A Dozen Links From Around The Web

This ought to keep you out of trouble for awhile…

• Facebook Scam Alert – What Really Happens When You “Like”
• Creepy ghost town emerges from sea in Argentina
• Spontaneous Order Experiments Take Hold in Detroit
• Rants of the Archer: It’s Carnival Time!
• New York man finishes writing out entire Bible by hand (Now that’s dedication.)
• 20 ways to keep your internet identity safe from hackers
• Paper Salads
• Win a Danitrio, a Montblanc, or a Conway Stewart
• Sunshine Pen Pals
• Feelgood stories from The Guardian: a daddy, a sea lion, and quadruplets
• 7 Signs of a Bad Doctor
• The 16-Year-Old Who Changed Medicine Is Out to Change It Again

Links For Handwriting, Calligraphy, And Pen Junkies

This is a rarity. All nine links are pen and handwriting related. How totally on topic!

• JBBPensPaper (calligraphy items on Etsy)
• NYT: Kate Gladstone on Handwriting Matters; Cursive Doesn’t
• Gentian adds an ink reservoir to a dip nib
• Italic handwriting and calligraphy lesson (h/t Kate Gladstone)
• Yikes! Look at the price tag on the Sailor Kai!
• Mommy Kat and Kids has a pen giveaway but hurry to enter. It’s ending in two days.
• PerthNow: Tech-savvy kids can’t push a pencil
• Mattias: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen (He’s the artist who introduced me to the Namiki Falcon.)
• Leigh Reyes on taking better pen photos

Links From Pens To Fish To Cursive

Don’t even try to connect the dots but do enjoy this fresh batch of links…

• Word. Notebooks (According to a company rep, the printer says the paper is FP-friendly.)
• Writer’s Bloc Top 10 Fountain Pens
• New Rhodia Products in 2014
• Siamese Fighting Betta Fish
• Wonder Pens in Toronto
• Kate Gladstone on mandating cursive in North Carolina schools
• Edison Pen Company: Learn How To Tune Your Nibs

17 Links For The 17th Of March

And a Happy St. Patrick’s Day to ya whether you’re Irish or not.

• Sukatto Notebook Helps You Destress (h/t Cheryl Lindo Jones)
• Mom Builds Lego Hogwarts (h/t Speedmaster)
• Cute Photographs of a Backyard Squirrel Doing Human Things (h/t Cheryl Lindo Jones)
• XBOX 360 Pico-Reef Aquarium
• FP Geeks: The F.P.R. Dilli, a piston-filled, flex nib fountain pen for $18
• Paper art from abadova
• Brilliant watercolors by Brenda Swenson
• Real Simple: Tic Tac Box as Spice Holder
• Black letter calligraphy by Seb Lester
• Not for fountain pens but still golden
• The Curse of Non-Cursive Writing (h/t Speedmaster)
• Leigh Reyes calligraphy video: Stones Inside Your Shoes
• Teeny, tiny watercolor palette
• Stillman & Birn New Zeta Series
• Moleskine Messages in Pastel Colors
• Frustrated over the demise of Google Reader? Check out FeedDemon and Feedly.
• TheKitchn.com: How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa

Note that the sidebar was updated in the calligraphy section this past week. A big thank you goes to Kate Gladstone for some fine suggestions.

Flexing That Platinum Century Nib

When it comes to writing in my journal and especially when writing to a friend, bold or stub nibs are my preference. But sometimes I just gotta flex and the Platinum Century Fine Flex is coming along nicely in that role. With Iroshizuku fuyu-syogun on Apica 6A10, the hairlines are fine and the down-strokes are wide in contrast. It still takes a bit more force than I would like but there is decided improvement with each use. It may not be vintage flex, but it’s plenty of fun regardless.

Some Calligraphers Earn Really Big Money

Did you see this?

With the White House closing its doors to public tour groups in order to save money for the sequester, it’s worth remembering some of the other costs the White House incurs annually.

Like the “Chief Calligrapher,” Patricia A. Blair, who has an annual salary of $96,725, and her two deputies, Debra S. Brown, who gets paid $85,953 per year, and Richard T. Muffler, who gets paid $94,372 every year.

In all, the White House appears to employ 3 calligraphers for a yearly total of $277,050.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/chief-white-house-calligrapher-gets-paid-96725-year_706521.html

Color me gobsmacked!

These Links Are For You

Just a few but they are good ones…

• Cleveland Daily Banner: Handwriting skills not a tech victim
• Leigh Reyes: The Nakaya Piccolo in Titanium
• European Paper: Exacompta Vintage FAF Pad
• Gentian: Iroshizuku Inks: Shin-Kai, Take-Sumi and Ina-Ho
• WSJ: For $19, An Unlimited Phone Plan, Some Flaws
• The Guardian: 10 things about being an artist that art teachers don’t tell you
• Peaceable Writer: It’s a Wrap!