I’m in trouble, aren’t I?

[Bo Bo Olson]

9 hours ago, TgeekB said:

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

I forgot you are from Montana and the 80mph/130 KM limit....which unfortunately has become basic over here. The slant of the BS below is for them condemned to drive 55mph.

 

I'd rent a BMW 5er (though a 3er might be more nimble...bit out of date on the model numbers...think the new 3er is called a 1er.) .............arrive on a Saturday evening, stay overnight in a local hotel. Get out of the hotel by 5AM, get on the autobahn (then empty) and floor it up to 100mph/160, the speed we drive in our 25 year old Toyota Corlla. Back off to a comfortable 80mph, take it up to 120... or to it's basic motor max of 130mph...but I like staying 10 under rated max. The car sits better on the road.

 

I gave similar advice to US Army noobies to Germany.

 

Leave your luggage in the back of your BMW when driving the mountain twisties....BMW use to have a light assend.

 

There are pepped up  5ers that will do 155mph (BMW has a governor limiting top end to 155. If you want to go faster get an Audi.)   The problem is finding the still existent back country road autobahns where one can open up legally are now few....The nearest to me is some two hours away.

 

Most important we have no fast and slow lane, we have a passing lane, make your pass and get out of the way....the police will give you a ticket for staying in the passing lane doing the speed limit....clogging up traffic. They regulate traffic, not you. (we have a few areas where we have three lanes very few with 4, same goes, use the outer lane(s) just to pass. In reality on 3 or 4 spur autobahns there is faster lanes and a slow one..) But don't clog up the flow of traffic.

I have no fear going 15-20kmh over the speed limit while making my pass., even if a cop car is behind me. Can't creep crawlly pass. Boot it, pass it, drop back in.

I hate driving in the states, the drivers to either side, hang just far enough back to be always in the blind spot. You won't be drinking coffee or reading the newspaper on the Autobahn. Having a passing lane means you have to stay awake with both hands on the wheel.

 

Sure when traffic is heavier we have what would pass for a fast and slow lane, but come an opening one is supposed to pull out of the passing lane...at least long enough for someone in a fast VW to pass you.

 

130MPH is a slow Autobahn Car. You have to have your eyes on the rear view mirror when you poke along like that.....well my MX-5 is about as fast as a 5er, so I have to keep my eyes open for fast traffic.

 

(I didn't buy it for the autobahn, but for the mountain twisties and 10-15 KMH safely faster than the speed limits there. Which are much higher than the 25mph easy back road Cadillac curves of Virginia.....who ever set that limit had to have had a Lincoln Town Car in mind, or bald tires. ..(that or tractors)..

 

Who ever you are visiting, will be glad to take you out to there the fast boys fly low on the Autobahn.

Buy a Motorcycle guide to where the real curve rich roads are.

 

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

9 hours ago, samasry said:

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  

I lived for four years in the Greater Boston area.  The only way to get really cheap, really fresh fish?  Go into Boston to the fish pier and buy it as it came off the boats.  Which of course meant dealing with Boston drivers.... 

In Pittsburgh, OTOH, if you go to one of the wholesale food vendors down in the Strip District, you can get fresher fish at Wholey's than we were seeing in the grocery store 25 miles out from Boston -- because it was being air-shipped in daily.  There used to be a decent fishmonger on the other side of the town we lived in, but they went out of business, and now the building is a Brazilian meat market (there is a big Brazilian population in Framingham).  

Assuming of course it's even still there, since I haven't lived in Massachusetts for over 20 years at this point....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[samasry]

9 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

I lived for four years in the Greater Boston area.  The only way to get really cheap, really fresh fish?  Go into Boston to the fish pier and buy it as it came off the boats.  Which of course meant dealing with Boston drivers.... 

In Pittsburgh, OTOH, if you go to one of the wholesale food vendors down in the Strip District, you can get fresher fish at Wholey's than we were seeing in the grocery store 25 miles out from Boston -- because it was being air-shipped in daily.  There used to be a decent fishmonger on the other side of the town we lived in, but they went out of business, and now the building is a Brazilian meat market (there is a big Brazilian population in Framingham).  

