Archive for October, 2007
October 15th
“Life Lines” are fragments of poetry that stay with us throughout the years—sometimes independently of the poem from which they came—and offer inspiration or comfort. The Academy of American Poets began to gather Life Lines in April 2006, but the project has been extended thanks to the public’s continued interest and participation. You can read the Life Lines they’ve collected at this website.
One of my own Life Lines comes from a poem by Ezra Pound, the short, satirical “Song in the Manner of A.E. Houseman”:
O woe, woe,
People are born and die
We also shall be dead pretty soon
Therefore let as act as if we were
Dead already.
I think about it every so often when I want to remind myself that sorrow can be solipsistic—and that life’s rarely really that bad.
October 12th
Karen was going through some old Quo Vadis marketing materials the other day when she came across a leaflet about QV sister company, Calligraphe, a French notebook manufacturer that was founded in 1899. “The famous French writer Colette,” said the leaflet, “Recorded fond school girl memories of learning to write of Calligraphe notebooks.” The Calligraphe company website confirms this bit of trivia (which was certainly news to us).
“My school notebooks, their sheets of laid paper, their gray rulling, their red margin, their black linen spine, their covers adorned with the name ‘Le Calligraphe’…” wrote Colette in her memoir, Mes apprentissages (published in 1936).
Calligraphe notebooks are still sold throughout France and at selected stores in the United States.
October 11th
My father survived a difficult battle with pancreatic cancer nearly three and a half years ago. A colleague of his at Carnegie Mellon University, Randy Pausch, doesn’t seem to be as lucky. In spite of a successful surgery and a harrowing course of chemotherapy, the 46-year-old father of three expects to live for just a few months.
Determined to make the best of things, Dr. Pausch recently gave a talk at the university (billed as his “last lecture”) where he spoke about how to live life to the fullest and achieve your childhood dreams. Its reach has extended far beyond the 400 students and colleagues that originally gathered to hear it. Both ABC and CBS have run segments about Dr. Pausch’s story; the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers have also written about it, as have hundreds of blogs.
“Brick walls are there for a reason,” said Dr. Pausch, who is currently undergoing a course of palliative chemotherapy and spending as much time with his family as he can. “They let us prove how badly we want things.”
It’s a very moving and inspiring lecture. You can read a transcript here or watch a video here.
October 10th
“I’ve put it down in ink!” is a statement people make when they really intend to show up for a meeting, lunch or appointment. That expression is getting less common and less relevant as we move from writing with pens to typing on a keyboard and texting. I continue to use it, since I still love to write with a fountain pen. If I put something in ink in my datebook, I mean it.
One of our customers, Swisher Pens, markets their own unique ink. It is a quick-drying ink intended for use on good quality paper. It is recommended for left-handed writers since it dries almost instantly. It was developed for them by Nathan Tardif, the founder of the famous Noodler’s Ink.
I tested the Swisher ink at the DC Pen Show using a medium and fine point nib. I wrote my name, and then rubbed at the ink to try to smudge or smear it. Nothing…it had dried before I finished writing the last letter! I highly recommend Swisher Pen if smearing is a problem for you, and you need a good quality ink for your pen.
October 8th
At the company and at this blog, Quo Vadis welcomes the many kinds of correspondence we receive. Most people write in to us with questions, comments, and suggestions about Quo Vadis products. Other times, they simply want to share their perspective on things. We recently received a very thoughtful email from an anonymous blog reader:
On a recent trip to New Zealand, I witnessed something truly mesmerizing. We were walking about downtown Wellington on a sun-dappled day and a rainshower suddenly developed. The rain departed quickly but in its wake a glorious rainbow appeared in the sky. As we stopped and watched it evolve, two smaller companion rainbows crisscrossed the bigger one at each of its ends. Three rainbows together in the sky at the same time!! I was transfixed. I asked a local resident if what we were seeing was unusual there. He said that it happened quite often in New Zealand due to their unique spot on the planet. Unique or not, it was one of the most life-affirming phenomena that I have ever seen.
Got something you’d like to say? Drop us a line—or let us know in the comments!
October 4th
We received this review for our Exaplan planner the other day:
Product: Exaplan
Rating: 1 stars
Review:
“I loved your planner until I started filling out my dates and saw Muslim holidays listed. I have nothing against another nationality/religion, but in all good conscience I can not keep this with so many Americans dying at the hands of radicals from this religion – I am returning the book, and if it is not taken back by the store there will be several returned as being unsaleable due to damages. Sorry, as an American made product you should be more sensitive to something so horrendous – the product is wonderful – the choice of content really very despicable.”
Since these comments were submitted as a product review, I was unable to respond directly to this person. They did not include a name, town, or any contact information. However, if I could, this is what I would have told them… Read the rest of this entry »
October 3rd
Everyone’s heard of Oktoberfest, but there are a couple other important German holidays coming up this month. Today, for example, is the Tag der Deutschen Einheit (Unity Day), which commemorates the formal reunification of East and West Germany in 1990 (though the Berlin Wall came down on November 9, 1989, that day also marks the anniversary of Kristallnacht in 1938; it was therefore deemed inappropriate for a national holiday). Official celebrations take place in a different city each year, depending on which Bundesland (or federal state) presides over the Bundesrat (federal council). This year’s festivities will take place in Schwerin, a city in the north of Germany and the capital of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Here in the United States, there’s a holiday coming up on October 6 known as German-American Day. First proclaimed by President Reagan in 1983, it was formally approved by Congress in 1987 to recognize the many contributions that German immigrants have made over the course of the country’s history. In fact, more that a quarter of the U.S. population (myself included) is of German descent. There are celebrations in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and at clubs and organizations across the country.
October 2nd
Last weekend, a friend and I went hiking in the Ramapo Mountains in Northern New Jersey/Southern New York state. Like most city-dwellers, I don’t do much exploration of the surrounding countryside: for one thing, I don’t own a car, and I didn’t grow up here, either, so I don’t know the area that well. But I would never have guessed that scenes of such jaw-dropping beauty could exist just a couple miles out of NYC. You can even see the Manhattan skyline from some of the mountain peaks!
The trip reminded me of a great New Yorker article about a landscape ecologist, Eric Sanderson, who’s trying to determine exactly how Manhattan looked before the arrival of Europeans. The story itself isn’t available online, but there’s a really cool slideshow on the magazine’s website with simulations and old maps.
In the meantime, I’ve placed a couple more of my own photographs after the jump. Happy hiking! Read the rest of this entry »
October 1st
I keep time in three different calendars: my Space 24, and liturgical and nature’s seasons. Like three different gears on a clock sometimes they run separately and together. Sometimes one predominates, and today it is nature. Fall harvest time is here.
Like the little girl waiting for Christmas, every year I wait for apple time. Finally, it has arrived.
Sweet, tart, crisp, juicy apples–apples that snap when you bite into them. Not the tasteless mush available the rest of the year, these apples and fresh-pressed cider are the taste and color of fall.
Everyone has their favorite kind of apple and favorite place to buy them. Mine are macouns, apples that are only available for a short time every fall. A great place to get them out my way is Wickham’s Fruit Farm. Some other great eating apples are mutsu (also called crispin) and honeycrisp.
I’ll be feasting on apples all of this month.
