Gary
D. Grossman
I am
a professor and part-time art dealer (details on web sites
below) and a full-time husband and father of two girls (agree
10 1/2 and almost 6).
My primary pen
interest is pens that write well and they can either be
new or vintage. I have to admit that I seem to prefer vintage
pens -- the looks are great, the nibs more interesting (flexy,
oblique, occasional italic/stub) and I can actually afford
more than two a year <g>. I'm not a collector and
I use almost all my pens (even my 30's vacs <g>).
I've been a member of the zoss list for hmmm, not sure how
long (2+ years?), but long enough to remember the 1000th
member <g>. I do a fair amount of my own pen repair
work including resaccing, nib adjusting, and other minor
stuff (J-bar replacement). Haven't worked up to vac diaphragm
replacement and I don't even get near piston or vacuum fillers
or touchdown/snorkels <g>.
Hmmm, short bio
--
Likes -- funny
stuff, mitzvahs, good books, poetry, anything outdoorsy
(running, biking, etc.) art and science (duh!), travel,
parenting discussions that don't involve ego.
Dislikes -- Right-wing
political diatribes (god how I hated all of that "we
should all carry guns" talk on Zoss after Katie Hill
was killed, and I own multiple guns myself!), discriminatory
stuff (all those "isms"), bad food, bad jokes,
fans of Bob Barr or Newt Gingrich (heheheh), nature-haters,
drivers who cut off pedestrians or bike-riders, hmmmm, have
I done enough stereotyping?
Gary D. Grossman
Professor
of Animal Ecology
G.
Grossman Fine Art
Felipe
Jordão
I
was born in Rio de Janeiro on 10.10.1972 and lived there
until I was about 5. My family is 100% Brazilian, with some
of the more ancient relatives (great-great-great....) being
of Italian origin. After Rio I
lived in Rome for 4 years, then London for 7 years, then
back to Rio. Up until this point I was in the British school
system. When I went back to
Rio I moved to the American system and consequently took
the SATs and
all the other American stuff. I came to the USA in 1991
to study at
University of Pennsylvania. I studied Mechanical Engineering
and Applied
Mechanics. That sounds quite elaborate but it is basically
just
mechanical engineering. A few months after moving to Philadelphia
my
parents moved to Brussels. That is where I spent all the
holidays during
my university years, so I usually say I also 'lived' in
Belgium. Just as
I was about to finish university my parents moved to New
York, and that
is where I am now. That's why I speak Portuguese, Italian,
French, and
English (and a little Spanish). Actually it doesn't quite
explain the
French. I speak it because in England they teach you French
as a second
language from very early on. So I suppose I should also
mention Latin,
but I don't remember much of that.
During
my studies I realized that I didn't particularly want to
be a mechanical engineer although I enjoyed the material.
I wanted to be in the computer industry. I looked for a
job as a computer programmer, but the fact that I was 'entry
level' and that I lacked a work visa made me look very unemployable
everywhere I went.
Eventually
I got a job on the help desk of Dean Witter on the 68th
Floor of the WTC. After about 6
months of that I got a job as a C++ programmer for Windows
NT at
Moody's. I got the MCSE and MCSD certifications from Microsoft
to give
some backing to my computer skills. From there I moved to
general
systems administration, still with a little programming
here and there.
Shortly afterwards I decided to get an MBA, and recently
finished it
from NYU in Finance and Statistics. With this I have now
moved into my
current job which is Quantitative Model Support Analyst
at Moody's KMV.
This also sounds very elaborate. I also have a permanent
work visa now
so that helps. It is a whole new world for me because I
am so used to
computers, but it has been interesting so far.
I collect
hand wound mechanical watches and recently started collecting
fountain pens. I suppose because they are a lot cheaper
:). My first
recollection of using a fountain pen was in school in Rome.
