A short break from politics to acknowledge tradition, dedication and longevity. Manson Whitlock died last month at the age of 96. You've never heard of Whitlock, but for the better part of 8 decades, he was a typewriter repairman. Some of our younger readers may wonder what a typewriter is. Not really, of course. But there's a pretty good chance that anyone under the age of 25 has never had to use one, being lucky enough to be born in the digital age and word processing. But for us old timers, the typewriter is a touchstone to a different time, a different America. The IBM Selectric was hugely popular in offices during the 1970's and most of the 80's. If you worked in an office during that time, chances are you used one. I learned to type on an old Royal manual typewriter. By the time I got to college, my parents were able to give me a cheap Scholastic electric typewriter which was constantly jamming and had problems with the paper feed. I still see the computer as something of a...(Read Full Post)