AFFAIRS OF THE HEART
Everyone, it seems, loves something, whether it’s collecting teaspoons or shoes, playing Dungeons & Dragons or root, root, rooting for the home team. With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, we spoke to a few Ottawans whose extraordinary loves typically don’t get their own day to be celebrated.
“You are an artist,” wrote actor Tom Hanks, “equal to Picasso, and everything you type is a one-of-akind work.”
Hanks is a collector and connoisseur of typewriters — he owns hundreds — and these words are part of a list (No. 8) he compiled of the 11 reasons for using one.
“The combination of paper quality,” he continued, “the age of the ribbon, the minute quirks of your machine, the occasional misuse of the space bar, and the options of the margins and tabs all add up to make anything you type as varied and unique as the thoughts in your head and the ridges of your fingerprints. Everything you type is a snowflake all its own.”
If the billowy uniqueness of typewritten notes isn’t enough to sway you, though, consider Hanks’s Reason No. 11: “Typewriter = Chick Magnet.”
We can’t help loving the things we love. Partners, for sure, as witnessed by the avalanche of chocolates, jewelry, champagne and heart-shaped greeting cards bearing saccharine rhymes expected late next week, all part of the feast of the patron saint of love.
We also possess an almost irrational devotion to our pets. How else to explain the ever-exploding community of spas, cafés, schools, motels and daycares dedicated to our Fidos and Smudges?
Oh, yeah, and we like our children, too.
But let us not forget our less conventional but equally fervent affairs of the heart, those typewriters we lovingly collect, maintain and admire. Mozart, for example, was a huge aficionado of billiards, and often composed music while waiting his turn in public billiard halls (he also owned his own table).
Humorist Mark Twain was obsessed with Joan of Arc. Film director Quentin Tarantino collects vintage board games. Former Canadian prime minister Mackenzie King couldn’t pass up a decent seance. And Osama bin Laden was reportedly extremely good at volleyball and played every day.
“It can be coins or sports or politics or horses or music or faith,” says a character in romance novelist Nicholas Sparks’ 2006 book, Dear John. “The saddest people I’ve ever met in life are the ones who don’t care deeply about anything at all. Passion and satisfaction go hand in hand, and without them, any happiness is only temporary, because there’s nothing to make it last.”
With that in mind, we scoured Ottawa’s four corners, its chat rooms, Meetup groups and social media sites, and discovered a few residents with their own passions, for music, literature, sport and pop culture.