I must have
been about 6 or 7 and they gave you one once your handwriting
reached a
certain level. I have no idea what make it was but it was
blue and used
cartridges. I also used them in school in London then stopped
when I
went back to Rio. I went through a long hiatus and recently
started
using them again. I like a lot of pens, but have started
moving towards
the lighter smaller vintage kind of Italian origin. My current
daily
writer is an Aurora Optima in marbled green (which should
really be
called blue/green) with Aurora Blue. I enjoy reading and
recently
started the 'Harvard Classics' to get that liberal arts
education I
never got :). I ordered the set from Easton Press and they
send a book a
month. The first one I read was the autobiography of Benvenuto
Cellini
and it was really good, I highly recommend it. I am considering
getting
a CFA as part of my 'continuing education' as well. The
thought of a PhD
sounds nice, but I don't think I can stomach taking years
off from work
to get one, especially since I don't have a particular field
that I am
completely in love with at the moment. I like cats over
dogs but I don't
have any of either.
cheers
Felipe
P.S.
included are my before and after pictures
Lin
Rich
I suppose
I'm one of those odd people, at least in this day and age,
who
have used a fountain pen almost exclusively since childhood-although,
according to several of the bios I've read here, I'm in
good company.
The
first fountain pen I owned was a green and black, medium-nibbed
Pelikan
120, which my father gave me for my 12th birthday in 1963.
My mother's gift
to me that year was a box of quite nice stationary and a
book of famous
letters written throughout history.
I clearly
remember spending hour upon pleasant hour hand-copying those
letters with my new pen, and I recall how astounded my parents
were at the
frequency with which I seeemed to need another bottle of
ink.
Needless
to say, with all that writing and copying, my penmanship
soon
rivaled that of most adults. And my understanding and knowledge
of grammar,
punctuation, spelling, syntax, etc. seemed to increase similarly.
While I
can't be sure, I've often wondered whether I would have
pursued by career as
writer and editor without those marvelous early experiences
with pen, ink,
and words.
While
my friends and classmates used wooden pencils, ball pens,
and later
felt tips, I stuck with my Pelikan, even though some of
the cheap paper used
in class caused the ink to bleed terribly. Fortunately,
I was large for my
age and good at sports, so even the most reproachful of
my peers didn't dare
tease me about my "fancy pen."
When
I graduated from the university, my mother gave me the Parker
Duofold
that had belonged to my father. The Parker and my Pelikan,
with never a
single repair to either, stood me in good stead until a
year ago when I
bought another Pelikan, this time an M800. It is now the
pen I carry with
me always. Its size and weight are perfect in my hand, and
the medium nib
is so smooth that I find myself actually smiling as I spread
words across
the page.
And
I still find myself running out of ink.
Yours
truly,
Linwood
Rich
Reid
Baccio
Profession:
telecommunications (full time), pen store sales associates(part-time)
Age: 35
Primary pen interest (new, vintage, L.E.'s etc.): new and
used; collection includes Parker (21's), Waterman, Scheaffer,
Pelikan, mostly fountain pens, but have a few nice rollerballs.
Other
interests (music, watches, reading, etc.): reading (fiction,
non-fiction, sci-fi,
magazines), music (alternative rock, ambient, blues, jazz),
movies (most anything,
except horror)
Melanie
Weiss
Some
of my best friends are my pen friends. Really! I've been
in love
with letters and letter-writing since my first pen pal,
Olga, whose
address was given to me at the Parker Pavillion at the NY
World's Fair. I
was a teenager then, and given to writing long (long!) letters
with my
father's Parker 51.
I'm
a 51-year-old librarian now, and I still write
long (long!) letters (and journals) to women who are as
dear to me as any
in-person friend might be. As a librarian, I get to slip
many collections
of letters into the library's holdings, and then I get to
wallow in them.
This week, my favorites are the letters of Virginia Woolf
and Vita
Sackville-West. Ask me again next week, and I will have
a different
answer.
What
do I do? I read, I write, I feed the wild bunnies and birds
in my
back yard, I go to bookstores with my husband (where I read
and write)...
I'd
like to correspond with women who love literature, classical
(or
almost any) music, movies (I was downright obsessed with
"A
Beautiful Mind" for about a month, but I think I'm
getting over it,
unless my husband buys me a GO set, in which case...), politics
--
nearly anything, actually, except fanaticism, which makes
me itch --
Melanie
Weiss
