I’m in trouble, aren’t I?

[sirgilbert357]

On 7/4/2021 at 1:17 PM, TgeekB said:

Interesting history lesson Bo Bo! Life back then was hard. I always laugh when I hear people complaining about life today and think “what would you have done back then”?

 

 

 

We are the weakest generation to date - by far. It really is worth thinking about the past so we can better appreciate the present...

[mana]

2 hours ago, sirgilbert357 said:

We are the weakest generation to date - by far. It really is worth thinking about the past so we can better appreciate the present...

Just out of curiosity, what generation are you referring to, more exactly? And why? All generations have their own troubles to overcome and it very much seems that the further we go, the worse the situation becomes.

[sansenri]

I shouldn't say this too loud, but even modern Pelikans can be rescued... have you noticed that vintage nibs screw in?...

[Bo Bo Olson]

20 hours ago, sansenri said:

shouldn't say this too loud, but even modern Pelikans can be rescued... have you noticed that vintage nibs screw in?...

 & the less expensive way to rescue modern 400/600's is a good springy gold plated or steel regular flex 200's nib. They are  exactly = to the gold nibs of 82-97, in a comfortable springy ride, with a nice  clean line. They have the classic tear-dropped shaped nib tipping.

 

Vintage factory stubs is where one is going to land one day anyway. And ONLY vintage semi-flex obliques are worth buying....only that.

I've had nail obliques (absolutely no line variation).

I have regular flex obliques...that with the proper ink and paper using a honking big thick 1.5"/7cm thick magnifying glass it can be found...of course if you have extra sharp eyes and learn to hunt for what you are looking for....you can find a very slight bit of line variation.

One can say I see 'good' line variation with my '82-97 or post '97oblique... Such line variation is seen only with sharp eyes with a good ink to paper match....and proper lighting, and much wishing.

 

Once one has a semi-flex oblique one will know that that 'good' was poor.

 

Having said this 1,000 or more times...........folks cheap out, and don't buy a 140, 400/400nn (100-120E if one hunts on German Ebay...seller must take pay pall and ship out of Germany))...............and are willing to buy much more expensive modern obliques that give but a shadow of the real thing......'50-65 semi-flex obliques.

 

Of some of my regular flex Obliques...I had hopes the slightly springier W.Germany oblique nibs would show the real thing. They didn't.

So others that were were models I didn't have like an 800 or a small 600; both W.Germany's. My 381 was found to be an OB after 5 or so uses....wrote with no discernible line variation. I have a W.Germany 200 full set, that is NOS so won't be used, in I have that pen and oblique width on another W.Germany 200.

 

My advice is not to wast you money buying an other oblique than the Vintage '50-65 ones. The ones with real line variation.

 

And sitting at the well here in Germany I've lucked out with Vintage oblique nibs with both the normal 15 degree grind and the rarer 30 degree grind.

I have both grinds in OF, OM, OB, OBB.....in that is vintage the OB is a writing nib and one can write with (sort of a fat M) the OBB; they are 1/2 a width narrower than modern.

 

To tell the truth modern fat and blobby semi-nail 400/600 nibs are useless to me. I'd have to have them made into a CI....I'd have to ask how much for the pen with out that worthless nib?

There are the red and blue stripped ones, I would get....in I'd have to put on one of my vintage nibs anyway....maybe I can get the pen body at a reasonable price.

I have been spoiled rotten not only with semi-flex vintage nibs, but eventually by nice springy regular flex nibs; which are a bit better for shading inks, in they write dryer than semi-flex.

 

[TgeekB]

4 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

 & the less expensive way to rescue modern 400/600's is a good springy gold plated or steel regular flex 200's nib. They are  exactly = to the gold nibs of 82-97, in a comfortable springy ride, with a nice  clean line. They have the classic tear-dropped shaped nib tipping.

 

Vintage factory stubs is where one is going to land one day anyway. And ONLY vintage semi-flex obliques are worth buying....only that.

I've had nail obliques (absolutely no line variation).

