Noon bounces around, and being low on ink, and not having time to have some shipped in from my regular sources, I went to Office ??? (I tend to get Depot and Max confused so I mentally do a 1-name-fits all number), for a fast and dirty fillup. At any rate, I tooled over to whichever one is near my office. Nary a bottle in sight.

I then got the 30-ish Manager, who advised me they only carry cartriges. And, he further adds, "What would you use bottles ink for?" Evidently fountain pens are quickly slipping into some parallel dimension. Along with the 20 minutes of my lunchtime that I've now blown.

Along with my good humor for the rest of the day.

Grr.

I've had the same experience. Or try asking for film for your camera! "People still use film?!"

Traveling not long ago, I tried to buy a bottle of ink from an Office Big Box. They did actually have one! It was part of the Waterman Phileas boxed set, so I guess it amounted to a 50.00 bottle of ink with a free pen, converter, some cartridges, blotter, and instruction book!










Oops. Spellcheck edit.

How about the dialog I had with a slim, tall, blond twenty-something quite decorative girl at an allegedly stationery store?

- Good afternoon. I liked that roller you have on display. Do you have the same model in fountain pen?
- We only sell normal pens (with a big frown on her face, almost calling security).

Alejandro

Some (evidently not all) Staples stores carry Quink in bottles. Office Max and Office Depot do not carry bottled ink at all any more, sfaik.

Staples still has Quink, black only at my local store.

-Bruce

I will have mny revenge.

I'm currently working up a listing of passe items I can request, the next time I see they're struggling to cope with a major customer rush.


Let's see... 8" floppy discs, 'zip discs...wonder if I'd get a reaction if I asked for 8-track cassettes?

Just let us know where to send the bail money or who to contact that can prove you really are sane

(Biting tongue to prevent commenting on 8-track cassettes in Kansas -- I have cousins who are farmers there who *may still have* working 8-track players in their trucks and combines.)

Add tubes for your radio to that list.

-edit-
And when you leave you can ask for directions to the nearest blacksmith.

This is only slightly off-topic, but I went to the university library to check out a film for a class I was teaching. A film. The student-worker at the desk retrieved the film and apparently felt obliged to admonish me that I needed special equipment in order to show this "thing" in class.

Thanks.

Went to a local pen store recently - they stock large numbers of fountain pens surprisingly! - and asked the girl behind the counter if I could see some replacement nibs for my Parker.
She said, "You can change the nib?!!"

Our Staples only has black and blue waterman and parker cartriges. No bottled ink. Nearest Ink bottle selling store is 75 miles away, Vannas Pen Shop in Little Rock, Ar. Thank goodness for the internet and UPS! PS I keep a bottle of ink at work.

Don't forget: records (especially "45's"), turntable needles, whiteout, and carburator tune-up spray

I'm sorry, I can no longer remain silent First the reference to tubes for the radio, now to records, and turntable "needles" (sic).

As a matter of fact, frequently all three can be acquired at the same location. Your friendly high end audio store -- not to be confused with Tweeter or its ilk. Purely conjecture, but I suspect many of those who use tube stereo preamps and poweramps to drive their expensive speakers, with a turntable and very expensive cartridge as the music source, probably use a fountain pen to keep a tally of the recordings they own.

The experiences and mindset are truly analogous: "Transistors are definitely inferior to tubes" : "Ballpoints are definitely inferior to fountain pens" "How can you write with that biro?" : "How can you listen to that cd through a solid state amplifer?" "Get a Parker 51" "Get a Linn Sondek" "Where can I get Clairefontaine paper" "Where can I get import pressings on virgin vinyl?"

Please keep in mind two things -- first, I am NOT making a value judgement, second, I am a closet member of the tubes and turntables brigade, but cannot afford the tariff for a quality tube amp (c $5,000 for a decent system). I am less closeted about the pen fascination (one of my offspring refused to acknowledge OCD's existence - he says OCC obsessive complusive condition, and questions why we should call the most orderly people on the planet disordered).

