I learned on one of those hefty behemoths, too, but my fingers were never strong enough to type fast on them. Typing A with my little finger was a workout!

I've seen Tom Hanks talk about his love of typewriters a few times. Have you seen "California Typewriter"? He shows his collection there, but the most amazing stories are those of David McCullough and Robert Caro. They both still write on their old mechanical typewriters! Caro's LBJ series, some 700 pages long, and McCullough's complex histories of all things American--written on typewriters. They're proponents of writing slow, thinking in between sentences. I was humbled!