Veterans' Day

For those of you who have served in our country's armed forces - Thank you.
For those of you who wear the scars of battle - Thank you.
For those of you who have lost sons and daughters, husbands, wives, or parents as they served our country - Thank you.
For my father who served in the Pacific Theater as a young sailor during World War II - Thank you.
For my father-in-law who served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War - Thank you.

Have a happy Veterans' Day!

Veterans' Day

National Coffee Day

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog to announce that today is National Coffee Day. I invite you to join me in raising a mug of coffee (in my case, Community Medium Roast) in honor of this auspicious occasion.

Thank you. We now return you to whatever you were doing before I interrupted.

National Coffee Day

What's in Your Desk?

Every now and then, I get the wild notion to clean off my desk and reorganize my desk drawers. I know, I know . . . crazy talk. Still, it makes for an interesting archaeological expedition as I dig through the strata of detritus (Huh! Where did that sandwich come from?)

It has been quite a while since I tackled the main desk drawer - the wide one that's front and center. I keep my good pens in a holder and my not-so-good pens in a not-so-good holder, so the middle drawer is the home of other office (and not-so-office) supplies.

Here's a list of the items that I found, in no particular order:
* A Radio Shack solar-powered calculator I bought in 1986. It quit working just a few weeks ago. :(
* A travel toothbrush and some Crest "Clean Cinnamon" toothpaste.
* A $5 bill! (Lucky find - now in my wallet)
* A Tide instant stain remover pen (Very handy!)
* A tube of Levenger "Aero-clips" (fancy paper clips - I forgot when I bought them)
* Some lemony moist towelettes
* A discount card to some area restaurants, tire stores, etc. (expired)
* Six keys that go to ???
* A few golf tees
* A cherry cough drop, firmly affixed to the drawer.
* Numerous business cards (now in the circular file).
* Paper clips galore. I think they're multiplying.
* An empty Altoids box I've been saving.
* Some dental floss - waxed, minty
* A non-working penlight
* Sticky-note pads from several vendors
* A couple of old wallet-size family photos
* My fishing license (expired)
* two AAA batteries (expired in 2006)
* Assorted pre-inked stamps (faxed, received, file copy)
* an empty tube of Chap-Stick
* Some unidentified meds (now discarded)
* Several cellophane-wrapped toothpicks
* A package of Pilot Fountain Pen ink cartridges (blue)
* A jewelers screwdriver (so THAT's where you've been hiding!)
* A box of chalk. Chalk?
* Numerous scraps of paper, old coupons, highliters, a steel ruler, pencils and dust.

So, what's in YOUR desk?

What's in Your Desk?

Mea Culpa!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Here's a list of reasons why I haven't written any reviews or made any comments lately . . .

1. High humidity is causing ink to run on paper, spoiling review results.
2. Hot summer temperatures causing writer's cramp - difficult to test pens.
3. My dog ate my homework.
4. Someone switched out my regular coffee with decaf. Now suffering from narcolep . . . zzzzzzz
5. Huh? Sorry, I must have dozed off.
6. Accidentally mailed last review through Post Office rather than post on-line.
7. Spel annd grammmer chek funcshun fayled, makkin postes unreeduhbul.
8. Can anyone say, "Vacation?!"
9. Missed Lent - gave up posting for Summer Solstice instead.
10. Trying to minimize my carbon footprint by typing reviews into computer with power off. Epic fail.

Okay - they're all lame excuses. Real reason? Just busy with work at church and other "stuff." I do plan on posting a review of Private Reserve's "Orange Crush" ink in a few days . . . once I can find my camera, that is. ;)

Mea Culpa!

Diary of a Sailor

I had a nice visit with my 84 year-old Dad yesterday, (Memorial Day) and had the chance to see some of his mementos from World War II. Of special interest was a diary he kept along with several old black and white photos and a few yellow sheets of V-Mail (Victory Mail) - correspondence between Dad and his girlfriend (later to become his wife - my mother).

Dad joined the Navy in 1942 as a 17 year-old. He had never traveled more than 50 miles from his home in the Mississippi Delta before boarding a train for boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Facility. From there, he served a stint at the Naval Hospital in San Diego with the Shore Patrol before shipping out on a Liberty Ship in 1943 to "island hop" along with the Marines. It was at a base exchange in San Diego that Dad picked up a cloth and cardboard bound journal with a gold anchor embossed on the cover. Technically, it was a violation of wartime regulations to keep a journal in a war-zone, but apparently it was a rule seldom enforced. I enjoyed reading through Dad's old journal, it's navy blue cover somewhat faded, and the pages dog-eared and yellow. The old blue fountain pen ink in Dad's workman-like handwriting still looked sharp, though moisture had caused some feathering on a few pages. Dad said it was hard to keep stuff dry when a ship is caught in a storm - even below-decks.

It's almost surreal to read the accounts from my Dad written when he was only 17 or 18. He wrote of rough seas, bad food and sleeping on the open deck to escape the cloying heat below-decks. Once he wrote of the ship behind them in the convoy going down after being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. I was amazed at his ability to put down his thoughts so clearly in such a stressful situation.

Many of the entries were humorous. While stationed on one of the Gilbert Islands, he drove an ambulance - transporting wounded Marines to a base hospital. He wrote of a time the ambulance got away from him on a steep down-grade and how he accidentally ran the base commander's Jeep off the narrow road before he regained control. Fortunately for Dad, the Captain never learned who drove the ambulance.

