Today: some links.
- The New Yorker is looking at Graphene. Pencils get mentioned, too.
- The Guardian (based on material from Le Monde) is looking at handwriting vs. typing.
- Nick Hewer, responsible for a lot (most? all?) of the displays of Lamy pens on the BBC, is leaving the Apprentice.
- Congratulations to Lexikaliker on his 1200th post. Thank you for having delighted us with great pencil posts 1200 times!
I notice that the Guardian in particular runs articles on penmanship at regular intervals. I was reading up on a discussion on handwriting at Stationery Traffic recently (which mentioned another Guardian article) and that was very informative too. For my part I can only say I am happy my son is learning cursive handwriting here in Quebec!
And as a longtime New Yorker subscriber I can’t wait for the next issue to arrive 🙂
The Guardian is one of the best newspapers here in the UK, but they do sometimes write stupid things (link).
Do all schools in Quebec teach cursive handwriting?
Regarding the link – it’s because you (second person plural) do things like wear shorts in German tricolors 😉 I saw one guy like that ten years ago and I still remember it! (But I agree, this is the kind of frivolous article you could write about any nationality). And I like reading the Guardian too, it’s more entertaining and accessible than the NYT without the dumbing-down, and admirable in its stance allowing free access.
Oh, and I don’t know if all Quebec schools teach it but the French influence is pretty strong here and I would assume more schools woud teach it here compared to other parts of Canada or the U.S. Do they sell Seyes-ruled Clairefontaines in the UK too?
The article is not a one off. I remember another one where they compared the introduction of a vanilla chocolate dessert from Germany in the UK to Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland. If that stuff was printed in the Sun or a similar paper I wouldn’t even take notice, but this is printed in the intelligent papers, and I find it slightly frightening if this is the attitude of the people with brains.
Regarding wearing shorts with German colours. When I left Germany no one I knew would have done something like that, but I noticed that attitudes have changed in recent years and it now seems to be ok to be openly proud of your country and display flags etc. This feels odd to me as my attitude hasn’t moved on like other Germans, because I wasn’t in the country when this change happened. I’m however not sure whether Germans display their flags more often than other European nations or US Americans. My guess would be that they still display them less (based on my perception, living in a country where you can see the Union Jack on everything from yogurt pots to underwear).
Matthias, I shouldn’t have joked about such a sensitive issue, sorry! Coming from a country that had its share of woes in WWII I thought I would find other societies pretty tranquil, but well here we are in Quebec and it isn’t any less you know… Maybe every society is like that. But they do seem to take things a bit far in the UK 🙁
I’m on my tablet and somehow didn’t see one of your comments, so here my late answer. You can get Clairefontaine in online shops, but I haven’t seen it on the high Street yet. In any case Seyes ruled notebooks are not common.
It’s not really a sensitive issue, I just didn’t expect clever papers to do this without it obviously being a joke …or maybe I am just too German , despite being here so long, and don’t get that it’s supposed to be funny (think of the Faulty Towers episode with the Germans which is hilarious). If it was supposed to be a joke I wouldn’t have a problem with it – or if it was a WWII thing.
Anyway this got quite off topic. Sorry for sounding grumpy. My original point was that the Guardian is the best paper here, but they also do write stupid things every now and then.
In any case I’m glad they have this series of articles on handwriting.
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Thank you for the invitation. Happy 2015!