I have regular flex obliques...that with the proper ink and paper using a honking big thick 1.5"/7cm thick magnifying glass it can be found...of course if you have extra sharp eyes and learn to hunt for what you are looking for....you can find a very slight bit of line variation.

One can say I see 'good' line variation with my '82-97 or post '97oblique... Such line variation is seen only with sharp eyes with a good ink to paper match....and proper lighting, and much wishing.

 

Once one has a semi-flex oblique one will know that that 'good' was poor.

 

Having said this 1,000 or more times...........folks cheap out, and don't buy a 140, 400/400nn (100-120E if one hunts on German Ebay...seller must take pay pall and ship out of Germany))...............and are willing to buy much more expensive modern obliques that give but a shadow of the real thing......'50-65 semi-flex obliques.

 

Of some of my regular flex Obliques...I had hopes the slightly springier W.Germany oblique nibs would show the real thing. They didn't.

So others that were were models I didn't have like an 800 or a small 600; both W.Germany's. My 381 was found to be an OB after 5 or so uses....wrote with no discernible line variation. I have a W.Germany 200 full set, that is NOS so won't be used, in I have that pen and oblique width on another W.Germany 200.

 

My advice is not to wast you money buying an other oblique than the Vintage '50-65 ones. The ones with real line variation.

 

And sitting at the well here in Germany I've lucked out with Vintage oblique nibs with both the normal 15 degree grind and the rarer 30 degree grind.

I have both grinds in OF, OM, OB, OBB.....in that is vintage the OB is a writing nib and one can write with (sort of a fat M) the OBB; they are 1/2 a width narrower than modern.

 

To tell the truth modern fat and blobby semi-nail 400/600 nibs are useless to me. I'd have to have them made into a CI....I'd have to ask how much for the pen with out that worthless nib?

There are the red and blue stripped ones, I would get....in I'd have to put on one of my vintage nibs anyway....maybe I can get the pen body at a reasonable price.

I have been spoiled rotten not only with semi-flex vintage nibs, but eventually by nice springy regular flex nibs; which are a bit better for shading inks, in they write dryer than semi-flex.

 

I’m going to keep an eye out for an OB flex nib for one of my vintage Pelikans. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Good, It is a writing nib, not a signature nib of modern B.....more like a slightly fat M. All the vintage and semi-vintage and still the 200 write 1/2 a width narrower than modern.

At the flea market I'd test a pens nib on my thumbnail, even then not wanting nails.....no matter how cheap it was. The first time I checked a 140's nib that I knew from my reading on the com to be the fabled semi-flex*......I knew what all the fuss was all about.

*Semi-flex was very rare back a decade  to the stateside folks on the com....there for the 'fabled'.

Took me some 6 weeks to stop maxing my OB and six weeks later to have a hand light enough to "demand line variation'. Stub and CI is 100% line variation; semi-flex gives you line variation On Demand. 

 

Semi-flex must sill must be more unknown than expected with me blabbering on about never buying any oblique but semi-flex, and folks continuing to buy nail, semi-nail or even the 200's regular flex oblique.

 

Even 'run of the mill' semi-flex gives more line variation than the above mentioned "obliques".....so must still be as scarce as hen's teeth in the States.....

......more than likely way too expensive for noobies looking for a bit of life in a nib because of the extreme over priced semi-flex pens in the States.

 

I tend to forget how high priced the States is...in I get there only every decade or so.

Yep, yesterday's prices are set firmly in my head. The last time I went to the States I was going to Chili out. I asked at the motel where to get a good bowl of chili. Got there nice joint. Small bowl...good chili. At that cost I didn't get seconds nor go back. Same with cocktails at some good franchise restaurant...not at an expensive bar.....had only one the whole month I was there the last time.

Anyone who will spent that sort of money for a bowl of chili or a cocktail....will also over spend for a fountain pen, after all it's only ten-fifteen  cocktails or so for that pen.

There are two things cheap in America, cloths made in foreign lands and the gas.

