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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 157
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 157 |
flashlights and scissors and needle-nose pliers (why do I suddenly want to break into a chorus of "My Favorite Things"?).Flashlights and scissors and needle-nose pliers, Scotch tape dispensers and things to cut wires, Wite-Out and batt'ries and old keychain rings, These are a few of my oft-missing things! 
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Hey, that was good, Pi!  Didja eat some of your brother's birthday cake?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 157
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member
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 157 |
Thanks!
Um...what brother's cake?
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328 |
Thanks!
Um...what brother's cake?
I think Jackie confused you with the other Pi, 3.14159 (the erstwhile JimthedogII), whose brother Jimthedog just celebrated a birthday.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
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Since there's a bit of thread resurrection going on, here's an old gem I always meant to revive since it's a wonderful read and understandably petered out through the distraction of 9/11/01. And it also, somehow, has been scarce in mention of past "best" threads here. I think new folks will find it a treat, and those around then will enjoy the reread, too. And, hopefully, some new posts will add to its treasure.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
wonderful. especially this, from Rhuby: Apart from these, I am surrounded by shelves of books and my computer table. There is a very small space in the middle of all this, where I sit in arachnoid stillness, watching for the screen to flicker, so that I can pounce. it reminded me of one of my favorite books: the View from Saturday, by E. L. Konigsburg. one of the boys learns calligraphy from his aunt(grandmother? I'll need to read it again. yippee!), and it always starts with the preparation of the materials, not with the pen first hitting the paper...
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
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One of my favourite writers - Kipling - wrote an idiosyncratic autobiography Something of myself in which he describes, at length and with great fondness, the act of setting himself up to write - the pen, the ink (ground India ink, if I remember rightly), and so on. Most enlightening is his description of his editing process. He let the dæmon take him and wrote whatever came, and then, over a period of time, he would sit with the draft, and his pen, and black out words. As he tells it, he never added a word, but always, over three or so revisions, deleted words. Some critics feel that this may be the reaon for the increasingly elliptical nature of his stories in the latter half of his life ("Mrs Bathurst" being so elliptical and enigmatic that even today most critics disagree on what the story is 'about').
Just thought I'd throw that in...
(And yes, my favourite ever pen was my Mont Blanc - pressie from my dad for my BA exams. Like most of my other stuff, lost a few years ago. I know have a few cheaper, but still rather nice, pens - a Pelikan and a couple of Lamys. Have never been able to get used to pens with balls in the tip, they slide over the page to promiscuously to allow for decent control. Only necessary for writing through copies, and shunned for all other purposes. I also affect a mechanical pencil - I love their versatility, even though the writing line doesn't have the density of ink.)
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Do y'all do crosswords in pen or pencil?
I too love mechanical pencils, shanks, and wouldn't use any other kind. Unless I were on a desert island or something.
I also dislike ballpoints but sometimes I'm forced to use them, not only for forms with copies (love your use of "promiscuously"!). Since I'm left-handed, and unlike Leonardo da Vinci, write from left to right, if I use a felt or ink [sic] pen whose ink doesn't dry immediately I find the heel of my hand blackened or blued by the time I'm done.
Fascinating story about Kipling!
Here's a tidbit: I don't know what kind of writing instrument he used, but Goethe wrote everything standing up at a kind of draftsman's table.
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Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 725
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2003
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Mmm, pens! A favorite subject!
I prefer a ballpoint pen for writing. Its flow matches the speed of my writing. I have found that the ink pens, such as Uniball, Gel, liquid ink roller balls, etc. flow too fast for me and therefore cause my handwriting to get sloppy.
I love Sharpies and mechanical pencils, too!
Here’s my history on the love of the fountain pen: my mother has a beautiful Parker pen that she used to write with, and I admired it when I was a child. One year for Christmas I received my own Parker fountain pen. I used it all through junior high and high school until something happened to it and I could never get it to work right. After college, I bought my own Schaeffer pen – a lovely, slim design.
This year at Christmas my mother gave me a fountain pen (which I had admired on her desk). The pen is marked Conklin by ENDURA, and belonged to my great-grandfather, Harry Needham. It sits on a marble base, in a holder, and his name is engraved on a small plaque. It dates from the mid 1920’s. He died in 1948 at the age of 75.
I’m digressing here, but I also possess the flute which belong to his father, Winford Needham. Winford played in a Union regiment in the US Civil War. It’s a rosewood flute with an ivory headpiece. Interesting, huh? It’s quite a museum piece.
So anyway, this pen of Harry’s is the kind that has the little lever which draws the ink up into a rubber sac. I haven’t tried it to see if it works, since I’ve assumed it won’t and I don’t want to get it (and me) all messy trying.
To answer AnnaS, I do crosswords in pencil. My friend who is left-handed (a sinister fellow!) prefers the Pilot V-5 pens which, as was noted in an earlier post, dry quickly and do not smudge on his paper or on his hand. Maybe Goethe had a bad back???
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