Bits and Pieces

The winner (of the moment) in the Replace Quink in My Desk sweepstakes is Pelikan Royal Blue.  Its triumph arises from it being relatively well-behaved, inexpensive, and locally available.  I think that if it hadn’t been undercut by that last qualification, I’d have gone with Waterman’s Florida Blue as being a little less fey (consider the sad land where bottled Waterman ink can’t be found in a store).  I’m giving the current stuff a week to prove itself, after which I may begin a slow campaign of adulteration with the same company’s black.

A programme I recommend listening to, if the mad return to the working world leave one any time, is a BBC 4 show called In Our Time, the current series of which entitled “The Written World” is about how writing (even absent a fountain pen!) has amended every culture which has stumbled against it.  It gains a small advantage from being presented in the wonderfully mellow accents the BBC is so well known for, and which many of us North American find so compelling.

I have just sent a package off to the land of Auntie Beeb, and looking at the address I wrote upon it makes me think I’ll discontinue the use of today’s pen/ink combination when I get home.  Today’s ink is just too darn feathery for me to deal with; it looks altogether too much like the marker marks I was barking about last week.  I used it only because it will definitely remain legible during the trip.

Finally, and the reason for this oddly disjointed entry; it appears that the Christmas press at the post office has been replaced by the glut of people waiting until the end of the Christmas press to post their packages.

Today’s pen (quite satisfactory): Sheaffer Sovereign
Today’s ink (less so): Noodler’s Polar Blue

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