 

[samasry]

 

 I keep telling my wife:

 

"You are paying  $10-$20  for 1 lb of fish.  When I was a graduate student, I used to buy  a whole wild atlantic Salmon for 99 cents"

 

True story in the land of Canadia,   mid 1990s

 

 

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

A man shouldn't have to have a fat wallet to go into a chili joint.

 

I did have had enough money cash to buy a lawyer or two, so could have afforded a second bowl....it struck me I was being gouged.

 

Part of that was the BS that (back in the day of yesteryear when interest was paid) 3% inflation is good. Why that is only 30% in a whole decade.

Stay away a couple of decades...and I come back understanding to Germany why the poor in the States eat at some sort of KFC or McDonnalds....

Stateside grocery shopping is more expensive in 7% sales tax on food, socialistic, full health coverage, 30 days or as one says in the States 6 weeks of paid vacation all covered, shopping.

 

That's what happens if traveling with yesterdays wallet even if it's full of today's cash. In my case when reality met memory, I refused to buy*......outside or $40-60 bottles of bourbon.....which they didn't offer back in the 'good ol'days' of a couple decades before. (It is The Golden Age of Great Booze now.)

*Arrived with an empty suitcase, and took two stuffed ones back.

[TgeekB]

7 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

A man shouldn't have to have a fat wallet to go into a chili joint.

 

I did have had enough money cash to buy a lawyer or two, so could have afforded a second bowl....it struck me I was being gouged.

 

Part of that was the BS that (back in the day of yesteryear when interest was paid) 3% inflation is good. Why that is only 30% in a whole decade.

Stay away a couple of decades...and I come back understanding to Germany why the poor in the States eat at some sort of KFC or McDonnalds....

Stateside grocery shopping is more expensive in 7% sales tax on food, socialistic, full health coverage, 30 days or as one says in the States 6 weeks of paid vacation all covered, shopping.

 

That's what happens if traveling with yesterdays wallet even if it's full of today's cash. In my case when reality met memory, I refused to buy*......outside or $40-60 bottles of bourbon.....which they didn't offer back in the 'good ol'days' of a couple decades before. (It is The Golden Age of Great Booze now.)

*Arrived with an empty suitcase, and took two stuffed ones back.

I love reading your posts Bo Bo. You crack me up! You must be a hoot to hang out with!

 

Its impossible to judge America and prices based on one bowl of chili in some random restaurant. It’s a huge country! Germany is tiny in comparison, about the size of Montana. Consumer prices vary widely from state to state. The cost of living is based on many factors including housing prices, consumer goods and wages. My house, for instance, may cost 4 or 5 times as much in San  Francisco but that’s 2600 miles away and a completely different economy. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Thanks TgeekB.

 

Northern Virginia was the culprit not NYC or San Francisco. I know NO more.

I'd accepted the price had it been a full not a shallow bowl of chili and rationed crackers.

I didn't ask for the diet menu.

 

Of course I'm still grumpy; I being younger had plans for two full bowls of Chili that first day. I was chili deprived. A place to stop by at least every other day....when one sits on a bar stool; one don't expect one or two star sized servings with its price.

 

[TgeekB]

4 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Thanks TgeekB.

 

Northern Virginia was the culprit not NYC or San Francisco. I know NO more.

I'd accepted the price had it been a full not a shallow bowl of chili and rationed crackers.

I didn't ask for the diet menu.

 

Of course I'm still grumpy; I being younger had plans for two full bowls of Chili that first day. I was chili deprived. A place to stop by at least every other day....when one sits on a bar stool; one don't expect one or two star sized servings with its price.

 

Damned Northern Virginia with their chili hoarding making us all look bad! It only takes one bad Apple. 
 

Even NYC is like in another state for me. I live between Buffalo and Niagara Falls, 375 miles away!

[ralfstc]

5 hours ago, samasry said:

 I keep telling my wife:

 

"You are paying  $10-$20  for 1 lb of fish.  When I was a graduate student, I used to buy  a whole wild atlantic Salmon for 99 cents"

 

True story in the land of Canadia,   mid 1990s

 

Nowadays, here on the Wet Coast, it's $5 for a whole Pacific salmon. What a rip-off!

