Doug Wilson

Linotype, Astrology, and Invisible, Radioactive Pencil Patents (you know, just the usual stuff):

https://realdougwilson.com/writing/linotype-bulletin-astrological-covers

One of the best episodes from the one of the best podcasts on one of the most important things to remember about the most important founding father of my country: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-memory-palace/id299436963?i=1000753746758

You’ve got to be a *very* specific type of Midwest emo kid from the early 2000s to understand this, but imagine my surprise when this song came on my “New Music” playlist and it is NEW MUSIC FROM CRITERIA!

https://music.apple.com/us/album/you-maketh-me/1869769241?i=1869769249

I am a grown man.

College-educated.

Have been using technology for over 25 years.

And my printer still only works about 55% of the time.

Ah, crap.

I just found another Linotype archive.

It’s at the Science and Industry Museum, in Manchester, England.

I’ve known about this one for a while but didn’t realize the large amount of holdings they have.

I thought I could get by without visiting it.

I don’t think I can.

Current status:

New Metric album coming out in April, for those who celebrate: https://music.apple.com/us/album/romanticize-the-dive/1861918507

Just completed my taxes for 2025 and it feels great to be done (it’s always complicated as I have my own business).

However: knowing that my thousands will go to ICE and the military instead of National Parks and education, while the richest and most corrupt pay nothing, makes my blood boil.

I just found the still-existing houses that Mergenthaler Linotype Company built for some of its employees in the early 1920s!

They were well-built and sold to employees at below-market value. Some of them have been renovated, but many have not.

Located in East Midwood, Brooklyn on East 28th Street between Avenue N and Avenue O: https://maps.app.goo.gl/iScwmndejh2FfaSW6

Refreshed my @buttondown@mastodon.social newsletter archive today and scheduled Issue № 17 to send out early next week!

What’s that? You’re not subscribed? Well…

https://buttondown.com/linotypebook/archive/

RE: @BijouType@typo.social

Dan has tempted me for years about attending this and from what he says, it would be 100% the best decision of your life.

I just had to tell ChatGPT what today’s date was, so…

I’ve never directly worked with Scott, but he is a nice person and the TTF crew are also nice people, so this seems like a good opportunity!
@scott@typo.social

I don’t know, it seems like, maybe, *just maybe,* they couldn’t convince people to pay extra for their unwanted jamming-AI-into-every-single-product, including a product called “Nano Banana Pro,” so they have to just give it away at no additional cost in a desperate attempt to justify burning of so much cash and the very world itself?!

Newest addition to my Linotype collection is this small book of poetry about printing, newspapers, and the Linotype.

Yes, poetry about the printed word.

I have been collecting poetry on this subject for several years because I find it fascinating, but also entirely obvious: these printers were conveyors of words and so, of course, they had the tendency to wax poetic about the machines that they used!

(Bonus: Dwiggins type and ornaments)

Still the most useful application on my Macintosh is … (checks notes) … TextEdit.

Just booked my flights for @fontstand@typo.social conference in Berlin in April!

My first Fontstand conference, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it compares to other type conferences.

If you’re also going to be there, make sure to message me privately as I’d love to meet up.

RE: @kottke@mastodon.social

Hey, it’s my side project!

For your weekend reading, I’ve uploaded a 1969 article about electronic typesetting (along with a fair bit of printing and typesetting history) to the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/typesetting-gerard-o-walter-sci-am-may-1969 The acceleration of typesetting at this time was truly mind-blowing: Hand setting: approx. 80 characters per minute Linotype: approx. 400 characters per minute Electronic CRT: up to 6,000 character per SECOND 🤯