The photos were an added bonus, filling Dad's old journal the way Dr. Henry Jones "Grail Diary" was filled with drawings and notes in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Dad even kept an old rubber band around his journal (though the original rubber band gave up the ghost long ago.) The photos depicted Dad in cut-off khaki shorts and combat boots. He was bare-chested and dark from the tropical sun. Usually he sported aviator sunglasses. I had to smile at a shot of Dad, by himself, dressed in his tropical attire while guarding a group of Japanese prisoners. Dad had struck a fanciful pose, cradling his M-1 Carbine, while the incarcerated Japanese soldiers behind the barbed wire mugged for the camera. Dad said they were happy to be out of the war.

The few surviving pieces of V-Mail are interesting. Most are generic letters from Dad to Mom about how he was doing, etc. Military censors would cut out references to location, weather, ship names, etc., so much of his writing was simply asking Mom about how things were back home. He showed me one V-Mail letter, barely legible, that had been recovered from a cargo plane that had been shot down over the pacific.

When Dad passes on one day, I'll inherit these archives of his past. I hope he realizes how meaningful the old journal and the V-Mail are to me. They give a glimpse into my father's life that I can pass along to my own children. It's a reminder that when we take time to write down our thoughts, we do more than pass the time - we leave a legacy.

Diary of a Sailor

Pelikan Tradition-Series 200 Fountain Pen Review

I recently purchased a Pelikan Tradition Series 200 Fountain Pen from Goldspot Pens. The pen normally retails for a little over $100, but I was able to purchase it for $80 on sale.

I've wanted a Pelikan pen for a long time - the German company has a long and storied history of producing quality writing instruments. The 200 series seemed like a good place to start - a quality pen at a reasonable price.

My pen arrived quickly from Goldspot, packed in a very nice presentation box with instructions in several languages. The pen itself has a black acrylic resin barrel with gold plated accents. The nib (I ordered a fine point) is stainless steel with gold plating. Medium and broad point nibs are also available. Of course, the iconic Pelican bill clip is present.

These pens come equipped with a built-in plunger mechanism, precluding the use of cartridges. That suited me fine, as I like to try different brands of ink in different colors. This time, I decided to try Noodler's Nakahama Whaleman's Sepia, based on an excellent review on Unposted. Filling the pen was simple - simply submerge the nib completely and slowly twist the end of the barrel. You should see bubbles in the ink as the plunger forces air from the chamber. Then, slowly twist the end in the opposite direction to fill the pen. The lower part of the pen is translucent, allowing you to see the ink level in the barrel. The pen wrote smoothly enough after a brief break-in period. The fine nib produced a steady flow of the Noodler's ink, though it was just a bit scratchy - even on the excellent Doane Paper I used. I imagine it will smooth out more with continued use.

The Pelikan is very light and compact. It is considerably shorter than a Lamy Safari but not so small as to be unwieldy for writing. Some might find the pen almost too light. The compact size allows it to fit easily in a shirt pocket - the cap screws on for a very secure fit.

All in all I really enjoy this Pelikan. It writes well, looks classy and has a built-in plunger mechanism. This is a pen suitable for casual or dress attire. If you're looking for a classic fountain pen at a very reasonable price, I can highly recommend the Pelikan Tradition-Series 200.

Pelikan Tradition-Series 200 Fountain Pen Review

April Fooled

It's April 1st - you know what THAT means.

Yep, it's a license for people to pull inane practical jokes that tend to get stale by, oh, say 8:30 AM. (Hey - your shoe's untied. MADE YOU LOOK! April FOOL! Bwahahahahaha!)

Oh boy, you got me. Whoo-ha. Good one.

To be fair, I have engaged in this national (global?) nonsense too. My favorite was the annual scare-the-wife-with-a-bug gag. (Hey, is that a spider on you? . . .) Yeah, it wore thin with her, too.

I must confess, I gave consideration to at an April Fool's post for Coffee-Stained Memos. I even made an attempt - sort of. To say the effort was a dismal failure would be, well, accurate.

My plan was to do a "retro-writing tools" post with an homage to President Lincoln. Why? You may ask. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I got out a shovel from the shop with the intent of reviewing it as a notebook. (Surely you remember that old Abe did his homework on the back of a shovel? And George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and threw it across the Potomac? Or paid someone a silver dollar to do it for him - my memory fails me.) Anyway, back to the shovel. Lacking any handy coal, I tried a piece of charcoal and attempted to write, "Abe was here," on said shovel. I quickly learned that charcoal may be an acceptable writing medium on paper, but it's a total FAIL when it comes to a grime-covered digging implement.

Not to be deterred, I tried burning the end of a stick to create a rustic writing implement. Unfortunately, the stick was either too green, too wet or some combination that rendered it nonflammable. By this point, I was providing entertainment for our Border Collie but accomplishing little else. I considered and rejected the notion of trying a fountain pen, and finally decided on a Sharpie. So . . . with all this preliminary stuff out of the way, here are my findings:

Shovels are not the best available writing materials. They have the upside of being durable and weatherproof, but these small advantages wane compared to the overwhelming downsides.

Shovels do not lie flat when writing, they are difficult to fold and nigh impossible to fit in a pocket. They are cumbersome, do not take ink well (even a Sharpie proved only minimally legible) and lack an elastic closure. Writing space is limited as a shovel only offers the equivalent of four pages (okay, maybe eight if you're used to a pocket-size notebook.) In short, if you need something on which to collect your thoughts, keep a to-do list or do your homework, the shovel is probably the last option you should seek. Okay, rakes may be worse, but you get my point.

I'm beginning to think someone was pulling my leg about this whole Abe Lincoln homework on a shovel story.

April Fooled