I just cometh from the Mothership to bring you tidings and news of a new gadget called "The Fountain Pen." (no it has nothing to do with water. Ink.... you fill a little converter with ink, out of a bottle, no less.
I grew up using fountain pens and when the mighty ballpoint came alive, I reached for it with lust in my heart..... but phooey ........ I soon tossed it aside and returned to my loving fountain pen. I'm archaic in so many areas. But that is why I am called.... drum roll.... ta-dum...... the SURVIVOR.
I'll add one thing.... Those Germans sure do know their technology. I love it when a label says, "Made in Germany." My new pen on the right is a German made Lamy..... love of my life. No frills or dills, plain, not shiny and slightly bulky but it's like writing with velvet. Swoon. And what a reasonable price..... no I don't sell them.
Cheers from the ink-stained finger SURVIVOR.
Hi there. I so agree with you about fountain pens. I have several of them, and I love them. Handwriting is so much more special when written with a fountain pen! Now all we need to do is to bring back the handwritten letter!
ReplyDeletethisisme :And Amen to that. I love penmanship but lately, thank you computer, my handwriting has gone to hell in a handbasket.
ReplyDeleteMy, I haven't held one in ages but then I don't hold many pens these days thanks to the computer. Sigh. Probably for the best. I used to have a doctors handwriting, now it has digressed to preschool scribbles. Again Sigh.
ReplyDeletePatti : Oh yes, doesn't a computer ruin good penmanship!!!!! It's disgusting but I'm a note taker when I watch documentaries on YT so that gives my fountain pen a good workout.
ReplyDeleteMy penmanship is lousy because of the after-effects of a broken elbow in childhood. So I'm happy to chuck all pens in favor of computers. However, I love your pens. When I heard they are thinking of doing away with teaching children penmanship in school, I was shocked.
ReplyDeleteSamson Says: Thank you Cody, for commenting on my post.
ReplyDeleteInger : Me too. Kids are going to be so dependent on power from the nuke plant and if one day it goes kaput, they won't be able to do anything. They won't even be able to write.
ReplyDeleteInger : Cody says, "Woof."
ReplyDeleteHow about that? I love my fountain pens, too. Alas, they all use cartridges, though. Not quite the same as sucking up the washable blue ink straight out of the bottle.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I don't remember the last time I used a fountain pen...
ReplyDeleteI sometimes with I had grown up in the era of writing rather than typing, for I've always admired beautiful penmanship.
ReplyDeleteSusan : So happy you appreciate fountain pen. But you can still "suck it up." I buy converts for the new ones and you can either stick the nib in the ink and suck it up for the turner things on the converter or stick the end of the converter in the ink and then put it in the nib part. That way you can fill it again and again and use different color inks. Inks are a real art, too. The good ones are really expensive but beautiful and long lasting. Do I sould like a fan of ink.... or what? I have a few antique pens too where the thingy to suck the ink up is on the side of the pen.
ReplyDeleteCan't say I have ever used a fountain pen. But it is clear you sure enjoy them a ton at your den.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I do book signings, I always sign with an ink pen. It makes me feel special whether anyone else things so or not.
ReplyDeleteI love them.
Fishducky : You're just too young. You can't pull the wool over my eyes.
ReplyDeleteOptimistic : Me too. Wish I had been a contemporary of E. Barret and Robert Browning. But they wrote with a quill pen. And such gorgeous writing and penmanship to boot. Soon, penmanship will be a lost art as they are removing it from the schools. I like having all this information at my fingertips but it lacks so much. too. Nice to see you as always.
Pat Hatt.... My enjoyment is just an old hangover from an equally oldie who can get with the modern. As Life 101 says, he writes with one at his book signings. You should try it but if you get an ink blob, blame it on cat and not me. Ha
ReplyDeleteLife 101 : I bet that is some precious sight with you signing with your ink pen. And never fear, you are special to many people, with or without ink pen.
The first time I ever used a fountain pen was in art class in high school. I always thought they were so neat. We learned calligraphy using them and also black/white drawings.
ReplyDeleteRuth : And the art ink pens have that narrow, narrow nib that allows one to make the wonderful pen and ink drawings. I imagine you really enjoyed that class
ReplyDeleteThat is so kind of you to share this, as I sometimes write longhand and if the fountain pen makes the writing process easier, the better for me. Thank you so much Survivor!
ReplyDeleteI am among those who were at the tail end of kids who learned penmanship using fountain pens. Before the advent of the cartridge, school work was always filled with blue blotches of ink that leaked from the pen. I always went home with ink all over my hands and then there was the time I spilled ink all over my homework!! We all used pretty cheap pens...after all we were kids. I haven't used a fountain pen since the day I got my first ballpoint. And I haven't missed them one bit! :)
ReplyDeleteHa!! I have use those. Of course I was very young. Always seemed to spill the ink.
ReplyDeleteLove the reply to thisisme.... My Mom used to say Going to hell in a handbasket. What the heck is a handbasket anyway??
Love to you Dear Manzi!!
Murees, Not all fountain pens are alike. Some bad, some good. The pens we had at school were lousy. It was just a wood pen handle and you stuck a nib in it and had to keep dipping it in a ink well. Have you ever seen an antique school desk with a little hole in mostly the upper right side and some on the upper left side. They held your little ink-well. And depending if you were right or left handed, that was the desk you got. Actually the school provided all the pen and ink supplies.
ReplyDeleteMellodee : The pen and ink were supplied by the school, at least ours was. That was a stick with a nib attached and the ink came out of a 50 gallon vat. Well, probably. What song would you associate with this, the Ink Spots?
ReplyDeleteTerry, I think it must be a basket that you could hold by the handle. I don't know really. I've just always hear that expression and sometimes use it. Maybe I should look it up.
