Each week in Refill, the Pen Addict Members newsletter, I publish Ink Links as part of the additional content you receive for being a member. And each week, after 10 to 15 links, plus my added commentary on each, I'm left with many great items I want to share. Enter Misfill. Here are this weeks links:
Or maybe "initialism lengths"? Wiktionary defines initialism as "a term formed from the initial letters of several words or parts of words, which is itself pronounced letter by letter"; while some (fussy) people argue that the term acronym should be reserved for words like laser (= "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation") or NATO (= "North Atlantic Treaty Organization").
Acronyms/Initialisms are (mostly) words, under any reasonable definition. But this category has the special property that most items have multiple specific and distinct senses, generally known to small groups and/or used in very special circumstances.
For example, American linguists know that LSA stands for "The Linguistic Society of America" — but the LSA didn't act in time to lock up https://lsa.org, which belongs to the "Louisiana Sheriffs' Association". And Acronym Finder gives 123 interpretations for LSA, including the linguists but (curiously) not the sheriffs.
Mark Davies' NOW ("News on the Web") Corpus has 3,680 hits for the string LSA — quickly checking a few of them (literally) at random gives us references to the Liangmai Sports Association's Badminton team; the Law Students Association at McGill; a recipe's abbreviation for a mix of ground linseed, sunflower seeds and almonds; Lifesaving South Africa; the Law Society of Alberta; and so forth. In that corpus, the Linguistic Society of America gets 55 hits, and the Louisiana Sheriffs Association has 6.
Someday it would be fun to run an acronym-finding script over that dataset, or a similar one. But this morning, as a crude approximation to the (non-frequency-weighted) distribution of initialism length, I checked the entry counts for probes of Acronym Finder with random letter-string samples of different lengths, generated by this simple R script.
A sample 20 random single letters yielded a mean of 65.5 hits and a median of 64.5:
G 66
V 65
Y 31
E 77
L 64
W 60
H 64
V 65
X 48
D 115
A two-letter sample yielded a mean of 58.1 and a median of 25.5:
ZZ 13
BO 85
UO 26
ND 82
OY 10
WY 8
MM 248
JR 25
YI 6
SK 78
A three-letter sample has a mean of 47.7 and a median of 41:
(Though the AcronymFinder's "acronym attic" has one unverified entry for EKCK as "Embassy in Kuwait City Kuwait".)
And a five-letter sample has mean and median of 0 — though ARKEM has one "unvalidated" entry in the AcronymFinder's attic, listed as "alarm remote keyless entry module":
If we believed the unreliable probability estimates derived from those mean values, we'd estimate 6.55*26=170 single-letter entries, 5.81 *26^2=3928 two-letter entries, 4.77*26^3=83838 three-letter entries, and 0.14*26^4=63977 four-letter entries. Implausible estimates that still confirm my prejudice that three-letter initialisms are the most commonly used.
For sequence lengths of six and above, traditional initialisms or acronyms are increasingly unlikely, though "backronyms" like DREAM and PATRIOT buck the trend. And social-media and email names sometimes involve initialisms combined with abbreviations, like @FmrRepMTG.
I keep forgetting to post about this: we've been troubleshooting the "missing notifications" problem for the past few days. (Well, I say "we", really I mean Mark and Robby; I'm just the amanuensis.) It's been one of those annoying loops of "find a logical explanation for what could be causing the problem, fix that thing, observe that the problem gets better for some people but doesn't go away completely, go back to step one and start again", sigh.
Mark is hauling out the heavy debugging ordinance to try to find the root cause. Once he's done building all the extra logging tools he needs, he'll comment to this entry. After he does, if you find a comment that should have gone to your inbox and sent an email notification but didn't, leave him a link to the comment that should have sent the notification, as long as the comment itself was made after Mark says he's collecting them. (I'd wait and post this after he gets the debug code in but I need to go to sleep and he's not sure how long it will take!)
We're sorry about the hassle! Irregular/sporadic issues like this are really hard to troubleshoot because it's impossible to know if they're fixed or if they're just not happening while you're looking. With luck, this will give us enough information to figure out the root cause for real this time.
Sylvain Farrel is a student nurse from Indonesia. He came to America four years ago and speaks perfect English. I asked him how that is possible, how did he learn English so quickly?
Sylvain said that he studied English during his elementary and middle school education. His national language is Bahasa (Indonesia), i.e., Indonesian.
By ethnic heritage, Sylvain is Chinese, Hokkien / Fujian on one side, and I think Hakka on the other side, but I'm not sure.
In the late 1990s, Indonesia experienced severe anti-Chinese racial riots. Many Chinese fled, and, at a minimum, many others ditched their Chinese names and stopped learning / teaching / speaking Chinese language. In the case of Sylvain's family, they ended up not having a common surname. Sylvain's father simply assigned each of them a given / first name and second name, the latter sort of like our middle name, but which also served as a "surname" for passport and other official purposes. So Sylvain's sister, father, and mother all have different "surnames".