Two of my sons have joined the vinyl army, and tellingly enough, both are accomplished, gifted musicians, with a great ear. They both also prefer tube amps. All my guitar amps are tube, but the stero hi fi amps are too steep.

Donnie

At last count, there is only one sane person on FPN.

Good Day All,

Yesterday I was checking out at the Big Box Home and Garden cum Hardware store, and naturally had to sign my name with one of those electronic pens that never seen to accurately reproduce the signature as it would be if written with pen. Just for fun, I pulled out my Rotring Initial and said that as an old fart, I still remember signing things with a fountain pen, loaded with ink from a bottle. The horror on the cashier's face was priceless. She, it seems, had never heard of bottled ink either. I got quite a chuckle! Time and technology move on.

Regards,

Wade

"Do you drink that stuff or wear it?" was the question asked by the clerk at the RMV when I showed her the ink in my Visconti Inkpot. I'd objected to the way my signature showed up on the license template because I'd had to use an electronic pen. "People are going to want to match my real signature against the signature on my license," I complained, "and my real signature does not look like that. I sign with this," I said, pulling out a Parker "51" demi that Ron Zorn fixed up for me at the New England Pen Show, "and I fill it with this," I concluded, showing her the inkpot full of of Waterman Blue Black.

"Don't worry," she replied. "Soon no business will let you sign with that old thing because everyone is switching to the electronic pen."

Aaaaarrrrgghhhh!

So smug in their mediocrity! But you can leave and they are stuck in their McJobs until that locale falls to "progress" in its turn...

Very sad, but it could be true. When I gave birth to my son, I took a lovely Sheaffer Balance II in Cobalt Glow to the hospital to sign his birth certificate. I planned to keep this pen and present it to him on his 21st birthday, and tell him the story of his birth. Denied! The nurse made me use a Bic Stik. I still have the pen, though, and am considering journaling the story for him instead. And of course, the pen will still be his one day.

Lisa

passe items: don't forget 2400 foot computer tapes on reels.

Actually, you can refuse the "electronic pen" at most stores. You just say
that you don't use those things and want to sign on paper. They then
print you a paper, you sign, and you hand it back.

Also, it's probably NOT such a good idea to sign anything that looks like
your REAL signature using the electronic pen.

Consider the possibilities for identity theft, remembering that much
cracking of computer systems is an "inside job". If all of these nice
little images from the "electronic pen" are going into a big database
some where, then can't some one with certain kinds of access to
that database then extract them and use them for forgery?

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you!

Donnie,

<<All my guitar amps are tube, but the stero hi fi amps are too steep.>>

Audio amp design hasn't been a mystery since the 1940s. Get the schematic diagram for one and build it!

On another note:
I went into a Hallmark store to buy some stationery. The clerk offered to help. I asked her what the paper's rag content was. She replied, "Oh no! All the paper is blank on both sides." No need to ask any more questions.

Paddler

Oh I've had funny stuff like this happen before...

When I went to the Melbourne Pen Depot (tiny little place that is like a minature pen-heaven), I was checking out Montblancs and I was looking at all the different sizes and nibs and all-that...and well, I have SMALL hands. Not disproportionately small, you understand...just small, because I'm not a very big person (5'6", if anyone's wondering).

So I was getting used to the Chopin, and I asked the lady if there was something smaller. And she showed me the Mozart which is like 3-4 inches long. Piddly thing. And she said something along the lines of: "Believe me, you DO NOT want that pen...Pfft! I mean, look at it...It's a bloody note-taker. It's tiny!"

And I was inclined to agree with her. Even with the cap posted, I could barely hold it. I'm so glad I went for the pen that I did.

The sort of negative/ignorant/clueless responses that people have spoken of here, I usually get from random people. The people I speak to who work in stationary-shops and pen-shops are all knowledgeable and polite about their wares, but, as Sherlock Holmes said, "the public, what do they know? The great, unobservant public..." Indeed. What do they know?

