David R. Isaacson, MD
http://www.vacumania.com : Sales site for guaranteed, restored collectible pens.
The Fountain Pen Board /FPnuts : Archived Message Board with focus on vintage.
The Fountain Pen Journal: The new glossy full-color print magazine, published/edited by iconic fountain pen author Paul Erano.
Facebook pen group "Fountain Pens"/FPnuts: Davey's casual Facebook group for collectible pens.
31000 members and growing. World's heftiest daily vintage pen eye candy
I have tracked down what I believe to be a first or second printing of the first edition in fairly good condition in a dusty used bookstore in the Southwest. Because the asking price is substantial, I need to go see the book before I purchase it. Rest assured, you will not find the store where this treasure is located. Once I have it, I may post scans though the book has undergone many editions since the first.
Last edited by david i; December 3rd, 2014 at 11:06 PM.
David R. Isaacson, MD
http://www.vacumania.com : Sales site for guaranteed, restored collectible pens.
The Fountain Pen Board /FPnuts : Archived Message Board with focus on vintage.
The Fountain Pen Journal: The new glossy full-color print magazine, published/edited by iconic fountain pen author Paul Erano.
Facebook pen group "Fountain Pens"/FPnuts: Davey's casual Facebook group for collectible pens.
31000 members and growing. World's heftiest daily vintage pen eye candy
Stop. feeding. the. troll.
bluefeathers (December 5th, 2014), countrydirt (December 5th, 2014), Finalist (December 4th, 2014), klpeabody (December 6th, 2014), Neo (December 4th, 2014), oldstoat (December 6th, 2014), pengeezer (December 4th, 2014), Ste_S (March 16th, 2015), Thecla (December 4th, 2014)
I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.
George Bernard Shaw
Tactic 254 from the Winner's Debating Manual:
Sometimes you have to shout loudly only one time, and people will get your point.
-Ryan
After a quarter century of this online discussion nonsense, I've developed some informal guidelines when I'm engaged in internet debates. They developed as defensive mechanisms to keep me from being emotionally consumed. Unfortunately, I've never bothered to formalize them, but anyway, mine might not work for everyone. It seems to me that there might be a market for a book that studies effective strategies for communicating in internet forums. One of the things that I'm sure would be in there is avoiding more than two quotes from the same response. Point-counterpoint style debating in batch mode is too tedious for most onlookers and frequently, I fear, even for some of those participating in the debate. I stopped doing it when I realized that even the person I was arguing with was not taking the time to read my responses. You really don't want to start writing things that nobody (else) reads.
--
Mike
David R. Isaacson, MD
http://www.vacumania.com : Sales site for guaranteed, restored collectible pens.
The Fountain Pen Board /FPnuts : Archived Message Board with focus on vintage.
The Fountain Pen Journal: The new glossy full-color print magazine, published/edited by iconic fountain pen author Paul Erano.
Facebook pen group "Fountain Pens"/FPnuts: Davey's casual Facebook group for collectible pens.
31000 members and growing. World's heftiest daily vintage pen eye candy
David R. Isaacson, MD
http://www.vacumania.com : Sales site for guaranteed, restored collectible pens.
The Fountain Pen Board /FPnuts : Archived Message Board with focus on vintage.
The Fountain Pen Journal: The new glossy full-color print magazine, published/edited by iconic fountain pen author Paul Erano.
Facebook pen group "Fountain Pens"/FPnuts: Davey's casual Facebook group for collectible pens.
31000 members and growing. World's heftiest daily vintage pen eye candy
David R. Isaacson, MD
http://www.vacumania.com : Sales site for guaranteed, restored collectible pens.
The Fountain Pen Board /FPnuts : Archived Message Board with focus on vintage.
The Fountain Pen Journal: The new glossy full-color print magazine, published/edited by iconic fountain pen author Paul Erano.
Facebook pen group "Fountain Pens"/FPnuts: Davey's casual Facebook group for collectible pens.
31000 members and growing. World's heftiest daily vintage pen eye candy
This isn't even fun anymore. I miss the Greg talk.
-Ryan
David R. Isaacson, MD
http://www.vacumania.com : Sales site for guaranteed, restored collectible pens.
The Fountain Pen Board /FPnuts : Archived Message Board with focus on vintage.
The Fountain Pen Journal: The new glossy full-color print magazine, published/edited by iconic fountain pen author Paul Erano.
Facebook pen group "Fountain Pens"/FPnuts: Davey's casual Facebook group for collectible pens.
31000 members and growing. World's heftiest daily vintage pen eye candy
So, "Greg Talk"
Someone had mentioned anecdotes.
Ok.
Anecdote.
So, I was at the Los Angeles Pen Show this year. Hack-Amateur-Newbie Davey. 15th year there. My status of wee dabbler in pendom notwithstanding, I do pretty big business at LA. Tends to be in my top couple sales shows each year, and with careful buying, usually en masse, the last couple years I've dropped $15k or so on up to 200 pens each year. I've picked up everything from prototype Parker Vacumatics to Sheaffer Levenger transparent Connaisseurs, the latter by the fistful. It's one of the best shows for the culture-of-pendom: nice climate, great food in walking distance, huge lounge with couches and adjacent bar, the works.
I tend to get a bit discombobulated at the shows. Lack of sleep. Kid in candy store. Sensory overload. Zillions of pens to screen to find a few for my collection and a hundred for the website. A wonderful thing, truly.