Assuming of course it's even still there, since I haven't lived in Massachusetts for over 20 years at this point....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Howdy Ruth, long time no see, almost since our  Pink Floyd album discussion.

 

I think  we have some places here in the bay area as well where you can get  fresher fish. However that could be hard for us (driving-wise) similar to your case.  I know some of the people I have worked with from Asia told me before about some places like 99 Ranch Market where you can get  relatively fresh fish. 

Have a great weekend

[TgeekB]

On 7/16/2021 at 7:33 AM, Bo Bo Olson said:

I forgot you are from Montana and the 80mph/130 KM limit....which unfortunately has become basic over here. The slant of the BS below is for them condemned to drive 55mph.

 

 

 

 

“Moving to Montana soon.

Gonna be a dental floss tycoon.”

 

I’m not much for speed. Slow and steady over hills, through snow enjoying the ride along the way in my Subie. Don’t look at it as condemned, but more like a slow walk in the park enjoying the scenery. When you’re driving fast all you can see is a blur. 😂

[ParramattaPaul]

17 minutes ago, TgeekB said:

“Moving to Montana soon.

Gonna be a dental floss tycoon.”

 

I’m not much for speed. Slow and steady over hills, through snow enjoying the ride along the way in my Subie. Don’t look at it as condemned, but more like a slow walk in the park enjoying the scenery. When you’re driving fast all you can see is a blur. 😂

Driving speed for me is situational.  In NSW, especially around Sydney, we have speed cameras and red light cameras -- and not mobile phone cameras -- to catch us at every moment, so its strict adherence to the speed limit at all times.  When (pre-pandemic) I was in California, the rule of thumb on the freeways was cruise control set at 10 MPH over the speed limit when traffic and road conditions permitted or the speed of the flow of traffic.  That said, in open country it was not uncommon to be doing 20 MPH over the posted limit in the 'slow lane' and have cars and truck around me going 5 and 10 MPH faster.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Northern Virginia...don't know about south of Richmond, had Englishmen  come over to design the roads....the faster you go the more the road tries to throw you off instead of being banked to keep you on.....god help them come a snow.

.........and they have the original steth police.

 

I was there for a whole month....and having to poke along at 55....finally on a ill disguised road, my shoulders were cramped. I could understand folks reading their newspapers

I couldn't take it any more, and opened up to 85mph. Suddenly my shoulders relaxed, I could breath properly....A mile or two only of driving normal; was such a relief. Aware of sneak police.....having seen a cop car with an 18 foot pole with a radar unit on top of it on a long curve on the interstate at a wrecker/emergency cross over of the huge green grass mound divider, and other tricks.....got back to saying "gitty up car."

And American hang in the blind spot of the car in front of them....the last time  I improved the rental car with two little glue on round mirrors for the side mirrors. No more blind spots.

I don't need that in passing lane Germany.

[TgeekB]

1 hour ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Northern Virginia...don't know about south of Richmond, had Englishmen  come over to design the roads....the faster you go the more the road tries to throw you off instead of being banked to keep you on.....god help them come a snow.

.........and they have the original steth police.

 

I was there for a whole month....and having to poke along at 55....finally on a ill disguised road, my shoulders were cramped. I could understand folks reading their newspapers

I couldn't take it any more, and opened up to 85mph. Suddenly my shoulders relaxed, I could breath properly....A mile or two only of driving normal; was such a relief. Aware of sneak police.....having seen a cop car with an 18 foot pole with a radar unit on top of it on a long curve on the interstate at a wrecker/emergency cross over of the huge green grass mound divider, and other tricks.....got back to saying "gitty up car."

And American hang in the blind spot of the car in front of them....the last time  I improved the rental car with two little glue on round mirrors for the side mirrors. No more blind spots.

I don't need that in passing lane Germany.

Sounds like you need a hobby to help you relax.

Have you tried fountain pens? 🤣

 

So my 140 broke. The finial (I hope I get the lingo right) came apart from the plunger. I had to unscrew the nib and feed to push the plunger out. I glued them back together (finial and plunger) and will put it back together tomorrow.

