July 29, 2014

Where's that pen? Meade has lost a pen that was very special to him.

It was that cheap little pen with the hotel name on it that he liked so much because he wouldn't care if he lost it.

29 comments:

campy said...

Dare I ask how long the pen is?

traditionalguy said...

Was it from the Mont Blanc hotel?

Saint Croix said...

Dog took it.

My dog ate my remote control. I say she ate it but I still have two-thirds of it. But the important operating third is gone.

I love my cheap ass Walmart VCR, except I don't love it so much without a remote control. The damn thing only has four buttons, and two of those are "power" and "open."

The other two buttons are "play" and "stop." So I can play. And I can stop. But there ain't no fast forward or rewind in my life right now. Or mute, that's out. Or subtitles. I had a damn Englishman speaking on the last movie I saw, had no idea what the hell he was saying.

I got House of Cards sitting on top of my TV right now, and I"m scared to start playing the damn thing. It's like a 6-hour commitment. That's like invading Russia. And if I fall asleep I'm screwed. I got to start over, and rewatch the damn episodes I've already seen.

So that's the big decision in my life right now. Do I say screw it and buy a new VCR? Or do I get comfortable in my easy chair--although not too damn comfortable or I will fall asleep--and make the march into House of Cards? Which is awesome, by the way.

Writ Small said...

"Even knowing Meade was juggling multiple pens, the cheap little pen never doubted how important it was to him..."

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

It's always in the last place you look.

madAsHell said...

Expensive sun glasses are soon lost, or broken.
Cheap sun glasses? Well....I still have them.

lemondog said...

I agree the dog probably ate it (that Maeve on Puparazzo has a particularly mischievous look), but in the event not here are
5 Tips on How to Find a Lost Pen

Ann Althouse said...

Before the days of writing on computers, I had one great pen — a Pelikan with a gold nib — that I used for years, used it with fountain-pen India ink so it made great drawings, including the doodles in the margin of my law school notes. I wrote all my law school exams with that great pen, and as a lawprof who's read thousands of handwritten exams, I can't be sure the utterly clear thick black letters didn't trump the grader's objectivity a little bit.

Because it was valuable, I didn't lose it, not for more than 10 years. But then somehow I did lose it. I replaced it with a Mont Blanc pen — also with a real gold nib — but it was never the same… or maybe the fount India declined in quality.

I put the fountain pen aside, and I've gone through endless Uniball rolling ball pens and other disposable things since then.

But how delighted I would be to find the old Pelikan.

Big Mike said...

So plan to go back there and pick up another.

The Drill SGT said...

I have non-monogamous relationships with pens. Pens to me are free spirits. I expect to share my life with any given pen for about 48 hours before she moves on to another. Some of my favorite pens have turned out to be Lesbians.

SukieTawdry said...

I have a whole collection of hotel pens. Can I send him one?

jimbino said...

My trouble isn't losing things, it's getting rid of them. Once I tried tossing out a garbage can, but they wouldn't take it. And once a boomerang.

jimbino said...

I took all my law school notes in calligraphy with a Rapidograph loaded with India ink.

Gave me something to do when the class was boring.

gadfly said...

Pens are exchanged between users because pen possessors are careless and pen finders are clueless.

Ann Althouse said...

You can't put India ink in a Rapidograph. Even with special Rapidograph ink, you spend a lot of time shaking the damned thing. It makes a nice line, but you wouldn't want to be dragged down time-wise, especially during an exam.

David said...

Perhaps the pen just has presumable associations.

Bob Boyd said...

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
'Til it's gone
It was pen paradise
and then it got farking lost.

RJ said...

Pelikans are better pens than Mont Blanc pens. No wonder you have a stronger attachment to the Pelikan.

jimbino said...

Well, I put India ink in my Rapidograph and I did shake it a lot. Success depends in part on the size of the nib.

jimbino said...

India ink for Rapidographs:

http://www.dickblick.com/products/koh-i-noor-rapidograph-ultradraw-waterproof-ink/

Ann Althouse said...

"India ink for Rapidographs…"

Well, I consider that a substitute for India ink, not actual India ink.

Ann Althouse said...

"Basic India ink is composed of a variety of fine soot known as lampblack, combined with water to form a liquid. A binding agent such as gelatin or, more commonly, shellac may be added to make the ink more durable once dried. India ink is occasionally sold in solid form (most commonly, a stick), which must be moistened before use."

Wikipedia.

Ann Althouse said...

I don't consider the fount India I linked to India ink either.

And that stuff isn't really very good for the pen. The Pelikan could handle it, but the Mont Blanc got hinky.

Bob said...

I'd recommend a Pelikan M200 with an italic nib for some truly elegant handwriting.

ken in tx said...

I used to use the Bic pen theory of car ownership--if you have three or four, you know at least one of them will work. I would have three cars, none of them worth more than $500, and one good car. I always got to work on time, and the good car was not always the one that started.

Hagar said...

Pelikan seems to consider their ink for Rapidograph pens to be India Ink.

I was told that one year in the early '60s when Miss Welk had money left over at the end of the year, and she was tired of listening to complaints about American drafting inks, she bought a 55 gal. drum of Pelikan for the CoE Albuquerque Distrct Office.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

May I recommend Noodler's Ink? Their standard blue is pretty good but the black is outstanding - smooth-flowing, nice tight line, and very little fade. Cheap enough to try a few different colors, and a 3oz bottle was good for more than a year (for me).

Made in the USA; Amazon stocks 'em!

"Bulletproof" black

Eel black (lubricating)

Noodler's Ink search, Amazon

Anonymous said...

My pen!

traditionalguy said...

Men in white shirts are better advised to use regular ball points. Even roller. balls left UN capped or extended ruin a white shirt in a few minutes