David M. Wagner Profile picture
Jun 3, 2020 7 tweets 2 min read Read on X
#fountainpen 1/ My new Sheaffer comes w a converter for bottle-filling, so even tho I also ordered a few cartridges, I gave it its 1st fill from the bottle that, happily, I also ordered. A converter is essentially a cartridge that you fill w a twist mechanism rather than replace.
2/ My into to #fountainpen culture came in 1st grade, where our teacher, imported from England, gave us all fountain pens, also imported from England, in April, after allowing us nothing but pencils until then. Bottle-fill only, w a lever filling a non-removable ink bladder.
3/ Come 2nd grade, a cartridge pen culture broke out, w Sheaffer vs. Esterbrook taking the place of the Ford/Chevy debates that consumed our elders. All these pens sold for about a buck. I was Esterbrook, but over time came to agree they were too “scratchy.”
4/ Besides, Sheaffers were available back then w translucent barrels, so you cd keep track of their ink. That was beyond cool. I forget whether it was Alison who converted me to Sheaffers, but by 3rd grade we were spending a lot of time together - cracking jokes - and...
5/...keeping score by how much ink we cd get on our fingers thru schoolwork in a day. This as much as anything underwrote the our shift from “permanent black” & “permanent blue-black” to “washable blue” - Sheaffer cartridge & bottled-ink colors of the day.
6/ Well Esterbrook is back in business (check out the Fahrney’s catalogue). I have an inexpensive medium-point Parker, a new Esterbrook fine-point but not the right cartridges for it (hence the bottled-ink purchase), and now this new Sheaffer...
7/...(fine point, bc Sheaffer tends to cut large). (I’m also back in touch w Alison.)

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with David M. Wagner

David M. Wagner Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @david_m_wagner

Jun 9
@VerbumCatholic @JoshuaTCharles It’s been just sitting there for decades 😃
@VerbumCatholic @JoshuaTCharles Some ironies:

The character that launched dear Ray Walston toward “My Favorite Martian” was named Luther: Luther Billis in “South Pacific” (stage and film).

Before “South Pacific” Ray won a Tony for playing, literally, Satan - dba “Mr. Applegate” - in “Damn Yankees.”
@VerbumCatholic @JoshuaTCharles The Luther Billis character required broad farce, whereas Uncle Martin - well, what was more exciting, in the ‘50s, than Martians? Yet Uncle Martin required Ray to deadpan, and to dress like an insurance salesman, and from *that* platform, to be funny.

He was very talented.
Read 4 tweets
Aug 15, 2023
1/ TLM readings for Assumption are boss! Gen 3 - we know there in enmity betw the snake and “the woman” - a typological category that includes several OT women, including Judith, so 1st reading is from her book, where she is explicitly praised for her most famous accomplishment.
2/ Old ‘Olofernes - ‘e’s been ever so much better since ‘e ‘ad ‘is ‘ead off.
3/ Not in the readings, but “the woman” includes Jael, in Judges.
Read 4 tweets
Jul 6, 2023
What’s going on? fundyProts w nmore Biblical depth than Antietam Creed attacking Our Lady, then someone does a hostile (some wd say homophobic) thread on GKC, and now R. Brazen Witch is on about Dante.
For more about Dante and Courtly Love, read on.
2/ Dante took the Courtly Love tradition more or less as he found it; one of the rules of the CL road was that your “amor” cdn’t be your wife. But in part he broke with the conventions. CL usually involved sexual passion for the “amor,” and sometimes (less often) actual conquest.
3/ This surprises some ppl, bc we think we know all about CL from TANNHÄUSER or “Man of La Mancha” - “to love pure and chaste from afar” - n’uh uh. Except for a minority of CL poets, including Dante. “Pure and chaste from afar” was v much his thing re Beatrice.
Read 6 tweets
May 31, 2023
1/ So far it sounds good. Konieczny is excellent; Dmitri Belosselskiy as Daland is threatening to steal the show.

Soon we’ll hear from Elsa v d Heever as Senta. @MetOpera she’s done Elisabetta in MARIA STUARDA, Elettra in IDOMENEO, and now Senta, i.e. …
2/ she specializes in chicks who are a bit cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs.
3/ Elza’s fine. Noted, too, how Eric Cutler, formerly bel canto (Arturo in PURITANI) here moves to the threshold of Wagner-tenor-world, turning in a well-sung Erik - a role that doesn’t need, yet frequently gets, a full-blown heldentenor.
Read 6 tweets
Apr 23, 2023
For a dark lord, Pizarro sure gets a jolly intro march. Beethoven’s FIDELIO on MetOperaChannel now, perf from 1976. Gwyneth Jones, Jess Thomas, Donald McIntyre; cond. John Mauceri.
2/ The horns effed up their exposed slow passage early in the overture, so they provided lovely support for Gwyneth in the Abscheulicher, and maybe the maestro didn’t demand their asses for dinner.
3/ Leonora (“Fidelio”) persuades Rocco (John Macurdy, old pro) to let the prisoners out for some air, hoping she’ll spot her husband. When Pizarro calks on Rocco to please explain, Rocco says well it’s the king’s b’day. …
Read 4 tweets
Apr 22, 2023
1/ A 2002 FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN on rn. My old friend from Opera-L tenor Thomas Moser is singing the (kind, slightly silly) Emperor, and sounds good despite a bit of strain at the top of his brief Act I appearance. Thielemann conducting sensitively.
2/ In Deb Voigt still had the coloratura as well as dramatic passages of the Empress.
3/ Baritone Wolfgang Brendel and soprano Gabriela Schnaut (back then a leading Brünnhilde and Ortrud at Bayreuth) shine as the Baraks.

Reinhild Runkel was the bulldozer dramatic mezzo that the villainess role of the Nurse needs but sounds here like she’s in her 4th quarter.
Read 12 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(