A digital moment of silence, perhaps – in light of the unexpected collapse of my NCR electronic calculator, having served faithfully for thirty-five years. The plug was pulled this morning and the oversized math aid was placed in an area of honor at the back of the store.
It was a pioneer in its field. Ol’ Trusty couldn’t be bothered with scientific functions: no sines or cosines, no square roots or such etherial thinking. No, it was the big four that O-T mastered. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. A paper record of transactions? No way. Just the facts, ma’am, on an inoffensive glowing green screen. It came from the days when calculators were the new thing, just like those upstart electronic 4G phones are today. Ol’ Trusty was not 4G. More than likely – 1A Dinosaur.
I’m awaiting a call from the Smithsonian, where it surely belongs.