Do You Have A "test Phrase"?

[Freddy]

Deja Vu.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fred

let it roll baby..Roll..let it roll all night Long...

all your Love..All your Love...If You Start me Up...

If you start me up..I'll never Stop..Never Stop..

[Bookman]

I use Lincoln's Gettysburg address often as well too. I can recite most of it from memory with the occasional slip here at there too.

 

Hamlet's famous speech ... I just now got to the "slings and arrows." and got lost. LOL.

 

Often I find myself writing out the months and the days of the week when testing.

 

- Andrew

 

The Gettysburg Address is my go-to.

[discopig]

I usually write "hello, this is a writing sample" when testing out pens or flex.

[Mickey]

Not just Americans, I suspect, use the Gettysburg Address. I do, because it's beautifully constructed, although it isn't what Lincoln actually said - it was only a few days after the event that people started saying how moving it was, and he revised the notes he'd used on the day before they were given to the press for publication, and there are several different versions from the time!

 

I also often use a verse of Gray's Elegy (sometimes just the first verse, sometimes verse 8 "Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;"... and you can try to work out what one of my good pens is called!)

 

Also, the word "again" in cursive, it just flows and lets the nib move in every direction.

 

Another example of lend / lease. I often use

 

And did those feet in ancient time

Walk upon England's mountains green:

And was the holy Lamb of God,

On England's pleasant pastures seen!

[PS104]

What a great thread. Thanks for thinking to start it.

First, kudos to pakmanpony for destroying sheets when people write the signature on them. I too have become wary of leaving personal information on any public pieces of paper. Might as well leave your Social Security number to save ID thieves time in hunting that down. In responding to this thread I am appalled at how ignorant I am of literature and poetry. Since I don't know Latin or Vogon poetry I fall back on memorizing Lorem ipsum...(I think I've got the first sentence down) From now on when I am in an upbeat mood when I'm in a B&M testing a pen and/or ink I'll quote lines from The Ode to Billie Joe

[OcalaFlGuy]

I don't recall if I ever answered this or not.

 

The first verse to How Great Thou Art.

 

It's kind of my own prayer I guess. And, Every time I think the words through, I hear George Beverly Shea singing it and I smile.

 

That way, if the pen doesn't make me smile, I have another good reason to. That's good enough for me.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[SyntheticEvil13]

The story so far:

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

[load81]

"To boldly go where no one has gone before"

[Gaslight]

After grown tired of 'the quick fox....'

I switched to 'God's in His heaven - All's right with the world!'

 

The capital G and H are nice for testing stub/italic nibs.

[erpe]

My pangram is: sexy qua lijf, doch bang voor 't zwempak (dutch).

When I'm in a good mood I write "strangers passing in the street, by chance two separate glances meet". When it's recognized, there is something to talk about, when not, I'm the weird one and people leave me alone

[Laertides]

I generally use a few scraps of poetry. The first ten lines or last three lines of Song of the Lotos-Eaters by Tennyson, the last four lines of Kublai Khan by Coleridge, or anything else that's in my head.

 

There is sweet music here that softer falls

than petals from blown roses on the grass,

or night-dews on still waters between walls

of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass;

Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,

than tired eyelids upon tired eyes;

Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies.

Here are cool mosses deep,

and thro' the moss the ivies creep,

and in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep,

and from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep.

 

Surely, surely, slumber is more sweet than toil, the shore

than labor on the deep mid-ocean, wind and wave and oar;

O rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more.

 

Weave a circle 'round him thrice,

and close your eyes with holy dread,

for he on honey-dew hath fed,

and drunk the milk of Paradise.

[Paolaas]

The rain in Spain stayed mainly in the plain, is one of my favorites.

Or superallyfragiisticexpialidocious

Edited May 14, 2014 by Paolaas

[TheModernGent]

I find that I usually tend to write the name both the pen and ink I'm currently using. After that, It's usually "The quick brown fox..." , some variation of my name, and usually the alphabet (all in caps for some reason).

[Sz.116]

I usually have a quotes section in my bullet journal that I update frequently, so I always end up testing new inks/pens by writing some of my favorite quotes. Recently, I've been using the following two phrases:

 

"The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators." - Edward Gibbon

 

"The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough is love." - Henry Miller

[Chrissy]

 

Another example of lend / lease. I often use

 

And did those feet in ancient time

Walk upon England's mountains green:

And was the holy Lamb of God,

On England's pleasant pastures seen!

Jerusalem was my favourite hymn at school. I remember it well

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=041nXAAn714

[Kella]

I always seem to use the Soldier's Creed and my forensics vocab lists and even some hiragana.

[Freddy]

The Doors....Riders on the storm....And of course the followin'....

 

 

Fred

Vertebrae....Here I lie in bed with you with a bad back..pain.

and desire driving me mad....Surely..were I to move as passion bids I might curse love. Yet I dare not turn darkness solemn by seeming to

favor my spinal column....It were better to sleep alone than admit to lacking backbone....Then shall I certify my trust in the therapy of

lust?....Now I consult my slipped disc....

 

We accept the risk....

[DeBuggz]

I always default to the lousy "quick brown fox" standard whenever I try a new pen... I plan on changing that soon, as I also usually just sign my name a bunch of times and make some squiggles until I figure out if I like the pen or not.

[irrigger]

I was here yesterday, today, and will be again tomorrow.

[Nanor]

I always enjoy the rolling imagery of Sir Walter Scott:

 

"As Chief, who hears his warder call,
'To arms! the foemen storm the wall,'
The antlered monarch of the waste
Sprung from his heathery couch in haste."