Now it gets really interesting. Sylvain says he goes by the name "Ivan"; for all intents and purposes, that's his actual name.
I asked Sylvain how he, as an Indonesian Chinese, got a Slavic name like Ivan for his common name. I was thinking that he, or his father, was playing off the [yvan] sounds of his paternally endowed name, but no, it comes from his Chinese name.
yīfàn 一飯 ("one rice / meal")
Sylvain / Ivan, a fourth generation Indonesian Chinese, cannot speak Chinese, much less can he write any Chinese characters. He more or less flipped out when I spoke to him in Mandarin, and went delirious when I asked him in Hokkien, "Li tsiah ba bueh?" ("Have you eaten yet?") — it was around lunchtime.
Following up on "Meadow writing", I thought it might be interesting to look at LOTR-associated word frequencies, using the the "weighted log-odds-ratio, informative dirichlet prior" algorithm Monroe, Colaresi, and Quinn 2009, "Fightin' Words", as discussed in seven previous LLOG posts. In particular, I thought I'd compare The Fellowship of the Ring to 16 of Charles Dickens' works.
Given existing scripts, this was an easy half-hour Breakfast Experiment.
And the results were mostly as expected. The Fellowship of the Ring end of the list is mostly populated with the names of LOTR proper names, like frodo, gandalf, bilbo, hobbits, pippin, etc. There are also a fair number of landscape-related words, as expected given that the plot involves a mostly-outdoor journey: mountains, trees, hills, path, forest, river, woods, etc. And the Dickens end of the list was also (mostly) not a surprise, at least in retrospect:
The differences in morpho-syntactic style might be interesting — which is 3 times more common in Dickens, and 's is almost twice as common — but Tolkien's lack of female pronouns (her is more than 8 times more common in Dickens, and she is almost six times more common) is an obvious consequence of the gender composition of the Fellowship.
As explained before, the lines in the output files have the fields
WORD XCount (XPerMillion) YCount (YPerMillion) ZCount (ZPerMillion) SCORE
…where in this case X=The Fellowship of the Ring, Y=16 Dickens books, and Z is the sum of X and Y.
It’s the Year of the Horse, and I have Nahvalur’s Saddle Amber Fountain Pen Ink made for the occasion, plus their new entry level fountain pen to give away this week. The Nahvalur Triad Fountain Pen in Chocolate (Fine Steel nib,) looks like a nice match, so let’s put them together for one winner of this giveaway. And the winner is:
Congrats Jim! I’ve sent you an email to collect your shipping address.
After devoting her first novel to her wild mother, Violaine Huisman focuses her second on her father, a man who amassed wealth, love affairs and stories.
In Canada, micromobility vehicles like e-scooters, e-bikes, and e-skateboards are appearing faster on the streets than the government can create and enforce laws. For Maclean’s, Caitlin Walsh Miller reports on the inconsistent, unenforced, and sometimes contradictory safety regulations across provinces and cities; the surge of injuries and emergency-room visits in hospitals and pediatric trauma centers; and the lack of parental awareness around how fast e-scooters can go.
The micromobility revolution, as its proponents call it, has destabilized all that, and tensions have ramped up. There is a specific, anger-provoking anxiety that comes from being startled by something, or someone, that comes unpredictably and illogically out of nowhere, especially if they almost knock you off your feet. I cycle year-round in Montreal. The streets here don’t feel lawless, but my guard is up. Last fall, I watched three teenagers—two doubled up on an e-scooter, one on an e-bike—blow through a changing light. The e-bike was a heartbeat away from smashing into a truck, while the e-scooter riders lurched to a stop on the other side of it. They shrieked with laughter. That same week, a few blocks over, a man on an e-scooter turned the wrong way onto a one-way street at full speed and knocked my husband off his bike. The scooter guy was furious, astonishingly, with him. In Edmonton, dog-walkers have complained of silent, scofflaw e-scooter riders scaring their pooches from behind. In Mississauga, Mayor Carolyn Parrish called the devices “chaotic” and “ugly,” and the city’s e-scooter pilot program a “crazy experiment” and “an ongoing battle.”
Jewels that would be worth millions today were scooped up in twin burglaries in Los Angeles in 1961. Could it have been George Dordigan, a man who enjoyed the finer things in life, someone said to be the kept man of a local doctor, a man who also happens to be the author’s grandfather? Intriguing, no? But after reading this piece, you may just think that Dordigan and his involvement in the heists are not the most interesting elements of the story.
Now it’s my turn to explain that in the early ’90s, my grandfather told me a crazy story about hiding some jewels in a beach cave. I didn’t ask questions, chalking it up to another of his wild adventures. I had no idea the magnitude of the secret I’d uncovered until I brought up the story to my great aunt, his sister, after he died in 2011—and she told me he’d stolen the jewels. After years of extensive research, I learned that my grandfather planned the carefully executed robberies, enlisting the help of his brother-in-law, Elbert Houghton, and a friend of theirs, Francis “Kiha” Kinney, who was known for being a safe cracker. Though the link between them hasn’t been proven, it seems likely that Buzz—intentionally or not—helped the crew get into the Kirkeby home and make off with the loot.
