Texting, circa 1920, came armored

I've just posted on my other blog, Backspace Typewriters, an entry about an ironclad hulk from "texting" history.

I'll just send you over there for the details and a look see.

Suffice to say that you will find a texter's nightmare. Try driving and texting on this baby and its seven rows of keys.

The good news is that as you intently search for the right key (there are 89 to choose from) and you drift into the on-coming lane, the No. 10A doubles as body armor in a head-on.

Ralph Nader take note: In a head-to-head collision, a Freighliner is no match for the Smith-Premier No. 10A.

How about a Freighliner bailout?

Gee, since the government is on such a tear printing and spreading money around to banks and Wall Street, why not send some this way to bail out Portland’s Freightliner?

Yesterday Daimler, the German owner of the company, announced that it’s pulling the plug on the Swan Island Freightliner plant and its 900 workers. That’s a real body blow to our local economy.

If smearing taxpayer money around is good for Wall Street, it might work for Swan Island, where the heavy-duty rigs are assembled.

But any government investment in Freightliner shouldn’t promote business as usual.

Retool the Portland operation to make long-haul, efficient ELECTRIC trucks.

Truckers, hard hit by rising fuel costs, would beat a path to our door.