From my experiences, not much. Especially for a person of my age, I get a lot of weird looks when I whip out something that looks a million years old but which was only made within the last ten years. I get a lot of weird stares in university when my pen runs dry. I start pulling it apart to fit in another cartridge and they all stare at me like it's some sort of alien autopsy. To them, I'm dissecting the body of a foreign object not seen by the eyes of man for several centuries. To me, I'm just refilling my pen. And I get people who suddenly become really curious, asking to look at the pens and cartridges and all that...

That exactly states my feelings about so many encounters! The people who laugh at me because I open a DOS box to fix their computer, though they don't succeed in fixing it themselves are what really get me!

Those are still very rare here - Canada seems to be the last haven of sign-on-paper credit card slips, though apparently PIN-based authentication is around the corner.

Sign-on-the-pad signatures are generally *so* horrible that even if one tried, it wouldn't look anything like "normal." The only semi-normal-looking ones I've seen have been at the MTO (Minitry of Transportation) where they have you sign on a piece of paper that has the pad below it.

In general, electronic pads also don't capture pressure points, which is a part of identifying a real signature. Much as we love fountain pens, it's probably harder to make a real-looking fake signature with a ballpoint, because of how it makes these points show. A fine FP is probably nearly as good, though: a broad nib hides the imperfections too much. Mine, for example, has all sorts of unusual intra-character formations (it's just the way I write, not intentionally) that don't show up with a medium nib or bigger, but are quite visible with an extra-fine or a ballpoint. It's also one of the reasons my writing looks so awful with a ballpoint!

Well I have found for the must have now ink hobbylobby carries sheaffer inks. Managing a virtual junk store in the last month I have sold, a adapter for the 45 record to play on a 33, a 8 track recorder (not player), a console tv and given two fountain pens away to middle school kids to encourge them to write. All that old stuff just keeps floating around

Nice to know Hobby Lobby carries Sheaffer inks. I have a few Sheaffer cartridge pens, and hate the idea of having to order online, or drive all the way to Office Depot or Staples (they are across the street from each other). They are building one near my home, almost within walking distance. Actually, my kids walk up to that area to go to work, so it technically IS walking distance, even in the stinkin hot summer, which occasionally gets too stinkin hot.
Donnie

Yeech!
PIN identification with every police agency in the country putting out press releases about PIN-skimming machinery!!???? Speaking of blindingly stupid ideas, that one is at the head of the list.
I think I am going to cut up all my cards and even eschew paper money. I'll start handing over stacks of toonies and loonies. That'll give the card-and-PIN lovers something to think about. Definitely a Luddite today.

I agree with you, Mac. I use cash whenever possible, safety and anonimity being the main reasons. More electronic transactions are not what we need. I assume you were referring to the recent bust of skimming equipment sales here? That was an eye-opener, wasn't it?

I got my bottle of Sheaffer Skrip from Hobby Lobby. They only had black though.

JD

I overheard the following in a pen store from a salesperson trying to serve a customer looking for a graduation gift:
"Would you rather have that in a roller or ballpoint? You don't want a fountain pen, do you?"

Couple of days ago I went to shopping trip to nearby Greece, in Thessaloníki. I stopped at one larger office supply store, and asked for bottled ink. I got a bottle of Pelikan Violet with 1/5 of the ink missing (evaporation, I guess), and a W. Germany on the bottle!

Nenad

There IS a SANE person on FPN

Tell me who, so the Admin Team can ban them and remove all trace of them!

PS, notify MT Security Control, mobilise the Wet Squad!

Regarding stereo hi fi amps, on eBay you can get some easy-build kits, or even do a google search for kit tube amp and get a reasonably priced (less than a medium priced guitaramp) amp with adequate power.

