Cormac McCarthy had his Lettera 32 Olivetti. I want a keyboard I can love for a lifetime!

I believe it was Paul Auster who wrote an essay for Toni Morrison's Burn this book: PEN writers speak out on the power of the word in which he described his obsession with writing instruments. I've shared this obsession since I was taught to write my name. I was one of the kids who would ask for pen sets and think the mechanical pencil was childish (which is ironic, because until I was nearly finished with my Bachelor degree, I wrote everything except for checks in pencil, in case it needed editing). But I've always LOVED pens and journals and paper and yadda yadda.

In fact, I currently have a pen in my desk drawer that I've owned for probably two decades (& I'm only 30, so it's been with me over half my life!). It ran out of ink long ago and I haven't been able to find a replacement cartridge. But it has such a perfect height & weight that I'm unable to part with it. It's not even comfortable to write with! It's metal and causes a horrible indention on my finger that feels like it has reached and begun to grind on bone if I use it very long. But there's just something about the way I remember my penmanship appearing (when the dang thing still had ink) that keeps me from throwing it away.

ANYWAY __ THE POINT IS __ Knowing this, I am astonished that I've just realized the hideous design of my current Dell Studio laptop keyboard! It's flat, unresponsive and utterly painful to use after 2,000 or so words.

I'm not romantic enough about writing to think I need to toil away on my beige IBM Selectric II, though I do thoroughly enjoy using it. In fact, I probably WOULD use the darn thing if I could find sensibly priced ink ribbons. But a good keyboard built for those of us who spend hours at a time typing away MUST exist somewhere, right? So, I'm on the hunt.

Any heads-up on where to look is greatly appreciated!