This week, anyone who attended the DC Show and has a blog, wrote a recap. Or at least that’s how it feels to me — as someone who didn’t get to go this year. I have chosen to live vicariously through the many posts, photos and recaps that are available to me.
Of course, for all the wonderful pen shopping and meeting up and such, there was also some folks who came home with COVID. The risks of getting together in large groups is still strong and what we jokingly called “con funk” before the pandemic is now considerably worse.
If you are preparing to attend any of the other shows this year (SF, Dallas, Denver, Columbus, et al) remember to protect yourself and others. And remember to post photos for those of us who will be living vicariously.
Links of the Week — DC Pen Show Recaps:
- DC Pen Show 2022 Chat (via Gourmet Pens)
- DC Pen Show Recap – 2022 (via Looped Square)
- 2022 D.C. Pen Show Recap: Is “The Big Show” Still “The Big Show”? (via The Gentleman Stationer)
- 2022 DC Pen Show – A Really Quick Recap (via The Pen Addict)
Pens:
- Esterbrook Phaeton 300R (via dapprman)
- How to Use a Glass Dip Pen (via JetPens Blog)
- A Pilot Pen Geek’s Dream – Comparing all 15 Nib Options! (via Pen Boutique Ltd)
- Bringing another newly tuned nib into the fold (via mnmlscholar)
Ink:
- Pilot Iroshizuku Syo-Ryo (via Fountain Pen Pharmacist)
- Review: Anderillium Inks (via An Inkophile’s Blog)
- Anderillium Shoebill Stork Grey Ink Review (via The Pen Addict)
- My big red ink swab fest. (via Fountain pen blog)
- Diamine Inkvent 2021, Part 3 (via Mountain of Ink)
- Colorverse Gray (via Mountain of Ink)
- Dominant Industry Citrus Yellow on Midori MD (via Inkcredible Colours)
Pencils:
- Budget Colored Pencil Showdown (Brutfuner, Arteza, Schpirerr Farben) (via Fueled by Clouds & Coffee)
- A lucky Noris (via Bleistift)
Notebooks & Paper:
- some thoughts on paper: maruman mnemosyne notebook (via A Fleeting Ripple)
- More Pebble delights (via Nero’s Notes)
- Carrying Stamps in your Filofax (via Philofaxy)
- Practical Planning: How I Use Planners (via The Gentleman Stationer)
Art & Creativity:
- Journal Sketch: Carousel and Cold Coffee (via Writing at Large)
- #Colour4LifeWorkshop (and livestream) (via Liz Steel)
- Cool down with Lotte Cassidy’s drawings of London’s lidos and air-conditioned corner shops (Via It’s Nice That)
- The Art That Inspired Joan Didion Goes to Auction (via Hyperallergic)
Other Interesting Things:
- Amusing ourselves to death (via Austin Kleon)
- Book Review: The Art of Turning Red (via Parka Blogs)
- Netflix’s Half-Assed Adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman (via Hyperallergic)
- Indigenous Fashion Takes the Stage in Santa Fe (via Hyperallergic)
- Elephants star on Forever Stamps on World Elephant Day (via USPS Newsroom)
- My improved pen show kit includes mnml stickers (via mnmlscholar)
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That’s the Black Pen Society’s Grand Poobah Paul Erano, yes? How many left the DC Pen Show suffering with (and spreading) COVID-19? My black pens are perched on my shoulder anxiously reading this. One of them (a pronoun-agnostic Black Pilot Custom Heritage 743/FA flexy w/Ebonite feed) is waving a 3M-Scotch brand Post-It note that says “Black Pens Matter!” Is the BPS Grand Poobah OK? Or does he have Pen-Show COVID-19 too?
So the supposedly deadly ever-mutating SARS-CoV-2 virus (the virus that causes COVID-19 disease) is all of the sudden GONE? Airplane travel is OK now? Pen shows are OK too? Yeah, sure they are. The pandemic miraculously simply [Poof!] vanished all of the sudden. Just in time for the upcoming Midterm Elections!
I’m not kidding about this horrible virus. My otherwise very healthy Mother died from COVID-19. I witnessed every tortuous step of her fight to stay alive. Two friends of mine, one is otherwise healthy and in her early 30’s, are still struggling with loooong COVID-19. No end in sight.
The U.S. government ABUSED the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, using it to crush and divide us, especially our schools and children, for raw political gain. Our once trusted government public health institutions, CDC, NIH, HHS, et-cetera, have been rendered un-trustworthy due to political manipulation during the pandemic.
My recommendation to everyone: DO NOT get COVID-19, no matter how young and healthy you are! If you have to skip a pen show or two to increase your chances of survival, do it! Sadly, this virus is not done with us yet. It will continue to rapidly mutate and evolve just as it was designed to. Herd immunity is weak. The new fast-to-market mRNA vaccines are a breakthrough, but so-far not trustworthy without real long-term human testing. An mRNA vax is especially NOT for children! Plus there are steep political barriers preventing the mRNA vaccines from adapting quickly. The big government approach is to go slow, never let a crisis go to waste.
Regardless, even if new vaccines could keep up with the ever-changing virus it doesn’t matter. The human immune system is quite complex and therefore difficult to modulate. Feeding it new stimuli (vaccines) over-and-over again will actually wear the immune system down.
Eventually the worst SARS-CoV-2 virus variants will burn themselves out leaving us with never-ending (endemic) less deadly cases of COVID-19 disease amongst us. Annual semi-effective prophylactic COVID-19 shots will probably become the new normal, just like today’s annual flu-shots.