ReplyDeleteIt's raining today. Crazy, huh? By Thursday it's supposed to be in low 20's again.
I hope you are headed for warmer weather....Love from Manzi
Yeah!!! LOVE fountain pens.
ReplyDeleteRosemary
Aha, great places those Motherships. And I bring my Friendship :)
ReplyDeleteWe used to use fountain pens in school. It was really neat as we had a little tub of ink to dip the girl in front of me's, ponytail in, I mean to dip my quill in :)
And before I make a complete ink of myself...I'm outta' here.....
Sadly I have developed the habit (probably from using ballpoints for so long) of pressing very hard when I write. If I am not using a 1mm gel-roller pen I rip the paper every time!
ReplyDeleteFountain pens are fantastic! They look great, write better, and are just downright classy.
ReplyDeleteThe ones made in Germany scare me, though. The label that comes in each box of German fountain pens, "You Vil Like Zis Pen Und You Vil Use It und Luff It Or Ve Zhall Zhoot Zis Puppy," is a bit off-putting.
Especially for the puppy.
Rosemary : Thanks for visiting. Happy sailing.
ReplyDeleteKlahanie : I remember the desks had the hole for the ink well either on the right or left, depending if you were right or left handed. Pony tails, huh? You can tell you're younger cause with us, it was pig-tails. Just a different animal.
Chuck : WOW you are a regular paper shredder. Did you know that some of the nibs on the old fountain pens were gold.
ReplyDeleteAl: You know, Al, I did see that notice from Germany but since this is a dog eat dog society, I guess I thought the puppy can fend for himself. Yeah, fountain pens do look classy. Maybe people will think I graduated from Harvard.
After reading this post, I had to go to my desk and check whether or not I still had my fountain pen from my college days. I do. I do have it! Alas... but no ink. I always taught my 1st graders that penmanship is so important and yet, lately my handwriting has gone to hell in a hand basket too.
ReplyDeleteKay,
ReplyDeleteYay.... you'll have so much fun writing. I'm a note taker when I watch video's on YT or listen to something interesting on the radio. Yeah, the computer does that to handwriting, doesn't it? Ha
I remember fountain pens, I loved mine. Now all I have is ballpoints. I don't know what happened to my fountain, I stopped using it many years ago when blotting paper was no longer available.
ReplyDeleteMy handwriting isn't so good anyway, it starts out nice, then deteriorates within a sentence or two and is mostly scribble by the end of a page.
My letters these days are email anyway, except for those to my sister who doesn't have a computer.
For her I'll type and print, then hand sign it. She's older than I am, so a typed letter is easier for her to read.
Ooh! Just been reading through the comments...I STILL have two of the handle and nib pens from primary (elementary) school. We had double desks with an inkwell to the right of each seat, so if you were left handed you had to reach across your work to dip the nib. Handles were supplied with our text books and exercise books at the beginning of the year but if we needed new nibs we had to buy them. Our ink came in powder form and the "ink monitor" for the week had to mix it with water and fill the inkwells every morning. Homework that had ink blots were downgraded if the teacher couldn't read through them.
ReplyDeleteManzi, you touched a respondent chord here. I looooved my fountain pen. Remember those ink-stained fingers well. Hey, remember how a dab of Clorox could remove a splatter? One had to have a light touch, move quickly. And you're so right about German pens. There are still small stores in Germany where one can buy the most fab pens. I drool. They're very expensive.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to you and yours, Manzie.
River : Oh I'm so happy you kept your pen handle and nib from grammar school. We never had double desks, just single. We may have had ink monitor but I can't recall that. I think I always remember the teacher having it already in a huge jug and if we needed more ink she would fill our ink wells. Of course, my memory is very vivid in some things but really dim in others. Someone had to fill our wells in the morning so maybe we did have monitors. I do recall the well itself.... the cover was a cork that had a round top with notches on the side. I can see it clearly. Good job of remembering and jarring my memory loose.
ReplyDeleteKitty : Everyone says they loved their fountain pen so much, I wonder why we changed. Oh, I suppose ballpoint was a lot cheaper, no ink leakage nor messing around with a bottle of ink. We have become a disposable world and it most like just fit in with our lifestyle. I have since some more research on gold nibs and all gold nibs were made about 35 years ago when gold price was way down.
ReplyDeleteHope your New Year is off to a grand start.
Love from Manzi
Thanks for your support, Manzanita. You say you got a report from Amazon that someone was helped by your review of my book. This always makes an author feel good! You're a great friend. I hope you too escape the flu. So far Jen and I have, despite the fact that our aid came in sick one day and then was off the rest of the week. We did get a flu shot, which is supposed to help some. What helps is eating well to try to keep up one's immune system, and to stay away from sick people if possible!
ReplyDeleteHappy weekend to you -- and a very Happy New Year!
As for fountain pens -- I remember them from the Fifties, my teen years. I thought they were "cool". But as for using them -- only to sign my name. I don't think I could write anymore if I had to do it by hand, as I did in the "old" days. Hooray for the computer :) :)
I haven't used a fountain pen in many years. I think I'll remedy that.
ReplyDeleteAnn, I didn't know Amazon sent out notices but obviously they do. I watch the evening news and they always show a "flu map" and the states where it is the worst. Now every state is "red" except 4. It's time to do a lot of handwashing.
ReplyDeleteTheresa : You can barely buy ink anymore, except online.I found one bottle at Staples but it looked like it had been hanging around in the store for years.
ReplyDeleteI like fountain pens. Alas, I was one of those who splotched as she wrote. Could never get the right control to it.
ReplyDeleteSu-siee : Oh, I see. You were adding a little abstract art to your writing. Ha
ReplyDelete