(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)
No joke, I started this article on Wednesday, April 1, when I readied myself to write this recap about the inaugural San Francisco Stationery Fest (SFSF). I think I’ve recovered enough from the show to hopefully write coherent sentences about my very first stationery fest! Yes, that’s right, I’ve never been to a stationery fest before, just to a bunch of pen shows that had stationery vendors, including my home pen show, the San Francisco Pen Show where I’ve bought an embarrassing amount of stuff last year - see last year’s show recap for some haul pictures.
Welcome to the San Francisco Stationery Fest! (I know the picture says “Show” lol.)
Last year, I was planning/hoping to go to at least 3 events, but due to scheduling conflicts with my family as well as foot surgery, I wasn’t able to go to any of them, and I also couldn’t make it to the Chicago Stationery Fest last month, so needless to say, I was chomping at the bit for this one. While I hadn’t attended any sort of dedicated stationery events like this one, I had gone to a “maker” event a couple years ago which had at least a dozen stationery vendors. That, coupled with the increase in stationery vendors at pen shows, but especially at the SF and CA pen shows, gave me an idea of what SFSF might be like.
Oh, and even though this wasn’t a pen show, I was working at the Flax Pen to Paper tables, so as usual, most of my picture taking was done before show hours or during trips to/from the restroom, lol.
Like the San Francisco Pen Show, SFSF kicks off on Thursday with some events/meetups, badge pickups, and even a meet & greet with SFPS and SFSF show mascots Odin & Ace! (Bummed I missed out on seeing Odin & Ace at the meet & greet ☹️)
Both PLOTTER and TRAVELER’S COMPANY USA held events which allowed folks to meet fellow enthusiasts, explore (and buy) some of their respective products, and get their creative juices going.
April Wu waving hello during the PLOTTER Lounge and Creative Experiences event which kicked off on Thursday afternoon.
Look at all the fun stuff PLOTTER shared with folks who were excitedly working on their journals and notebooks!
PLOTTER also held a pop-up shop during their event - in the foreground, folks can assemble a paper pack to use page separators or as decorations.
The room wasn’t too crowded for the PLOTTER event but it ebbed and flowed as some folks came for the shopping, while others stayed for the journaling and meetup.
TRAVELER’S COMPANY USA also hosted a gallery and meetup later on Thursday. I love the creativity from various folks’ TNs! (PC: Jessica)
Another view of the very popular TRAVELER’S COMPANY USA event.
Due to a short notice event at the hotel (unrelated to SFSF) on Thursday evening, vendors weren’t able to set up their tables/booths until Friday morning. This made it a hectic morning for vendors, who were hoping to have everything set up and maybe even do a little pre-show shopping for themselves.
The view from the Flax Pen to Paper booth on Friday morning as everyone was frantically setting up for the 9am weekend pass entry time. This was taken at 7:51am. You can really see the wide aisles.
Jeremy Saumure, Alex Jay (of Imperfect Concepts), yours truly, and Ryan Finnegan of Saiko Stationery.
These gorgeous, hand-cut, hand-grommetted, and hand-painted journals by Imperfect Concepts were teasing me all weekend long because they were at the Flax booth. There was one that caught my eye, but I behaved though!
This is the back hallway (aka where the nib grinders were at the SFPS the past couple years). This didn’t get too congested, though there was a line (right) for the LCN Design Studio table around the corner!
It was neat to see some of the non-paper stuff that Midori brought with them including incense, incense holders, and pen rests, along with their notebooks, of course!
I liked the examples of how their notebooks can be used.
It was great to see some familiar pen show faces, in addition to those from Vanness, Gentleman Stationer, and Flax Pen to Paper.
Tori Woods of Stationery Universe and momma Mary were excited to be at SFSF! Not pictured is Francisco Lopez of Hinze Pens who also had some collab pens at the table.
No stranger to SFPS, Rickshaw Bagworks was also a sponsor for SFSF. Chief Smiles Officer, Cheryl (left) and Mark Dwight (not Rick), owner of Rickshaw, along with the Rickshaw crew, are showing off these adorable plus Pixel cases that debuted at the show!
While there were some pen classes & seminars, as well as a few pen vendors in attendance, this was definitely not a pen show - it was a stationery fest after all, so let’s take a look at some of those stationery vendors now!
PSA from ILOOTPAPERIE who reminds us that stationery (the kind you’re going to a fest for) is spelled with an “E”. The way I remember is is stationARY is where you “ARe”, while you buy stationERY from a stationer, or “E for envelope.” 🙂
A rare crowdless photo of the Fog Cats & Yanchako table, which was one of the first tables you encountered. It was practically mobbed all weekend long. (Yes, pose is intentional.)