Donnie

And that was just the biggest bust here so far.
But I am more on an anti-technology kick this month. Even though I have been a gadget freak for years* I realized that the technology I have now does everything I could reasonably want it to do. I do bank online, but that has my computer at one end and a site I reached from my bookmarks at the other. I know better than to believe any phishing e-mail. My old cellphone ran out of space for contact phone numbers but my new one seems inexhaustible. And I don't need game- and music download capability on it. I'm guessing that you're a fellow Calgarian, so I'll say that I can telecommute from Huntington to servers in the Beltline six or seven days out of 10. Again, that's _my_ computer on one end and a site I trust at the other. So I have plenty of technology and I am not imaginative enough to dream up unfulfilled computer wishes.


* Gadget freak: When we got an energy-saving programmable thermostat, my dear wife's comment was, "You'll have fun with that." I think that after more than three decades she's used to me.

Run, JD, run!

I don't know if it is proper to consider us FP people to be in any sense "retro," but I find it ironic
and sad that we must be so dependent on the internet marketplace for our supplies.

It is not right to compare fountain pens with straight razors, or us with Luddites, and granted,
the rural community a hundred years ago may have ordered their ink from the Sears catalog,
but I resent this dependence on the internet, even for friendships.

Could it be that we are not living in the best of all ages?
<- consternation

Think about that for a moment. If you lived in a community before the internet you would have been limited to whatever pens and inks your local shop sold. That's it. To have more available, you'd have to live in a more urban area. The larger the city, the greater the variety (to a point - many of our modern inks have no equivalents in the past). Pens, too. There may have been more pens in the past, but I'm not convinced there was more variety. There were differences, of course, but many many vintage pens look strikingly similar. Somehow I doubt if something like my favorite blue sparkly Bexley Sheherazade would be in many catalogs from the past.

(I will not go into health issues, cultural issues, etc., because while I study history, there is no way I'd want to live there.)

Not to mention that many of the female posters on here would vanish as we were restricted to the houses. And one can only imagine the reaction if it was learned that the women were corresponding with foreigners!! No, I'll take the present.

This seems one of the most basic laments of humankind, that our modern age is degenerate or decadent or in some other way lacking, and we wish we had been born into a prior Golden Age, when everything was wonderful. In my own field of study, Egyptians in the Late Period (when the country was either ruled by a variety of petty kinglets or part of someone else's empire) longed for the glory days of the Ramesside Age. Ramesside Egyptians looked back to the great founder of the dynasty, Ramesses II, and sighed and wished they could have lived in his day. (Ramesses II, "the Great," we'll skip, because he knew he was awesome and no one before or since could compare. ) In the Amarna period they longed for the good old days of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and in the immensely powerful Eighteenth Dynasty they looked back to the glory days of the Middle Kingdom for inspiration. In the Middle Kingdom, they wished for the grand times of the Old Kingdom, and in the Old Kingdom they sought ever backward into the mists of time for a prior Golden Age. In that case, civilization was too young, and the Old Kingdom was Egypt's first Golden Age, so they had to invent one: a time before time in which the gods walked on Earth.

We're still doing it today.

Sure, it would be nice to live in an age in which the fountain pen reigned supreme, or the Library of Alexandria still stood. There are numerous times and places I wish I could visit and experience, but on review, this really is the best time in which to live. For one thing, I'm thirty-five and not too worried about dying of old age next week. I also haven't been killed by any of the medical problems I've had in my life, a fair number of which would have been fatal only a hundred years ago. I've studied history and science in public schools. I've been able to attain a university education, despite never having been wealthy. I make daily use of technology which would be incomprehensible, or even seem magical, to inhabitants of any "golden age" you'd care to name. I've travelled across the United States, coast to coast (or close to it), and it only took about a week, and only that long because I wasn't in a hurry. I've visited Alaska. I've flown. I've never suffered through war or famine or plague. I've never been ostracized for my religious beliefs or lack thereof, nor tortured, nor burned at the stake.

I'll take today, thank you very much.