So. I had bought fifteen pens from a collector who was liquidating. As we were wrapping up, I spotted a Wahl-Eversharp Skyline Executive set in box. The Executive is the oversized Skyline. It is scarce, more scarce in general than period Parker and Sheaffer oversized pens. Often it is missed as it looks very similar to the standard model. I asked price and he tossed it in at $100. The set is a $400+ item. I bought it.
Few hours later, I was sitting at my table, next to Mike Dvoretz, with whom I've roomed at the show since 2000. I was sharing the finds from the last few hours and realized I could not find the Executive set. Checked "everywhere". No luck. Not first time I've lost something at a pen show. I have habit of-- even with my battle vest in play, loaded with pens-- carrying pens, sets, loupes in hand, putting them down at sales tables when looking at fresh pens, then forgetting them.
So, I made an announcement overhead about the missing set.
Figure 10 minutes later Doug Berg pops over to my table. Figure earlier in the day we'd been discussing leaving pens at tables at pen shows. I've bought some great pens from Doug over the years, and he manages even now to come up with killer pens. He grins and makes an appropriately sarcastic comment about discombobulation at pen shows, then notes that an hour earlier his tablemate- Greg- said, "Hey, what's this Wahl set. Is it yours?". Doug and Greg realized neither of them had brought the set. Doug knew enough about Wahl to identify it as an Executive, not just a typical Skyline. I'd been there hours earlier gabbing about collecting/repairing/dealing in old pens.
Greg could have kept the set. No one would have known.
And, now, damnit, I need to find and photograph that set, to lend image to story. But, with arranging thousands of pens in the new cabinet this week, not sure I can find it.
regards
-d
David R. Isaacson, MD
http://www.vacumania.com : Sales site for guaranteed, restored collectible pens.
The Fountain Pen Board /FPnuts : Archived Message Board with focus on vintage.
The Fountain Pen Journal: The new glossy full-color print magazine, published/edited by iconic fountain pen author Paul Erano.
Facebook pen group "Fountain Pens"/FPnuts: Davey's casual Facebook group for collectible pens.
31000 members and growing. World's heftiest daily vintage pen eye candy
At the SF Pen Show in August, I was making my last rounds before getting in the car and hitting the road for 7 hours. This included a last chat with Paul Erano, with whom I had a number of good visits during the 3 days. I soon left, and was about 2 hours out, partway down I-5 in the Central Valley, when a text came in...
Good friend Loren asking "Are you missing a pen case... with 3 pens in it?"
Yes, I had left my Nock case with three of the purchases from the show (new Skyline from Syd, killer 51 from John Strother, a wild Ranga/Sheaffer hybrid from Teri Morris) sitting on Paul's table. He started asking around, eventually landing both Greg W. and (I believe) Gary N., who then got to Loren (these three are all good friends from the Pen Posse). They hung onto it. They took all my pens to a Posse and everyone played with them... but in doing so, completely filled a Steve Curnow "Backpocket Journal" with birthday wishes for me! After that, dear Loren mailed it appropriately, only to have the idiots in one of the LA USPS distribution centers send it to... Madison, WI. A *very* helpful local USPS manager stopped what he was doing, went into his office and emailed Madison, they located it, and got it going back in the right direction. Including showing up while I was out of town, and we managed to get them to hold it (instead of having a few hundred dollars in pens sitting on my porch). I got home, collected the package, and saw the wonderful booklet and greetings.
They are all good people. There are a lot of good people out there, and many of them are involved in pens.
"When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."
~ Benjamin Franklin
HI John,
I'm keeping that one until the if/when I manage to score one with even better color, which might be a bit. I have a couple of this sort in the pipeline though, a bit darker but still ok, for what will be well lower cost.
regards
david
David R. Isaacson, MD
http://www.vacumania.com : Sales site for guaranteed, restored collectible pens.
The Fountain Pen Board /FPnuts : Archived Message Board with focus on vintage.
The Fountain Pen Journal: The new glossy full-color print magazine, published/edited by iconic fountain pen author Paul Erano.
Facebook pen group "Fountain Pens"/FPnuts: Davey's casual Facebook group for collectible pens.
31000 members and growing. World's heftiest daily vintage pen eye candy
David R. Isaacson, MD
http://www.vacumania.com : Sales site for guaranteed, restored collectible pens.
The Fountain Pen Board /FPnuts : Archived Message Board with focus on vintage.
The Fountain Pen Journal: The new glossy full-color print magazine, published/edited by iconic fountain pen author Paul Erano.
Facebook pen group "Fountain Pens"/FPnuts: Davey's casual Facebook group for collectible pens.
31000 members and growing. World's heftiest daily vintage pen eye candy
We used to say, "Electronic communication is a high-contrast medium", and our division of GE (Information Services) probably invented email and a few other things: time-sharing, global data networks, "networked based computing" -- now called "cloud computing". Our rule was to write in a neutral tone, especially since we were a global corporation.
Greg is among the very best nib-artisans. Example: I sent him a Parker 100 after I dropped it, nib down, on a hard floor. Greg examined it, and refused to repair it, saying, "The nib is too damaged. I can't fix it in a way that would make you happy". Anyone who turns down business has a high ethical standard. I have used Mike Masuyama, Tim Girdler, Greg, Pendleton Brown, and Richard Binder. They are all very good.
“Every discussion which is made from an egoistic standpoint is corrupted from the start and cannot yield an absolutely sure conclusion. The ego puts its own interest first and twists every argument, word, even fact to suit that interest.”
― Paul Brunton, The Notebooks of Paul Brunton
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