I don’t have a cat and I found this hysterical and almost bought it.
From Berkeley, Goby Design had a colorful array of leather notebook covers.
Another Bay Area vendor, Sara Burgess of Sara Burgess Studio adapts her hand-cut artwork into these gorgeous note cards.
Dana (left) of Dana Ate Oatmeal with helper Denise. It was so nice to meet Dana in real life because I love her art!
One of the few times I saw Cindy Duong of Sakura Dragon at her tables - it was pretty busy there the whole weekend - but we would keep missing each other every time I walked by!
Megan of k1rmizi is a self-taught artist and illustrator who also teaches perfume workshops when she’s not making stationery products!
I hadn’t seen this journal bag by Menmin Made before!
The Ultimate Journal Bag allows you to flip through different sections and add/remove them as needed! There’s also a spot in the front to show off your pins too.
Stephanie from Vincenza Los Angeles is known for her notebook covers, but I got some patches that I forgot to buy at CAPS.
Definitely couldn’t miss RiN Studio’s big blow up in the corner of the ballroom!
I couldn’t bear to tear off this page from Flax’s Blackwing tester display. People are so artistic and talented!
I love the vibes from the art and cards at the Goyangi table.
It was so nice to meet Michaela of Michaela Made who is based out of the Dallas, TX area. I was trying to convince her to check out the Dallas pen show later this year!
This huge booth by SumLilThings is something one doesn’t typically see at a pen show, where products are displayed high up vertically, but is quite common at stationery events.
One of the funnest things I’ve done at a show was the shaker charm rally organized by Miki of Pineberry Paper. You buy an empty “frame” (she had several, but I picked the SFSF exclusive), and then go around to participating vendors to buy their charm. And if you complete the rally, you get a free sticker sheet with the charm logos! It was a great way to get to know some new-to-me vendors too!
One of the cutest and most memorable souvenirs I have from the SF Stationery Fest!
While it wasn’t a surprise that there were so many California and US-based stationery vendors, SFSF also had a fair share of international vendors, including folks from Japan and Taiwan. I can’t believe I forgot to take pictures at Tokubetsumemori’s table!
I love Taizo Yamamoto’s latest creation, “Color Palettes Town”! They had a cute little train going around these “buildings” of paper, which you can mix and match to create a little “house” with. And of course, I had to get one!
Traveling all the way from Japan, Ahnitol came with their cool crabs, cats, and assorted animal pen and phone rests. My large pink crab speaker is playing music on my desk as I write this!
Inden, a lacquered leather goods company from Japan since 1582, had these stunning wallets, pouches, and accessories made from leather that is lacquered with urushi.
Another vendor from Japan, Daigo brought a wide array of notebooks and accessories.
Sanby, often associated with stamp collabs with eric small things, brought these awesome Godzilla stamps.
I asked him to sign my TN accordion insert which was stamped with one of the Godzilla stamps.
Like the SF Pen Show, there were quite a few events held throughout the weekend, during and after show hours. I already mentioned the ones with PLOTTER and TRC USA, but there were also meetups hosted by Sakura Dragon, Cozy Stationery Friends Club, Bay Area Planners, and Postcrossing. I wasn’t able to get photos of many of them since they were held while I was working at the fest.
Cindy Duong of Sakura Dragon and Mr. Sakura Dragon, aka Colin Tan Wei, were all smiles at their meetup! They told me they were shocked by the huge turnout! (I wasn’t surprised, Cindy makes some awfully cute stuff!)
Pink-shirted folks were on hand to help facilitate the Sakura Dragon meetup, where folks got a chance to mingle with other fans, swap and share from the destash table, stamp to their hearts’ content, and work on their journals. No surprise this was such a popular meetup!
Joe Crace and Lisa Vanness before the start of the live On the Paper Trail podcast recording. (PC: Yuan)
Even though the after hours scene at the Aloft hotel wasn’t as hoppin’ as it usually is at SFPS, people still seemed to have a blast. Karaoke was a new addition to the scene and there are already plans to keep the tunes going at SFPS later this year! Folks sung their hearts out in the Tactic Room (so we didn’t have to subject others to our melodious voices) and had a blast.
Joe Crace has “got friends in low places” and Lisa Vanness is laughing cuz she’s one of them!
Yours truly is doing karaoke “My Way” with SFSF/SFPS/SF Pen Posse pal Franz Dimson.
Some after hours sticker swapping, journaling, and socializing at the Aloft bar. (PC: Yuan)
Since this was my first stationery fest, and also the inaugural SFSF, I had a few thoughts/suggestions/gripes/etc. about the show:
Stampers are bit too eager - I’ve seen this on both sides of the table at pen shows and also at SFSF, people taking up a lot of space and time to stamp their journals/sticker paper, while disregarding nearby shoppers who are trying to look at/buy products or ask questions, but they can’t because “stampers” (who often aren’t buying) are in the way. Vendors don’t mind folks using their stamps, that’s why they bring them, but they do mind if you’re getting in the way of other people trying to shop. They also mind when you (or your kids) are pushing too hard on their stamps (I’ve seen people use their entire upper body weight to press down on stamps). Some vendors have started bringing fewer stamps to their tables for these reasons. I would like to suggest that the show have a dedicated stamping room and/or event (during pre-show or after-hours), which would be monitored for proper usage and prevent thefts (so sad that this happens). This would allow folks to stamp to their hearts content, while also ensuring that customers have an easier shopping experience.
