13 June
2017
10 June
2017
Sudipta Chattaraj will be very proud of me!!
A couple of months back, when I had posted my fountain pen collection, my friend from elementary school days – Sudipta Chattaraj – had reminded me of the WingSung Hero pens that we used to use in our childhood.
I still remember how I got my first WingSung pen. I was in Narendrapur in 11th grade. I had gone to one of my seniors Sanku Mallik (who was the topper in our previous batch) to get one particularly tough trigonometry problem solved and noticed his very nice pen (later found out to be a WingSung pen). I also noticed that he, rather undramatically, solved the problem like he had been having trigonometry problems for breakfast from right about the time he was three and a half years old or thereabouts.
Thoroughly convinced that having a Wing Sung pen and doing trigonometry easily could not just be a matter of correlation – that there must have been a cause and effect relationship – I made it my life’s mission to get myself one such pen. That Sunday, armed with a gate pass, I slipped out of the residential campus and a short bus ride later started hunting for a WingSung pen in the shops of Garia. And finally got one!! A red-brown colored one!!
Not terribly sure it ever improved my trigonometry but I do remember going back later and getting a blue colored one too. Calculus was also particularly tough that semester!!
I used to cherish those two pens. Many a letter had been written with those two pens. Many a test paper saw me getting stuck with those two pens between my fingers!!
Sudipta had suddenly reminded me of those two pens. Like I search the world over for my old friends, a similar search started for those Wing Sung pens. Unfortunately for me, Wing Sung pens do not have Facebook accounts. Nevertheless, I was able to finally contact a guy in remote China who said he could get me one. I insisted that it had to be the model 233 (that was the only model that had that orange color window to check on the ink level).
What do you know? For the price of a cup of Starbucks coffee, I am a proud owner of a brand new WingSung Model 233 pen!!! Exactly the same color as the very first one I possessed – back in 1983!!
Previous owners of a WingSung pen probably remember the unique nib shape that is integrated into the body, that small orange window to check ink level, the small hole in the back to even out the pressure to keep the ink flowing and above all – the unique press clip cartridge system to fill in ink. Absolutely the cleanest way of refilling ink from an ink pot I have ever found.
I can also tell you that the pen is writing even better than most pens I have at hundred times that price!! But that might have to do with the priceless nostalgia too!!
10 June
2017
From the bartender’s corner – Gin #13: Ortodoxy
This gin is interesting in many ways. First, it is from a very uncommon country – Colombia. It is in fact made in the beautiful Cartegena district in the Dictador distillery by the master Hernan Parra Arango. There is a historical story of Severo Arango y Ferro who was sent in the 18th century from Spain to improve tax collection in Colombia. He was somewhat of a dictator. Parra Arango is actually a descendant of him and that is how the distillery got its name!
The second interesting angle to this gin is that it is not made from any neutral grain spirits but sugarcane!! As you can imagine, Colombian weather grows a lot of sugarcane. Of course, rum is the first go-to alcohol from sugarcane. But it is the same base that is used for this gin. In fact it is distilled five times and in the last distillation, macerated herbs and botanicals are introduced.
The botanicals are the typical ones – juniper, Angelica root, lemon peel and pepper and some unusual local herbs including mint, berries and ginger.
The third interesting angle is that this gin is then aged for 35 weeks in rum barrels. Finally, it is carefully filtered to take out the coloration.
The nose of the gin was predominantly citrusy in the beginning. After some time, the juniper started breaking out very well. To the palette, it is very crisp but after a few seconds it mellows down (almost like buttery) in the mouth. The finish was more on the weaker side for some reason.
I will try with some tonic water next and see how it brings out the complexities of this gin.
9 June
2017
Couple of quick miles in Bensalem
8 June
2017
How did that come around? – Mind your P’s and Q’s
Ever wondered why do we say “mind your P’s and Q’s” to mean “be on your good behavior”? Well, I for one, never had a clue. So, started another research – and I am liking to get to know the origins of phrases and words enough that I have started a separate section in my blog dedicated to this.
My first instinct was that it came from trying to keep everything prim and proper by neatly separating your similar looking letter p’s and q’s. Well, turns out it is not “mind your p’s and q’s”. It is “P’s and Q’s”. Those are difficult to get confused with when you read, write or type.
Some people think – which is mostly denounced – it stands for your “Please”s and “Thank You”s. Even I agree that it is too far fetched.
Turns out the most popular theory goes back to the 17th century. In fact, to the bars of England. All beer and ale was served in pint size containers and quart size containers. While there is reference in literature to suggest that it started as a lingo with the barmen, it is not quite surely known whether it was used to warn somebody who has imbibed too much to behave himself or it was used to keep a proper tally of the alcohol consumption itself.
Well, while it is not accepted by everybody, most seem to believe that it was from the bars of the 17th century England came the saying “mind your P’s and Q’s” meaning to mind one’s manners.
Who knew?
7 June
2017
That be my wife. Dealing with me :-)
Photo courtesy: Natasha
The backstory is that this weekend Sharmila and I, after much postponement, finally sat down at our breakfast table to look at ticket prices for some trips for the girls. But moment we sat down, I noticed thru the corner of my eye that the elusive Goldfinch was at the bird feeder.
With great alacrity I jumped out of my seat to go get my camera. And with equal amount of alacrity, Natasha fished out her iPhone camera to capture the look on Sharmila’s face 🙂
7 June
2017
The meme cup brimmeth over…
In case you were wondering what all these memes are about (like you do not have anything better to do), I need to tell you about an ex-colleague of mine from DC area – Karen Hawk. Sharp as a whip and with a biting sense of humor that is guaranteed to bring the floor down, I got to know her – oh! about five or six years back.
Her daughter worked in our company already. And then one day, we hired her mother (Karen) to keep our office straightened out and above all keep me honest whenever I was in the DC office.
Next time I was in DC, I walked into our office and went straight to her cubicle. There was this elderly lady sitting at the desk – her work area extremely well organized. But what caught my eye was the poster that she had hung just behind her. It read “My Tiara is giving me a Headache”. I looked at it, I looked at her and then I burst out laughing. “I can work with you the rest of my life”, I remember telling her.
Unfortunately for me, I left that company. She still works there and keeps in touch with me. In these days of much circulated jokes, once in a while when she finds some new gems, she shoots them my way. This week, she sent me a few. And I promised her that I will convert them into memes and feature them on my blog.
So, here goes the next one… And thank you, Karen, for keeping me smiling!!! You indeed are one of my most memorable colleagues!!
6 June
2017
Always ready to lend a helping hand…
6 June
2017
How did that come around? – To get away “scot free”
I was reading a social discourse which talked about a certain category of folks getting away “scot free”. Which got me thinking about where could this phrase possible have come from. Of course, it means to “get away without penalty or unpunished” but how do you put a Scot in that?
Some amount of research showed that actually, this has nothing to do with the Scots. Apparently, “scot” refers to taxes. Specifically, 12th century England municipal taxes. And the Anglo Saxon word was “sceot”. But there were similar words at that time – Swedish “scatt”, Danish “scat”, Icelandic “scattur” – all meaning tax. In fact as recently as in 1921, the US Senate Committee on Finance hearings transcripts read “[The common laborer]He is scot free at 40 cents an hour”.
So “scot free” meant escaping without taxation. And all of us agree taxation is an unnecessary punishment 🙂
And that is how “scot free” came around to mean “get away without penalty”.
5 June
2017