 

I hope I did this right. If not I will go to the autobahn and lie down in front of Bo Bo so he can run over me at 200 mph (or 322 k/mh). 

[inkstainedruth]

2 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Northern Virginia...don't know about south of Richmond, had Englishmen  come over to design the roads....the faster you go the more the road tries to throw you off instead of being banked to keep you on.....god help them come a snow.

.........and they have the original steth police.

 

I was there for a whole month....and having to poke along at 55....finally on a ill disguised road, my shoulders were cramped. I could understand folks reading their newspapers

I couldn't take it any more, and opened up to 85mph. Suddenly my shoulders relaxed, I could breath properly....A mile or two only of driving normal; was such a relief. Aware of sneak police.....having seen a cop car with an 18 foot pole with a radar unit on top of it on a long curve on the interstate at a wrecker/emergency cross over of the huge green grass mound divider, and other tricks.....got back to saying "gitty up car."

And American hang in the blind spot of the car in front of them....the last time  I improved the rental car with two little glue on round mirrors for the side mirrors. No more blind spots.

I don't need that in passing lane Germany.

Years ago, when I was still single, I was driving to somewhere in upstate New York with a friend, who lived across the river from me.  This is back in the mid-1980s, when the speed limits on highways were still dropped to 55 MPH (due to the energy crisis in the 1970s).  My friend INSISTED that we take the NYS Thruway all the way up from Rockland County to IIRC Syracuse, rather than a smaller but more direct route -- "because Rt 17 is a DEATH road in the wintertime".  So that meant driving up I-87 to around Albany, and then heading west from there on I-90.  The first problem was, that it was a MUCH longer route (17 angles up, cutting the corner).  The SECOND problem, is that the Thruway was designed -- and the curves banked -- for people to be driving 70 MPH.  So it FELT even longer than it actually was -- it just seemed INTERMINABLE....

On the way home, it was sunny, and since it was my car, and I was doing all the driving, I was like "Screw this -- we're taking 17.  And that means that on the way home we can ALSO stop to eat at the Roscoe Diner...." (back 30+ years ago there weren't a lot of really good places to stop between Monticello and Binghamton to eat -- EXCEPT the Roscoe Diner).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

7 hours ago, TgeekB said:

So my 140 broke. The finial (I hope I get the lingo right) came apart from the plunger. I had to unscrew the nib and feed to push the plunger out. I glued them back together (finial and plunger) and will put it back together tomorrow.

Sorry...............but  it wasn't deigned to be taken apart in the first place. Many take them apart...All the Time...

I don't.

 

I have all the tools, the cork, beeswax-mineral oil....but then I found a professional that re-corks the way I want....shaped cork boiled in oil&beeswax and then he slathered in silicon grease.

To tell the truth, I feared yanking apart old piston pens....in they were not Ahabs or Twsbi's.

Lots of folks are braver than me.

 

Had I not found Francis Goossens, I'd gotten around to it, in I had good pens that needed new gaskets (2.0), to replace old 1.0 plastic gaskets;  some were cork.

I hadn't realized that cork could replace plastic gasket. I'd been wondering how many cutters from Richard I'd have to order when I ordered a sheet of 2.0 plastic gasket. Francis replaces both cork and plastic gasket 1.0 with new properly prepared cork as I wish.

Plastic gasket 1.0 from @ 1938/9 to 1955. Plastic gasket 2.0 1955 to now.

Properly treated cork is the smoothest of all gaskets, even before slathering on silicon grease.

 

Perhaps a repairman can fix your pen.

 

At least you still have the nib....buy a used 200, put the nib in it.

[TgeekB]

12 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

 

 

At least you still have the nib....buy a used 200, put the nib in it.

An m200? 
 

I’ll also look for some spare parts. I’m not afraid to tinker. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

An M200....has great balance posted like the 400, and you get a great regular flex nib ...don't waste money on an oblique.

Used is as good as new for use....and one has more color choices. And much cheaper.