Less crowded than SFPS - I heard that there were as many (and possibly more) attendees than at the SFPS, but it still felt less crowded. Due to the highly curated vendor list, aka a lot fewer vendors than SFPS, the ballroom was more spacious at SFSF compared to the pen show. The aisles were nice and wide, though the space behind the tables seemed a wee bit cramped for vendors. The exception to the wide aisles were the hallways, which had vendors on both sides, making them more of a bottleneck than the ballroom. Fortunately, you could take a shortcut through the ballroom.
This was the line to enter on Saturday just before the 8 am weekend pass opening time. I don’t think it ever went out the door and around the hotel like it did at SFPS last year!
I almost don’t recognize this ballroom with these super wide aisles! This was taken on Sunday afternoon when there were still plenty of people wandering the show floor.
Don’t get me wrong, there were still crowds throughout the weekend but it never felt nearly as claustrophobic as SFPS.
Taken in the ballroom at 10:30 am after the 10 am general admission folks were let in.
Fair amount of people, but also fair amount of room to get around.
The hallways were the most congested areas of the show - for both SFSF and SFPS. I don’t see a way around that unless you get rid of the vendors on one side, and I don’t think that would be great either.
More locals than SFPS? - While I didn’t ask everyone if they were local, it definitely felt like there were a lot more locals attending SFSF, than folks who traveled. Locals tended not to stay at the hotel, resulting in a more mellow after hours, which is usually a lot more bustling (like at SFPS) than it was at SFSF. Folks definitely stuck around for evening meetups, but were ready to go home. Usually, local folks don’t go for all 3 days of a show vs folks who travel will be there all the days. Which brings me to my next point…
Too many bags, especially big ones - There were so many bags. Everyone had bags upon bags upon bags. Can’t say I blame them since there was so much shopping to do. But all those bags made for more crowded aisles and shopping experiences. Folks are told never to leave anything in their cars, so people kept their bags with them. And many of them weren’t staying at the hotel, so the bags multiplied and got fuller. This happens a little less at pen shows, where there are more travelers (and therefore, hotel stayers) who can periodically put their purchases in their rooms. I don’t know if stationery folks have been told not to bring their big backpacks/bags to shows because I saw some of the largest bags/packs I’ve ever seen at SFSF. So if you’re just discovering this now, it’s ok - just keep it small, or as flat as you can, and put your bag down on your feet when you’re shopping so your bag isn’t blocking the aisles (you can put your foot through the bag loop if you’re worried about theft). And please don’t put your bags on top of the merchandise (even more important at pen shows where it can cause costly damage).
Bring more cash - I think the term “cash is king” has never been more true than at SFSF (and probably other stationery shows). Other than some vendors (especially international folks) who preferred credit cards or PayPal, most of the US vendors would rather have cash than pay credit card fees, especially when the average transactions are significantly lower than at pen shows. I ran up so many $3.50 single washi tape transactions with credit cards, that it just blew my mind. Vendors not only have to pay a percentage fee, but also a transaction fee (like 3% + $0.10/transaction). Those fees really eat into sales, which is more noticeable when you’re making low dollar purchases. I heard this from quite a few vendors.
Get cash ahead of time, and get small bills - Hotel ATMs empty out pretty quickly and don’t always get refilled during the weekend, so you’d have to make a separate trip to a bank or ATM if you need more cash. And if you can, get small bills, especially $1 and $5 to make it easier to give exact change, which makes it faster for everyone.
Ticket prices felt about right - Ticket prices ranged from $10 cash for Sat or Sun day pass (general admission), to $25 early access Sat or Sun day pass, to $40 Friday general admission, up to $75/$85 for weekend passes which had early access all weekend. Early access pass holders got in 2 hours earlier on Sat/Sun and were able to get in at 9 am on Friday vs 1pm for general admission. As I don’t have any other shows to personally compare them to, it seemed reasonable to me, especially given all the classes and events, as well as the ballrooms, that the organizers have to put on.
Which day(s) to attend? - I will always say that if you can go for all the days, do so. But I also realize that’s not always feasible, so prioritize what is/isn’t important to you. If there are exclusives that you absolutely have to get, definitely splurge for the weekend pass, which gets you Friday morning access. If you’re not as eager for those exclusives, or you’re just dipping your toes in the stationery world, I would stay away from Saturday as that was the busiest day of the weekend, followed by Sunday, then Friday afternoon (Friday morning felt quieter but you’d have to get a weekend pass to attend). Sunday after 12pm still felt lively but more manageable.
