When Pens Are More Than Tools

[Jon Szanto]

Good read:

How India's artisanal fountain pens are making their mark

[RobJohnson]

That was a good read, thanks for posting.

The Buffalo horn pen looks stunning.

[RobJohnson]

Just out of interest Jon, sorry if this sounds nosey, this is quite an obscure article on a BBC news website. Is it common practice for Americans to read the BBC website?

Not that I am knocking the BBC website at all, it is well researched and does its best to be impartial. I say this as a reader of the NYT website, for a number of reasons, it is well written, has good arts coverage and when it reports on UK news it does so from a fresh perspective, sometimes a little biased but I can cope with that.

[FredRydr]

I read BBC every day. I think it's slipping into less text and more video, but I suppose it's not unexpected from a broadcasting enterprise.

[RobJohnson]

I read BBC every day. I think it's slipping into less text and more video, but I suppose it's not unexpected from a broadcasting enterprise.

Thank you.

The BBC news site is criticised by the right for being too socialist and by the left for being too Conservative.

I am assuming that you obtain something that is not present on US newswebsites, perhaps similar to my reading NYT, a fresh perspective?

Sorry Jon, taking this thinking away from your original idea.

[Chrissy]

It's encouraging to find that users worldwide are able to access and read the BBC web-site if they wish to do so.
There have been many occasions that I see links to US sites that I can't access because I'm outside of the US.

[FredRydr]

After reading the article, I decided to look around and ended up with a shortlist for pen makers in India. Some makers had inactive websites, but they had Facebook presence.

https://www.lotuspens.com
http://www.fosforpens.com
https://rangapens.com
https://asapens.in/eshop/
https://guiderpen.com
https://www.vazirfountainpens.com
http://www.constellations88.com
https://kanpurwriters.com
https://www.facebook.com/gmcustompens
https://www.facebook.com/urushistudioindia/
https://www.facebook.com/Vsignpens/

I'll copy and paste this to a new thread with a specific title on artisan pens from India, to make it easier to find.

[RobJohnson]

It's encouraging to find that users worldwide are able to access and read the BBC web-site if they wish to do so.
There have been many occasions that I see links to US sites that I can't access because I'm outside of the US.

For sure, I was simply curious about Jon's interest in the BBC site, personally I think it is excellent and multi layered, the fact that he found it interesting was the trigger for the question.

[An old bloke]

Apparently, the article dates from 2012.

[Yazeh]

Thanks Jon for the article. Really enjoyed it.

Rob, I've been using BBC before internet and after internet.
I was a fan of their jingle: This is the BBC world Service."
I couldn't find any trace of it on the internet but it brings memories of hope and trepidation.
When I lived in France, I listened to BBC France until it was discontinued.
And whenever, I want to read world news I'm on the BBC site.

Though I have to admit, I've been shifting more and more to the Guardian website.
Our news media in North America are quite insular.

[elaineb]

I'm a long-time BBC web site reader. I started listening to the BBC radio (Yes, that jingle...!) when I lived in Europe in the 1980s. I admired their reporting. Back in the States, I bought a short-wave radio so I could listen to it from Boston. When the internet happened, I started to read the BBC web site often during my morning news dive. And I was very happy when our local NPR radio station started broadcasting the World Service for an hour twice a day. It's the only time I ever hear about current events in Africa, for instance.

[Fermata]

I knew some people in Africa and they all used to listen to a radio station the BBC World Service, they said said they could trust what was being said, it was a world news and light entertainment, the reporters used to say that they could get access to anywhere. Michael Palin said that there could be a group of terrorists holding machine guns and promising to take over governments with plenty of bloodshed, he had only to shout "BBC, coming through, stand back please" and the crowds would part like Moses and the Red Sea.

[Turquoise]

I’m in the US and I read BBC news everyday; I have an app for it on my mobile device. I actually don’t watch or read American news channels because there is too much bias (left and right). I stick to BBC, Reuters, and Associated Press.

[Jon Szanto]

Just out of interest Jon, sorry if this sounds nosey, this is quite an obscure article on a BBC news website. Is it common practice for Americans to read the BBC website?

Rob, not to worry, not intrusive at all. In this instance, the link was sent to me by a local pen friend in a group email. We have a very small cohort that used to meet once a month and since the Plague we've tried to keep in touch nominally. Douglass offered this article up yesterday.

As a rule, I often see the Beeb site in a news aggregator I use called Flipboard. I also have one folder of news links that I check when I need broader perspective, which included Beeb, Guardian, Spiegel Online, and Sydney Morning Herald. I don't know how much it gets me outside of the US news bubble but it's a step in the right direction. I want to find a good suggestion (eachan?) for a reliable online news source from Scotland.

[silverlifter]

Can confirm than Manoj, at Fosfor Pens, makes magnificent writing instruments. And that his queue is measured in Covid-years

[RobJohnson]

Just out of interest Jon, sorry if this sounds nosey, this is quite an obscure article on a BBC news website. Is it common practice for Americans to read the BBC website?

Rob, not to worry, not intrusive at all. In this instance, the link was sent to me by a local pen friend in a group email. We have a very small cohort that used to meet once a month and since the Plague we've tried to keep in touch nominally. Douglass offered this article up yesterday.

As a rule, I often see the Beeb site in a news aggregator I use called Flipboard. I also have one folder of news links that I check when I need broader perspective, which included Beeb, Guardian, Spiegel Online, and Sydney Morning Herald. I don't know how much it gets me outside of the US news bubble but it's a step in the right direction. I want to find a good suggestion (eachan?) for a reliable online news source from Scotland.

One Scottish newspaper based newssite is the Scotsman.

I haven't been to Edinburgh for a few years but I used to enjoy reading the Scotsman sitting at a restaurant on George Street with a good coffee.


https://www.scotsman.com/

[Jerome Tarshis]

Responding to Rob Johnson's question about Americans reading the BBC news on the Web, I can say with apologies for being monolingual while gazing at my computer screen, that I read what is available in English. Out of restlessness. For the same kind of reason that brought me to FPGeeks just now.

I read The Oldie's Web site because it makes more articles available than it used to. Google News refers me to articles in English from a variety of nations. I read the Web site of Country Life partly because I like the way people use language at CL, but also for the idiosyncratic reason that John McEwen, one of CL's art writers, was my editor at the British art magazine Studio International in the 1970s. (I live in San Francisco but have been published in a smorgasbord of major cities.)

Reading craziness is a hobby in much the same way as pen craziness is a hobby. To my regret, trying to read in French and German has become less easy than it was in the past, so for Web reading i don't try. But otherwise, nothing to do with political opinion or impartiality or thorough reporting, just a need to fill time and alas not so much energy for reading a demanding book.

[RobJohnson]

Thanks Jerome.

Before the internet, when travelling at home or abroad one of the early purchases was to buy a local newspaper, just to see how the City thinks, the internet now allows me to read the news, at least the English speaking news wherever it is published online, whether this is New York or Tonga

https://matangitonga.to/

The Oldie is terrific. I haven't looked into its history, these are just as I recall. When the editor of Private Eye stepped down he said he was going to produce a magazine called the Oldie, which i took to mean a magazone aimed at old people and to be comical.

I have just read their website and I still don't know what the Oldie is all about, but that is probably a good thing. It is still a valuable and interesting diversion.

https://www.theoldie.co.uk/

[eachan]

Being myself an oldie (lower-case initial) I subscribed to The Oldie for a couple of years. It's well-written and amusing but I eventually grew tired of how London-centric it is.