This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

And we continue with our American stories.

And now a story from one of our regular contributors, Burt Rosica.

In 2012, for reasons known only to Providence, I decided to type a list of the reasons

why a manual typewriter is better than a computer.

My intent when I started was to come up with 99 reasons.

The reason I settled on 99 was because back in 1985, Tom Boswell, who was then the beat reporter for baseball for the Washington Post, was given a assignment by his editor to come up with the 99 reasons why baseball is better than football.

And as he tells the story, he comes into the office at 9 in the morning,

and his editor tells him he needs, on his desk by 12 o'clock, at least 99 reasons.

Boswell goes back to his office a little anxious that he may or may not be able to

accomplish the task in the time allotted and proceeds to write on his typewriter.

According to him, it took him 45 minutes to complete the task.

And it became an instant classic and part of the pantheon of baseball.

The reason I had a newfound appreciation for the typewriter had to do with the fact that our then 12-year-old

son shows up one day with a typewriter. I asked him, why in the world did you buy a typewriter?

And he told me, I always wanted one, Dad. I thought, all right.

He got the typewriter at a thrift store in our town.

And the reason he was at the thrift store

was because at the age of 12, he decided he did not want to attend

the cotillion at his school wearing khaki color chinos.

He wanted to wear Nantucket red colored chinos.

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