memes

I imagine very few people reading this actually ever had to do so, at least as depicted. I, however, have. Because I'm exactly that type of ~~asshole~~ deliberately anachronistic nerd.

All throughout my school career, I used a Sheaffer Targa from the late 1970's. I still have it. Here it is.

Mine was not the fanciest entry in the Targa series -- by far -- but even in its basic stainless steel trim it's a head turner thanks to its very striking and distinctive nib design.

I can hear the screeching from the pen collectors from here. Yes, I committed sacrilege by grinding my antique pen's point into an oblique nib but, yes, I also have an unmolested original nib in its as-manufactured configuration. Still in its factory packaging, sealed, unused!

I like a good oblique nib, helped moreso because using this pen for all my assignments absolutely annoyed the shit out of most of my teachers. (And if an oblique is not available, I will make do with a plain italic nib instead.)

Because of that, to this very day, my basic handwriting looks like this. It looks absolutely ridiculous if you put a ball point or pencil in my hand, but let me have one of my fountain pens and I can crank out these serifed italics as fast as most people can scribble a regular printed hand. Now there's a less-than-marketable skill.

I await with interest what all the armchair graphologists will now tell me what's wrong with me.