teach you the same way and there were. I think there's several sites for it. It was really easy to learn back then, didn't take much time, and it's such a GOOD SKILL TO HAVE.

Also, I did love those Selectrix. We still had a few left over at work for years and I kept it for labels. Sometimes people would follow the sound to see if there was a ghost. LOL!

Regarding this story, it's so humiliating. Because now it's not even that we're being stupid it's that the actual president is working for the Russians for whatever reasons.

[Hanahope]

Oh, and I also learned from Rachel that it was Mitch McConnell, of all people, who worked to kick out that Oregon Senator, Packwood, who was also a republican.  Color me impressed.  Although, wow, how egregious can a guy be?  All that evidence and still it took a Senate ethic's committee investigation to get him to leave.  And that was 20 years ago.  Amazing just how little things have changed since then (although in some respects, thing have gotten better, but only very very recently, and apparently only involving those favoring the democratic party).

[Calvada]

10 hours ago, attica said:

Y'all know Joy does the wig-thing, right?

But a wig still needs to be styled.  I assumed the makeup/hair people would do that too.  

I too think the most valuable class I took in high school was my typing class.  I can't imagine getting through college and grad school without knowing how to type, and of course it's been an invaluable skill in my various jobs.  We had both manual and electric typewriters in the high school class and we had to switch off every couple weeks.  I remember my guidance counselor didn't want me to take typing, because I was in the college-bound track, and typing class was not considered to be necessary for that.  Of course, that guy wanted me to go to a Catholic college, so it was very clear he didn't know me at all.  

Edited November 16, 2017 by Calvada
more to say!

[attica]

I did not fully appreciate the hilarity of the Mnuchin photo op before Rachel presented it. Leather opera gloves! Doug Stamper in the background!

eta: Loved the interview with the OK Dem chair. Looks like actually contesting races is an idea whose time may be coming! Not that I want to get too far out on that limb... (sigh).

Edited November 16, 2017 by attica

[EyewatchTV211]

On 11/15/2017 at 1:54 PM, Hanahope said:

I appreciate the art and music classes they get, that I didn't have, but really, the schools need to teach them how to type with their entire hand.

I think I'm a little younger than those here. I had brief experience with a typewriter and then word processor as a kid, but computers came about during my childhood. We had typing classes in school back then, and they did teach proper hand formation and typing with the whole hand. We got to a point where we had to show we could type with a box over our hands to show we knew where all of the keys were, which using the right fingers helped with. I also think I highly benefited from growing up when instant messaging was a thing. That was great typing practice! I think it's the biggest thing lacking today, even though computers/laptops are so prevalent. These children do so much of their social interaction on cell phones using texting, so they're using just their thumbs or whatever fingers they "swype" with. My typing skills are super helpful. I wish there was a high paying job just for typing quickly/accurately. I think it is, sadly, my greatest skill in life. 

 

And yes - super infuriating that we're allowing the Russians to provide "security" to our embassy. Glad Rachel is bringing attention to the story, as she is doing with so many during this administration. 

[suomi]

Joy has a lovely complexion and her skin appears to be well-hydrated; she looks like someone who takes good care of herself. And she has resting pleasant face.

[jjj]

So, Rachel tells us that tomorrow MSNBC will have a Big Scoop -- presumably on her show. (?)   By Richard Engle.  Okay, I would have tuned in anyway, so I don't appreciate cliffhangers.  Although, once I finish this post, I am likely to forget about it until tomorrow...

ETA:  Duh, I forgot this is Thursday -- so what she was saying is that Richard Engle will pre-empt her show on Friday, "tomorrow".

Edited November 17, 2017 by jjj

[kassygreene]

2 hours ago, VMepicgrl said:

I think I'm a little younger than those here. I had brief experience with a typewriter and then word processor as a kid, but computers came about during my childhood. We had typing classes in school back then, and they did teach proper hand formation and typing with the whole hand. We got to a point where we had to show we could type with a box over our hands to show we knew where all of the keys were, which using the right fingers helped with. I also think I highly benefited from growing up when instant messaging was a thing. That was great typing practice! I think it's the biggest thing lacking today, even though computers/laptops are so prevalent. These children do so much of their social interaction on cell phones using texting, so they're using just their thumbs or whatever fingers they "swype" with. My typing skills are super helpful. I wish there was a high paying job just for typing quickly/accurately. I think it is, sadly, my greatest skill in life. 

 

And yes - super infuriating that we're allowing the Russians to provide "security" to our embassy. Glad Rachel is bringing attention to the story, as she is doing with so many during this administration. 

I took a typing class my senior year of high school.  There were a few electric (not Selectric) typewriters which we were allowed to use once we'd passed all the tests on the manual typewriters.  The manual keys took a certain degree of strength, and also you couldn't type too fast or the bars would jam.  And you "hit return" by reaching up with your left hand, pulling the arm and gently slamming the paper roll all the way to the right.  

Once we had manual down, we could learn electric, which let you type a little faster as the machine didn't let you jam the bars, but you also had to learn to "hit return" by tapping a very large key with your right pinky.  There was a sometimes lengthy learning curve before you'd stop lifting your hand to find the arm to "hit return".

I tested out at forty words per minute in late February, which gave me an A for the year (yep, a year to learn how to touch type).  I then spent three months typing whatever I wanted to type.  It was fabulous.

[Quilt Fairy]

1 hour ago, kassygreene said:

And you "hit return" by reaching up with your left hand, pulling the arm and gently slamming the paper roll all the way to the right.  

Once we had manual down, we could learn electric, which let you type a little faster as the machine didn't let you jam the bars, but you also had to learn to "hit return" by tapping a very large key with your right pinky.  There was a sometimes lengthy learning curve before you'd stop lifting your hand to find the arm to "hit return".

Believe it or not, the electric typewriter I bought in college was a hybrid that still had the manual return level.  I think I was so used to automatically reaching up and slamming the roller back that I was in fear of the "return" button!  (Why yes, I am somewhat resistant to change, thank you very much....)

I also remember back in the early '80s (when I worked as an engineer for a very large company) having to watch a video that explained why we couldn't call the typing pool the "typing pool" any longer, it was now "word processing". 

[possibilities]

On 11/17/2017 at 0:16 AM, Quilt Fairy said:

the electric typewriter I bought in college was a hybrid that still had the manual return level

I had one of those, too! I hated it!! It slows you down tremendously to have to reach up for the manual return at the end of every line.

I got to use a Selectric at work for a while. I loved that machine so much! It was radically better than other typewriters of the time.

I had no idea that people don't learn to type with a full hand nowadays. That's crazy!! We use keyboards so much more now, I'd have thought it would be a high priority for everyone.