Pets - One of the things I love about the SFPS and also SFSF is that pets are allowed in the hotel. That said, shows can be very stressful for animals, especially with the crowds. I would suggest that folks bring them in the late afternoon or on Sunday, when shows are typically less crowded, though SFSF was busier on Sunday than it was on Friday - likely due to the significant ticket prices.
Ace, one of the SFSF mascots, was totally listening to his owner, Todd (one of the SFSF owners/organizers), who was telling him not to get on the table, lol.
The OG SF show mascot, Odin, is the bestest boi!!
Obligatory pic of my doggo, Bungee, who came through SFSF on Sunday afternoon (thanks to hubs for bringing her). Here she is squinting away (no idea why she’s squinting but I love this picture from Yuan) - isn’t she cute?!
One of the absolute cutest (and softest) dogs at the show, and was extra cute in a tote bag! So well-behaved too!
How about two dogs in two bags?! These two were so sweet!!
Lots of Social Media - I primarily pay attention to Instagram, but I saw a lot of posts and stories on both IG and FB about SFSF. I got excited every time I saw a new vendor being added or a new class being offered (even if I couldn’t take them).
Good info on website
Informative - There was a lot of information on the website, and it was pretty easy to navigate.
It was easy to find classes/events/etc on the website based on day, instructor, description and/or type.
FAQ - For once, I actually read the website FAQ and found some good information, including…
Parking validation - While I’m talking about parking, I wanted to mention that the show negotiated a lower parking rate
Interactive map was easy to use, even on mobile. They only had 1-2 printed maps at the help desk but printed maps ended up as garbage on the show floor, so they opted not to have them at SFSF. I think some larger printed maps would be helpful though.
You can click on a table, or search by name or keyword (like washi) to find out where a vendor is located. This is a screenshot from my iPhone.
Parking better than SFPS - I may be completely wrong on this one but I didn’t hear as many complaints about parking. Maybe it’s because a lot of folks were local and could take public transportation, Uber/Lyft, or carpooled, but it didn’t seem as problematic as at SFPS.
Lots of classes/seminars - Since the show didn’t put vendors in the small side rooms like they did for SFPS, there were a lot more rooms for classes & seminars (classes are paid, seminars were free, but required registration to ensure adequate space). I loved seeing the variety of classes and heard from a lot of attendees that going to classes gave them much needed breaks from all the shopping, while also learning a new skill and meeting new people.
What a fun time at my handwriting improvement class on Friday afternoon! (oof, I need more sleep, lol.)
Since I recently went through some of my stationery stash, I was able to be a little more mindful about what I wanted to get at SFSF. Definitely didn’t go as crazy as I did at SFPS last year, but that doesn’t say much, does it? The haul pic still required an aerial shot of the living room rug, lol.
As I always say, the stuff is great, but it’s the friends that make shows great. Whether it’s a pen show or a stationery fest, getting to spend time with friends, old and new, is the best part!
I saw the Pen Addict patch on this fella’s bag before he turned and I saw the Pen Addict hat! First time meeting Pen Addict fan, J Cucchiara, and we had a lovely conversation about the blog and had to snap a selfie to show the boss!
While I regularly see my friend Mary on the PA Slack, as well as the CA and SF pen shows, we rarely get more than a moment to chat. I absolutely enjoyed the more relaxed after hours atmosphere where we were able to talk for more than we have in years.
There’s nothing like good ol’ fashioned hanging out with friends, old and new!
Like most folks, I didn’t know what to expect from SF Stationery Fest, but it felt just right - not too big and not too small. Was it perfect? Probably not, but vendors I spoke with seemed to think it was well-organized and that they had a really good show. After-hours wasn’t nearly as crazy as pen shows, but that’s probably a good thing since I’ve already been to 3 pen shows this year and I still need to catch up on sleep, lol. For an inaugural show, I think the show organizers did a pretty darn good job and it certainly fills the stationery fest void for me. I loved making new friends and enjoying old friendships, just with more stickers and washi tape!
A huge thank you to the organizers for putting on such a great stationery event, and thank you also to the vendors, helpers, attendees, friends, and pups that made SF Stationery Fest such a wonderful time. It’s nice having a few weeks to recover before the Chicago Pen Show, which I am really looking forward to. Until then, stay safe and stay inky!
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At BMR, the first thing the doctors, nurses, and techs ask patients when they interview them is "Do you feel any pain?" And they want you to quantify it on a scale of 1-3-5 / small-medium-big.
What is pain? Physical, mental?
I tend to think of it rather as Sanskrit duḥkha (/ˈduːkə/ दुःख) than as English "pain", because the former is more all encompassing (corporeally, spiritually) than the latter, which I feel is more physical.
