Well, I finally did it -- I got myself a Hermes 2000.  I've been literally bombarded over a long span of time as to what my thoughts regarding this machine were; since i didn't have one, all I could say was ... well...  "I don't have one."  Now, of course, we'll have to stage the full-blown shootout between this machine, the Hermes 3000 and perhaps a few competitive contemporaries.

Just have to remember to stop one of these days for a ribbon, which I keep forgetting to do....