Adrian’s Microblog

Withhold v. ThresholdBecause yeh, English can’t be relied upon for consistency. ;)

“It is time—past time—to make plain that, while the pan­demic poses many grave chal­lenges, there is no world in which the Con­sti­tu­tion tol­er­ates color-coded ex­ec­u­tive edicts that re­open liquor stores and bike shops but shut­ter churches, syn­a­gogues, and mosques,” Justice Gorsuch in Thursday’s decisionSeems you can’t let more people in the liquor store than the church. I’ll drink to that! 😜🍻 www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/…

Host multigenerational game night during the holidaysThough we played board/ card games as a family off-and-on growing up, it wasn’t a centerpiece per se. (Perhaps in part pushed out by the advent of console gaming.) In more recent years, though, and through enthusiastic board gamer friends and in-laws, I’ve come to appreciate and grow in enjoyment of this pastime. And so it was with interest that a column in this Sunday’s Sun caught my eye and drew me to read deeper. Some fun suggestions I’m bookmarking here for future reference, and perhaps you’ll enjoy too. :)

“Skating” by Vince Guaraldi for “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.From a green vinyl album recently received as a birthday present, just in time for the holidays. Charlie Brown Christmas was part of my childhood memories, though not one of the perennial family traditional viewings like the Rudolph or other stop-motion animation specials. (The voice of Burl Ives is still evokes a warming, cozy feeling of sitting on the couch in the family living room at the magical time of year.) Still, I recall how accessible and calm the show was - perhaps a little more close to reality when compared with all the unrelenting smiling and jingling of other specials.Being now the longest continuously broadcast show (second only perhaps to the Rudolph), it may seem odd that it almost didn’t make it to air and was deemed sure to flop by the CBS executives who were only forced to air it since it had already been announced and in the published schedules.It’s been a lot of fun to hear this and other music from the album, which curiously became an instant hit with the the three- and one- year olds (whose voices are also featured here). ;)

From the wise, 9 unsung ways to have deeper conversations

The Best Waterproof Fountain Pen Inks | JetPensI recently revived use of my Lamy Safari, telling myself I’d go for 30 days before making any decisions on transitioning to it for my ‘everyday’ pen. (The current everyday pen being a Pentel Energel 7mm rollerball.)Nearing the end of my T10 Lamy Blue refill cartridges, and finding myself wanting to continue use further, I dug a little deeper before committing to a replacement ink. I had noticed the Blue would react adversely to water, and upon researching confirmed that it, like many standard fountain pen inks, are water soluble and will smudge and potentially even be rendered unreadable in enough water (making me particular nervous for some business correspondence I had addressed by hand recently). Some inks are considered various degrees of water resistant, and a few are specifically waterproof (though as you might suspect, the ink properties differ).In the end I settled on Lamy Blue-Black in T52 ink well which is water resistant and should adequately fill my needs.Thank you to the author of the above post for a great breakdown and analysis of inks.

Apparently I completely missed that this technology was possible: and ink pen whose ink turns colorless under a jet lighter: Frixion from Pilot.All while learning more about the Pilot Namiki Vanishing Point fountain pen - maybe something for down the road milestone. :)

Each has something to say. The only thing more dangerous than truth is half-truth.

Celebrated a birthday recently and the Mrs. got me a card I really took a fancy too …For Gutnis’ sake. :)

The Caslon typeface.Originated by William Caslon I (d. 1766) of London, who established the H. W. Caslon & Sons type foundry and played a large part in developing the British type making industry which up to that time was effectively imported from Holland.Identified as the typeface used to disseminate the U.S. Declaration of Independence on July 5, 1776 printed by John Dunlap at his print shop blocks from Independence Hall in Philadelphia as he was overseen by Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Livingston, and Sherman known as the Dunlap Broadside. (The calligraphic parchment version of the Declaration not being signed until August 2 of that year.)It had small variations in its day, but was revived around the 1900s and subsequent when various designers adapted it to modern printing (e.g. Adobe Caslon Pro).It has both aficionados and detractors (as any good font should I suppose) but the descriptions I most liked were “comfortable and inviting” and a “happy archaism”.