Duḥkha (/ˈduːkə/; Sanskrit: दुःख, Pali: dukkha) "suffering", "pain", "unease", or "unsatisfactoriness", is an important concept in Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism. Its meaning is context-dependent: it may refer more specifically to the "unsatisfactoriness" or "unease" of craving for and grasping after transient 'things' (i.e. sensory objects, including thoughts), or expecting pleasure from them while ignorant of this transientness.[1][2][3][4][note 1] In Buddhism, dukkha is part of the first of the Four Noble Truths and one of the three marks of existence. The term also appears in scriptures of Hinduism, such as the Upanishads, in discussions of moksha (spiritual liberation).
While the term dukkha has often been derived from the prefix du- ("bad" or "difficult") and the root kha ("empty", "hole"), meaning a badly fitting axle-hole of a cart or chariot giving "a very bumpy ride", it may actually be derived from duḥ-stha, a "dis-/ bad- + stand-", that is, "standing badly, unsteady", "unstable".
Etymology and meaning
Duḥkha (Sanskrit: दुःख; Pali: dukkha) is a term found in the Upanishads and Buddhist texts, meaning anything that is "uneasy, uncomfortable, unpleasant, difficult, causing pain or sadness". It is also a concept in Indian religions about the nature of transient phenomena which are innately "unpleasant", "suffering", "pain", "sorrow", "distress", "grief" or "misery". The term duḥkha does not have a one-word English translation, and embodies diverse aspects of unpleasant human experiences. It is often understood as the opposite of sukha, meaning lasting "happiness", "comfort" or "ease".
Etymology
Axle hole
The word has been explained in recent times as a derivation from Aryan terminology for an axle hole, referring to an axle hole which is not in the center and leads to a bumpy, uncomfortable ride. According to Winthrop Sargeant,
The ancient Aryans who brought the Sanskrit language to India were a nomadic, horse- and cattle-breeding people who travelled in horse- or ox-drawn vehicles. Su- and dus- are prefixes indicating good or bad. The word kha, in later Sanskrit meaning "sky," "ether," or "space," was originally the word for "hole," particularly an axle hole of one of the Aryan's vehicles. Thus sukha … meant, originally, "having a good axle hole," while duḥkha meant "having a poor axle hole," leading to discomfort.
The word dukkha is made up of the prefix du- and the root kha. Du- means "bad" or "difficult". Kha means "empty". "Empty", here, refers to several things—some specific, others more general. One of the specific meanings refers to the empty axle hole of a wheel. If the axle fits badly into the center hole, we get a very bumpy ride. This is a good analogy for our ride through saṃsāra.
'Standing unstable'
However, according to Monier Monier-Williams, the actual roots of the Pali term dukkha appear to be Sanskritदुस्- (dus-, "bad") + स्था (sthā, "to stand"). Irregular phonological changes in the development of Sanskrit into the various Prakrits led to a shift from dus-sthā to duḥkha to dukkha.
Analayo concurs, stating that dukkha as derived from duḥ-sthā, "standing badly", "conveys nuances of "uneasiness" or of being "uncomfortable". Silk Road philologist Christopher I. Beckwith elaborates on this derivation. According to Beckwith:
… although the sense of duḥkha in Normative Buddhism is traditionally given as 'suffering', that and similar interpretations are highly unlikely for Early Buddhism. Significantly, Monier-Williams himself doubts the usual explanation of duḥkha and presents an alternative one immediately after it, namely: duḥ-stha "'standing badly,' unsteady, disquieted (lit. and fig.); uneasy", and so on. This form is also attested, and makes much better sense as the opposite of the Rig Veda sense of sukha, which Monier-Williams gives in full.
(VHM: This is a perfect analogy for my own primary suffering here at BMH, which is caused by the insertion of a Foley catheter into my body at a particular point [a small hole], also my wobbliness when standing.)
Afterword
téngtòng 疼痛
(VHM: I'm not sure how this common disyllabic "Mandarin" term (supposedly for "pain") relates to my own medical condition [see below].)
There's another word in Sinitic that means "ache; pain", viz., tòng 痛, which can also mean "hate". Curiously, the same word can convey the sentiment of "love dearly; have tender affection for". Selectively continuing a very long list of different definitions for the same character, we have "painful; sad; grieved; sorrowful" and "very happy; delighted", as well as "harsh; bitter; severe", and so forth and so on. Cf. téng 疼 which can mean "ache; pain", but also "love dearly; dote on". This is why, when you read Chinese texts, you have to be on your toes and pay keen attention to context and what you think the author is really trying to convey.
The Cattle Baron, a Manhattan steakhouse, may be best remembered for its 1968 print advertisement “of a woman kneeling naked in a Stetson,” whose “body is portioned out with painted lines, each segment labeled as a cut: chuck, rib, loin, rump, soup bone, and so on.” For the latest issue of Cake Zine (titled, perfectly, Steak Zine) Rachel Ossip uncovers the story of the “Cattle Queen,” whose image made her “steakhouse royalty, feminist icon, [and] fungible tourism graphic.”
