Wite Makes Right

[plumtreeblossom]

[Poll #1072919]

Comments

[mizarchivist]

The Wite-Out is within hand's reach. I've not used it today, but within the past 2 weeks. (I'd have added a "weeks" category).
Sometimes I even use a typewriter. I have none of those within sight (not plugged in) of my chair.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I used it today for the first time in accessible memory. It was for a fax cover sheet that had the wrong today's-date on it, and it was either Wite Out the date or chase down The Boss to sign it all over again. Thank goodness there's a guy here who goes through about 3 bottles of Wite Out a month here. He loaned me some.

[gilana]

I've taped blank paper over things like that before :)

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Heck for a fax cover sheet? I'd just cross out the old date and put in the correct date.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Yep, roll-on counts. I've never actually seen the roll-on version, but I trust you. :-)

[ron_newman]

Used it so rarely that I had to throw the bottles out because they had all dried up.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

That happens if I have a bottle at home. I do the Staples orders here at work, and there's someone who asks for a 3-pack every month or so. There are no typewriters in the office, so I suppose he uses it for relabelling or something. Glad we had some around today!

[minkrose]

You should really look into the wite out TAPE or rather correction tape. I think that's what the above poster means by the roll-on kind. I FREAKING LOVE THAT STUFF. It doesn't dry up! But it really works!

You can find it at Staples. I always have some around.

Just for grins and small trivial matters

[http://users.livejournal.com/_guitarzan_/]

Bette Nesmith Graham used a kitchen blender to create liquid paper.
It was originally called "mistake out", the invention of Bette Nesmith Graham, a Dallas secretary and a single mother raising a son* on her own. Graham used her own kitchen blender to mix up her first batch of liquid paper or white out, a substance used to cover up mistakes made on paper.

Background - Bette Nesmith Graham
Bette Nesmith Graham never intended to be an inventor; she wanted to be an artist. However, shortly after World War II ended, she found herself divorced with a small child to support. She learned shorthand and typing and found employment as an executive secretary. An efficient employee who took pride in her work, Graham sought a better way to correct typing errors. She remembered that artists painted over their mistakes on canvas, so why couldn’t typists paint over their mistakes?

Invention of Liquid Paper
Bette Nesmith Graham put some tempera waterbased paint, colored to match the stationery she used, in a bottle and took her watercolor brush to the office.
She used this to correct her typing mistakes… her boss never noticed. Soon another secretary saw the new invention and asked for some of the correcting fluid. Graham found a green bottle at home, wrote "Mistake Out" on a label, and gave it to her friend. Soon all the secretaries in the building were asking for some, too.

Bette Nesmith Graham - The Mistake Out Company
In 1956, Bette Nesmith Graham started the Mistake Out Company (later renamed Liquid Paper) from her North Dallas home. She turned her kitchen into a laboratory, mixing up an improved product with her electric mixer. Graham’s son, Michael Nesmith (later of The Monkees fame), and his friends filled bottles for her customers. Nevertheless, she made little money despite working nights and weekends to fill orders. One day an opportunity came in disguise. Graham made a mistake at work that she couldn’t correct, and her boss fired her. She now had time to devote to selling Liquid Paper, and business boomed.

Bette Nesmith Graham and Liquid Paper's Success
By 1967, it had grown into a million dollar business. In 1968, she moved into her own plant and corporate headquarters, automated operations, and had 19 employees. That year Bette Nesmith Graham sold one million bottles. In 1975, Liquid Paper moved into a 35,000-sq. ft., international headquarters building in Dallas. The plant had equipment that could produce 500 bottles a minute. In 1976, the Liquid Paper Corporation turned out 25 million bottles. Its net earnings were $1.5 million. The company spent $1 million a year on advertising, alone.
Bette Nesmith Graham believed money to be a tool, not a solution to a problem. She set up two foundations to help women find new ways to earn a living. Graham died in 1980, six months after selling her corporation for $47.5 million.

Re: Just for grins and small trivial matters

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

That was a great read! I have a brand new respect for the product I used today, all the way in 2007. I hope she'd be proud to know it's still around. :-)

[trowa-barton.livejournal.com]

Archaic technology
I remember using white out strips in high school back when I owned a Smith Corrona.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

In college I had a manual typewriter that had a correction ribbon. :-)

[ron_newman]

Those are different from the stuff you smear on the paper.

[thesynergizer.livejournal.com]

i swear i was just talking about this with someone ... can't remember if it was on lj or not.

[komos.livejournal.com]

I have a Liquid Paper correction pen and image manipulation software that allows me to blank out whole sections of documents, both of which are used near daily as part of my work here at the Information Ministry.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Have not used it in years, but in cleaning up my home-office supplies recently I found a couple of bottles. One was cleary all dried up so got thrown out. The other still seemed usable, so it didn't.

[beowabbit]

Almost exactly one year ago, which period of time was sadly not among your choices. (I needed it to send in my tax return last year.)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

This time next year, I'll buy you another bottle of it so you can do your 2007 return. :-)

*kisses your nose*