 

I tried to come up with a joke about scales but I couldn't.

[Bo Bo Olson]

As a kid I was a NY Hillbilly....in Orange county some 16 miles from West Point. I'd been a flatland boy until I got to NY.

After that I was back down south and I didn't see a hill for six years. Until I got to Germany...took a GI bus from flatland Mannheim to Heidelberg and walked straight up that mountain...( steps///some crossing roads, and very little bare ground)..German mountains have streets and paths all over them......actually after coming down it...I don't recall doing that again.

Later, I walked along it once or twice half way up, on a paved path, and looked at the then 100 year old redwoods.

 

Those hills and the rest of the Odenwald, are a joy to drive with my Mazda MX-5....got some sort of funny name in the states, like the moth that ate Tokyo.  6 gears = steady climbing torque curve to redline, no need to shift early because of torque drop  I live 7 miles from the mountain twisties.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Another reason to pray for rain, and hope the salmon can still smell home with all the forest fires. 

[inkstainedruth]

3 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

As a kid I was a NY Hillbilly....in Orange county some 16 miles from West Point. I'd been a flatland boy until I got to NY.

 

LoL!  I lived in Rockland County, just above the NJ state line, as a kid, before moving across the river to the northern part of Westchester County.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

As a Kid I didn't know where Rockland County actually was, just some went there for shopping. ...Shopping don't interest a pennyless kid.

[TgeekB]

1 hour ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

As a kid I was a NY Hillbilly....in Orange county some 16 miles from West Point. I'd been a flatland boy until I got to NY.

After that I was back down south and I didn't see a hill for six years. Until I got to Germany...took a GI bus from flatland Mannheim to Heidelberg and walked straight up that mountain...( steps///some crossing roads, and very little bare ground)..German mountains have streets and paths all over them......actually after coming down it...I don't recall doing that again.

Later, I walked along it once or twice half way up, on a paved path, and looked at the then 100 year old redwoods.

 

Those hills and the rest of the Odenwald, are a joy to drive with my Mazda MX-5....got some sort of funny name in the states, like the moth that ate Tokyo.  6 gears = steady climbing torque curve to redline, no need to shift early because of torque drop  I live 7 miles from the mountain twisties.

I hope to visit Germany again next year. I’ve been there a few times recently. Want to see Dessau where my family is originally from.

 

Sounds like Odenwald would be fun in my Subaru Forester. Tooling around in the mountains is a blast!

[samasry]

6 hours ago, ralfstc said:

 

Nowadays, here on the Wet Coast, it's $5 for a whole Pacific salmon. What a rip-off!

 

I tried to come up with a joke about scales but I couldn't.

Seriously?

 

I live on the West Coast, sorta,   in the Bay Area. Where exactly can I buy them $5  whole  Salmons ?

 

My wife take me to  some of them  stores to buy  half a gallon of milk for  coffee,  costs north of $5

Each time I try to  tell her that I used to buy the whole Gallon for 99 cents, she tells me to just  zip it as I know nothing.

[ralfstc]

Yes, really seriously. When the salmon run is on, later in the summer, the local stores on Vancouver Island sell them fresh in a plastic bag. All they need is two minutes on a barbecue and you are good to go. My kids don't enjoy salmon because they are so used to it, but it's still a big deal to me! 🙂

[samasry]

4 minutes ago, ralfstc said:

Yes, really seriously. When the salmon run is on, later in the summer, the local stores on Vancouver Island sell them fresh in a plastic bag. All they need is two minutes on a barbecue and you are good to go. My kids don't enjoy salmon because they are so used to it, but it's still a big deal to me! 🙂

 

But then you are still talking Canada      Oh Canada!   LOL  I love Canada

My  graduate studies was in Montreal,   Quebec,  Canada as well, so my Salmon story in the 90s  was also Canadian.  There was a chain  called Steinberg in Quebec back then, I am not sure if it is still there.   Those were the days my friend. 

 

Never did I see this kind of deal in the US or anything close.   My wife tells me that most of the time the Salmon she sees in the stores are like  fermented,  that is how old the fish is