Something about this image causes people to replicate it, a quality we call viral in the digital age. And while the Cattle Queen’s kneeling form seems like the most popular interpretation, the concept of superimposing cuts of meat onto a woman’s body certainly preceded her. On the cover of the 1955 book A Cartoon Guide to the Battle of the Sexes, a butcher stands beside a skinned and diagramed lamb while a thought bubble shows him imagining a woman passing by as similarly stripped and cut. A couple years before that book’s publication, in 1953, the French editorial photographer Lucien Lorelle created “Le boucher amoureux” (“The Infatuated Butcher”), a photograph ostensibly taken for Lorelle’s own pleasure. In it, a perky, nude blonde stands upright, gazing over her shoulder at an aproned man who holds a brush and a small tin of paint. He admires both her body and his own work: The woman’s entire form is covered in red lines and letters, curves delineating “culotte” from “gîte à la noix” in a detailed rendition of the butcher’s chart.
“You haven’t written a book, but you are a writer.”
By Ann V. Klotz
As the head of a school, my writing happened in those spaces in between. Sure, I did plenty of writing as a school leader, but my own essays were written in stolen moments before my family woke.
One summer, I managed to slip away to Kenyon College for a writers’ workshop. I took various classes online after that and loved writing to prompts. I enrolled in an on-line MFA program at Bay Path during the Pandemic to give myself breaks from social distancing and masks, completing my assignments late at night or on weekends. Each October, I flew to Minneapolis to write with marvelous women, led by the inspirational Kate Hopper. I submitted, had pieces appear online or in-print, and considered writing my solace, my escape, my release valve. But I viewed myself as a schoolteacher who wrote, not as a “real” writer.
A book, I told myself, would wait for retirement. There were dreams of many books, tidily arranged on a shelf, my name shining from each spine, but no outline, no draft, no proposal, no queries. There was a mediocre memoir I submitted for my MFA thesis that is beautifully bound and hidden on a high shelf, so it cannot reproach me at eye level.
On June 30th of this past year, I retired. That morning, I’d offered a contract to a new employee and had a meeting about a naughty child, but at 5 p.m., my work for the school I’d led for 21 years concluded. I was catapulted into a new chapter, one I’d chosen, but one that has taken longer to adjust to than I expected.
I told a friend recently that retirement feels like a new pair of fancy shoes, alluring from the shop window. I ought to love them, but once I got them home, I realized they pinched and breaking them in might or might not make them shoes I want to wear every day.
After an amazing September trip across the ocean, taking Allison Williams’ and Jessica Berg’s intensive, “Rebirth Your Book” (even though there was no book), I returned to a new home in a new state. And I didn’t write. I thought about writing. I imagined the writing rituals I would soon take up. I pretended to write. Friends asked, “With all your free time, are you writing a lot?” And I’d nod and smile, lying straight up to them and to myself.
I’d been a schoolteacher for 43 years, one who loved to write, but now who was I? Teaching was my real job. Could I actually say I was a writer? It felt like an overreach.
Mind you, I’d spent my entire professional life encouraging girls and women to take up space, to claim their voices, so I felt angry at my own reticence in claiming my identity as a writer. If I didn’t view myself as a writer, who would?
Then, I got a rejection from a journal I forgot I’d even submitted to. I opened Submittable and Duotrope–don’t ask; I like them both–and discovered I had not submitted or published anything for more than a year–except that single rejected essay. I was astonished. “But I’m a writer,” I thought. “I write.” Except I hadn’t. And my indignation, my instant insistence that I am a writer galvanized me. Writers write. They submit. They view even rejection as evidence of effort, of doing the work. I invited a friend I met in Dingle with Suzanne Strempek Shea and Tommy Shea to be in a writer’s group with me; she invited another friend to join us. I made a list of ideas to write about. On Sundays at 4 p.m., I show up on Zoom for the Iota Sunday Writing Sessions. I signed up for a class that starts this week with The Loft. I am making time to read–which is not that hard, since my schedule is remarkably flexible now that I’ve retired, but still requires commitment. Writers read.
Last week, I attended a dinner party for women who love words. I gave myself a stern talking to before the event: “You are a writer. Don’t be a wimp. You haven’t written a book, but you are a writer.” Sipping wine and eating hors d’oeuvres, we spoke about books we loved, writers we admired. We swapped books; we asked each other questions; we ate a sumptuous meal that the husband of our hostess prepared for us. It was a feast of an evening, a literary soirée of affirmation. I left inspired.
Mary Oliver asks what we plan to do with our “one wild and precious life.” For me? It’s time to get on with it, to sit at my desk every day, to write. To be a writer. Finally. __
Ann V. Klotz is a recently retired headmistress, who lives between Eagles Mere, PA and the Upper West Side of NYC. Her essays have appeared in the Brevity Blog, Yankee Magazine, Multiplicity, Literary Mama and in other journals. You can read more of her work at www.annvklotz.com or on Instagram: @the_original_avk
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