Mind you, I wouldn't mind editing today a little bit. The Universe owes me a Mars colony and a flying car, dangit!

REALLY glad I work 5 minutes away from FPH, 5 from Pearl Paint and 1/2hr from Stevdan's (a local family run stationers)

Tube amp wise, go to Western Electric, order a matched pair of 300B tubes, go to EIFL exporting of Japan, order Tamura transformer, get some high efficiency speakers and voila, a system that will be the smoothest, cleanest, most musical sound ever to come from recordings.

Well, if the various space agencies of humanity would just learn to co-operate properly, and if Paul Moller would stop tinkering and start producing, we'd be set.

I find it very interesting that for the first half of my adult life (childhood influences: Moon landings, Gerry Anderson and the good Star Wars movie) I was a fierce "early-adopter", but the current years find me stepping voluntarily off the curve. Cell phone? Screw that annoyance! Pen? You know the answer to that. Dream car? '67 VW Type 2-- plenty of space, easy on the gas, and mechanically simple. Home Decor? Well, the house was built in 1952.... Perhaps it's this "future shock" they used to talk about, but also there's a growing realization that a lot of change is very poorly considered and is frequently not actually for the better, but just for the sake of novelty (like the fins... er, I mean, LCD screens on new cars).

Although, I'd certainly take a flying car if the mileage were good enough.

Finally swapped my 1975 Olds for a 2003 Nissan. Sure, the Olds was easy to work on. But it needed to be worked on so often! And I had to carry the manual around with me because half the repair guys were younger than the car

I definitely wouldn't be here if it weren't for modern medicine, so I'm a happy camper.

I grew up sitting on my Dad's shoulders on the beach watching the space launches. After years of travel, I've come full circle and stand in my back yard and watch the space launches Now if I can just earn enough to get a seat

Well, I left myself open to be slammed on that one. I tend to do that.
I'm looking for an alternative age, (or culture) like one from Spengler or Yeats.
Did anyone see the Star Trek episode where Picard is zapped by a
probe and made to live out his life amnesiatic in a community that is doomed.
It was the episode of the (non-functional) metal flute that sold for some
obscene price in an auction recently.

Anyhow, I'm looking for some alternate age - not one where they lock
up people like Christopher Smart in some snake pit.

Anyhow, it is to the credit of this internet community that I didn't get
trashed worse for my glib closing line.
Thanks

Sorry, Tharmas, no slamming or trashing intended! I can't help chuckling when I hear that sort of thing, but only because I've read documents four and five thousand years old that express the same sentiment. I tend to ramble a bit, so it may have come across as a correction or a thrashing when that wasn't my intent at all.

folderol

You mean "The second life". I really like that episode.

Regards
Hans-Peter

Well, here's an interesting turn in this line of discussion:

Yesterday at lunch, the 20-ish waitress found she'd left her pen at another table, and seeing I had one asked if she might borrow it. I handed her the Wearever Supreme which whim dictated I take out of the house, posting the cap for her as I did so.

"Wow... that's a cool pen." She hesitated before writing anything, although she'd got it right way up without asking. "Is it expensive?"

"Cost about a dollar when it was new," said I, forgetting it wasn't the Scripto of the day before (yes, I have some VERY cheap pens in my collection). "In 1950-something."

She had already begun to write before she fully processed what I said. "It still works? That's amazing!" And she finished the writing she'd begun, with a degree of panache.

Leaving lunch, I went to an Office Depot. While waiting in line, I saw a Sheaffer Javelin in the display, and whim smacks me again. I asked to have a look at it, and without really thinking, asked the 25-ish clerk whether it came with a converter.

"Just cartridges," said he, without a moment of hesitation.


There's hope, it seems.

I thought the same thing... thank God for Internet order!

(Oh, and slightly off-topic: Some folks seem to not like using bottled ink in places like work, because it's "not discreet..."

I'm the opposite. Wherever I've filled from a bottle where others could see, it's drawn immense positive interest. )