人妻少妇专区

Features

It鈥檚 windy and cold at the Rochester Public Market, and the black box that houses Karl Smith鈥檚 1926 Underwood typewriter keeps falling to the pavement. As Smith picks it up, he spots a couple walking past crates of apples, pumpkins, and gourds. They鈥檙e among the few customers shopping on this blustery Tuesday morning.

鈥淲ould you like a story?鈥� Smith asks with a smile. 鈥淛ust 10 cents a story.鈥�

The couple looks unsure.

鈥淥r,鈥� he says, 鈥淚鈥檒l do it for free.鈥�

Sitting on a folding chair, tapping away on his 90-year-old typewriter, Smith creates stories on demand, for a mere dime. Since September 2013, the 27-year-old has set up shop at the market, the Rochester Museum and Science Center, the Strong Museum of Play, a cocktail lounge in Rochester, and even in Manhattan this past summer while serving as an American Association for the Advancement of Science mass media fellow at Scientific American magazine .

鈥淚 can鈥檛 describe what I feel when I鈥檓 writing,鈥� Smith says. 鈥淚t does something to me. It鈥檚 like I was put here to do this. I want to make the world a stranger, more whimsical place.鈥�

A PhD candidate in biophysics, Smith studies glass filters 10,000 times thinner than a human hair as part of the Nanomembranes Research Group. It鈥檚 because of his rigorous academic schedule that he began the 10-cent project. 鈥淚 wanted something to keep me sane at the end of the day when I left the lab,鈥� he says.

The Pittsburgh native has written more than 900 stories, each roughly 500 words, on half sheets of paper. Strangers give him a prompt, and he pecks away. He鈥檚 crafted stories about lost loves, lost dogs, sea lions, flying princesses, and frogs who jump over the moon. Stories about babies, treehouses, aardvarks, and dancing polar bears. Stories about murder.

鈥淚t鈥檚 dizzying the stories I鈥檝e been told,鈥� he says. There was the woman who asked him to write about being unable to tell a man she loved him. The reason? 鈥淚鈥檓 married,鈥� she told Smith.

He says 鈥渨riter鈥檚 block is not an option.鈥� And neither is Liquid Paper. If he makes a typo, he backspaces and types over the word with capital X鈥檚.

Smith has long been fascinated by typewriters and began collecting them while studying physics and English at Allegheny College. He found his current one on Craigslist for $30.

鈥淚 use a typewriter because it鈥檚 impossible to ignore,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he tapping and the ring of the bell is a draw. And when I鈥檓 done, I have a one-and-only physical object.鈥�

He catalogs each story by taking a photo of the finished product on his phone. He posts several each week at 10centstories.com and Facebook.com/10centstories, where he also lists his upcoming appearances.

Why 10 cents? 鈥淲hen my dad was in second grade, his brother told him that he needed to collect dimes,鈥� Smith says. 鈥� 鈥楶ennies are worthless, nickels are too heavy. Dimes have the best value-to-weight ratio,鈥� And my dad took it to heart. When he asked my mom to marry him, he paid for the engagement ring with dimes.鈥�

鈥淭here really is a story for everyone,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what my future holds, but I know I want to keep doing this. I feel it鈥檚 a calling.鈥�

鈥擩im Mandelaro