 

Semi-flex like your 140 is better with line variation, but less when doing two toned shading inks, in semi-flex is wetter; so would need a much better paper to ink match to shade as well as a regular flex.

M is a bit thinner than modern with the 200, but is a good width for two toned shading inks or classic rough paper like Laid or Linen Effect.

I've come to like like the disrespected  M very much.

The 200's nibs are tear dropped tipped, so write with as clear a line as the vintage stubs.

 

Most go narrow when they come back or get into fountain pens. I went wide.

Folks then look down their nose at the M that brought them into the addiction.

 

Noobies are taught that.....another stupid myth I believed.

 

It is amazing how many noobies are looking for the rich deep wet line...in EF or narrower....who find F too wide.....much less M...........they must have  started or been influenced by those with narrow marked Japanese pens

 

Normally for me F is narrow enough. So Eventually I ended up with a 3-4  200's in M one a 215, having two regular Celebries in F (plus other brands)...Do have an editing 200 in EF.....and a B....and some semi-vintage obliques (OM's& 1 OB) that I preach against. Nice enough to write with but slight to no line variation, unless heavy handed.

 

I got 35 of the 45 nib widths and flexes......so I drifted into regular flex M.

[TgeekB]

What about the m250 (old style)?

[Bo Bo Olson]

A 250 is a 200 with a 400's gold nib.

 

I have a NOS 250, '85-97 (mine not W.Germany) has the 400's teardrop springy regular flex nibtipping. In I have a '90-97 400 Tortoise and a gold nibbed Celebry (steel also) and 381, I'm not going to use the 250.... I know what that era** the nib offers. A nice clean line and a comfortable ride.

 

**Have W.Germany OM 800 & 200 nib & my small 600's OBB. The West Germany nib is a slight tad springier/softer than the '90-97 one. But you have to have both.

 

If you have any semi-vintage '90-97 non-W.Germany Pelikans, I suggest chasing a semi-flex vintage Pelikan instead of hunting for a W. Germany nib.

 

Our long passed Piembi (once the com's Pelikan expert; back when having 7-10 made one an expert. She also had MB's and other common German pens so gave good advice),

..............told me a decade ago, I was spoiled by having a semi-flex, and not to chase the W.Germany 400 I was looking at, in it was not significantly more springy/flexi than the normal non-W.Germany Pelikans of that era.

She was right................how ever if one is going to get a small semi-vintage 600, why not the W.Germany.

The OM W.Germany 200 that fell into my hands before the 600 showed me that it was still a hunt for line variation, rather than to have oblique line variation of semi-flex.

 

In the '50-60's I grew up with standard sized pens....so a decade ago I trans-mailed a green stripped W.Germany 800 (in some folks refuse to mail out of Germany) to a passed Lady with such great handwriting in Spain. I got to play with it for three days. It was still too big a pen for me then; but the nib impressed me.

 

I 'swore' if an 800  only a W.Germany one; in I had no idea how to tell a '90-97 regular flex 800 from the modern post '97 nails.

Tid-bit.

Semi-vintage 800's has their very own nib width, thinner than the other Pelikan nibs.

I have a chart from before Japanese pens became mainstream; so were not listed.

Very fat Conway Stewart, fat Parker, thin Shaffer, even thinner Pelikan 200/400/600, skinny 800, and the very skinny Waterman.

So odd to think of Pelikan nowadays as a thin nibbed pen, with that fat blob of a tipping of today.

 

A good reason to chase nice springy regular flex semi-vintage that is at least 1/2 a width narrower than modern.....and vintage and semi-vintage has a nice clean line!

 

An old style 250 will have the semi-vintage width and springiness of that era.....If you luck into a W.Germany 250, go for it. I'd not chase it. I'd spent 12 years not chasing one; had it not been NOS, I'd still not have one. I had a semi-vintage 400.

 

The price should be less than a 400 to be worth thinking about. Mine was very well priced....a couple euros over the price of a new non-Limited Edition 200. It's the black and gold, of which I have ever so many pens...........I could have bought a nice colorful 200 and put one of my 400's nib on it for a while..........But NOS .

I'd had NOS (4) before, used them of course.

 

But I have so many Pelikans I don't have too....and got a full set of W.Germany NOS 200 OM, BP&MP....from the same guy two days later...............................The photo  had a flash showing a darker marbled blue, in the fountain pen was exactly the same shade of pale marbled blue as the one I had.

 

[sansenri]

On 7/18/2021 at 3:41 AM, TgeekB said:

Sounds like you need a hobby to help you relax.

Have you tried fountain pens? 🤣

 

So my 140 broke. The finial (I hope I get the lingo right) came apart from the plunger. I had to unscrew the nib and feed to push the plunger out. I glued them back together (finial and plunger) and will put it back together tomorrow.

 

I hope I did this right. If not I will go to the autobahn and lie down in front of Bo Bo so he can run over me at 200 mph (or 322 k/mh). 

 

 

an affordable alternative is also a 120. The 120 and 140 are identical with exception that the barrel in the 120 is plastic (on the 140 cellulose acetate) and the nib is steel. The 140 nib on the 120 will really feel at home...

(as Bobo says, of course any M200 or M400 will also take the nib from a 140, the nibs in these pens are not exacty identical, but the threading is the same, and a used M200 in good conditions at an affordable price may be easier to find than a 120)

[TgeekB]

Ended getting an M250 with OB nib pretty cheap. 
 

A new experience. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Having said to you many times....an oblique of that era ...Do you have a honking big magnifying glass to hunt for the '82-97's so called line variation. What little you can find. (It is better than modern semi-nail and nail oblique nibs;)

And the gold of the 400/600/250 is no better, no 'softer' than a 200's steel nib. Those are grand regular flex nibs. The steel = the gold.

 

The good thing is you can get a B, M, F or even EF in 200 so you won't waste your time looking for line variation. In the 250 is a 200 with a 400's nib on it, the 200's nibs will fit.

 

If you cant/rotate your nib to an angle as normal, having a bit of left eye dominance so you can see the top of the nib; then an oblique can help.

 

Only Semi-flex oblique nibs are worth buying.

 

To get ease of use...OB would have been better in it has a wider sweet spot (and that era's OB (a writing nib, not a signature nib)would be a fat OM.). OM & OF have to be laid canted exactly at the right angle.

 

With the pen in air, post the cap so the clip lines up exactly between the slit and the right shoulder of the nib.

IN AIR grasp the pen so your clip sayes lined up....put the nib to paper and write, the nib is now canted at the proper angle.

 

Don't have to twist your fingers, hand or hang from the chandelier, the nib will do the work. (what little there will be).

The nib is not a stub, nor does it have adequate flex....If you press the nib hard looking for what is not there, you will eventually spring the nib and writing will much harder than with a ball point.

 

That advice works well for the real oblique; the semi-flex, then you get oblique line variation going with the factory stub and it's working flex needed.

[TgeekB]

Part of the fun of this hobby, or any hobby, is trying different things and determining what you like best. There are many pens and different nibs for a reason. No one pen/nib works for everyone. I have read about oblique nibs and always wanted to try one so here is my opportunity. I purchased the pen cheap so no great monetary loss. I will post my feelings after it arrives. 

[inkstainedruth]

Let us know how you like it.

I started out using a couple of cheapie Parker Reflexes with medium nibs.  When I "upgraded" to a Parker Vector (don't laugh -- at the time I felt so extravagant paying a whole whopping NINE DOLLARS for a pen) I wasn't sure I would like, or get used to, a fine nib after the medium nibs on the Reflexes.  

Now I have everthing from vintage EF to vintage OB (on a couple of the Parker 51s) and modern nibs ranging Japanese MF to German 1.5 mm stub.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[TgeekB]

So my m250 came today. So far, I like it. It reminds me, size wise, of my m400 souveran. It feels good posted and also well built, solid.

 

As far as the OB gold nib it feels smooth as butter, similar to my Montblanc 146. It produces very good line variation without much trouble. It took me just a few minutes to get used to holding it correctly to get the writing I wanted. Fun, different, just what I was hoping! 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Glad you like it.

 

 

 

Semi-flex spoiled me.