Comments on: In the Archives: A Michigan Football Memory

By: Laura Bien

Laura Bien — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 05:14:47 +0000

Pardon me, typo; Edi, not Ed, sorry.

By: Laura Bien

Laura Bien — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 05:11:21 +0000

Ed: Some dedicated souls out there are still making these. I find that heartwarming. I have a set of steel nibs of various properties and both purple AND black Noodler's ink, which is simply stated the best ink. It is indelible; you could write a letter and then run it under water and this doggone ink will not run. I find that letters written with the steel nibs and the Noodler's have so much character and grace. Makes my ramblings appear to the eye to be sophisticated and intellectual. And I'll pay for that.

By: Laura Bien

Laura Bien — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 05:04:48 +0000

Neal: That is an interesting guess. Found this item on amazon and added it to my wish list, and was careful to *casually* mention to my husband that I had a wish list on amazon.

By: Edi Bletcher

Edi Bletcher — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:12:34 +0000

It is a very beautiful ink blotter. I want one.

By: Neal Foster

Neal Foster — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 02:42:05 +0000

Yeah, it’s a blotter. There may be some provision for changing the sheet of blotting material, which looked like thin, felty cardboard, from time to time. I’m old enough to recall seeing such blotters used, back when we had no ballpoint pens, and most people were accustomed to using fountain pens and knew how to fill them carefully and usually had to have something handy to clean up things after the pen was filled. We also all had round holes in our desks at school where the ink bottle neatly fit, although when I went to grammar school, the actual bottles were long gone. I remember when the ballpoint pens first came out, they were a real novelty to work with, and when you drew pictures with them you could achieve subtle shading effects.

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 20:40:56 +0000

No, Laura, it wasn’t a call-out–I have an academic interest in some aspects of that sentence.

By: Laura Bien

Laura Bien — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:53:14 +0000

Mr. Rees: Well, consider the audience. :) Nevertheless, I will try to provide a more difficult Mystery Artifact next round. Hmm, the Museum recently got a new acquisition…I think that’ll be a good one. Thanks for your comment.

By: Laura Bien

Laura Bien — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:50:29 +0000

Mr. Johnson: Checked the original in the Michigan Alumnus. I see the point of your good question but there is no comma there…perhaps it is just the vagaries of official-speak. But I should have edited that myself to make it clearer. Thank you for calling that out; Ill keep that in mind in the future.

By: Jim Rees

Jim Rees — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:36:53 +0000

Definitely a rocker blotter. This one was too easy.

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:49:43 +0000

I’m curious about this sentence: “Resolved, That the said James Joy Miller be, and he is hereby expelled from this Department and this University.” Is there a comma after hereby in the original, by any chance? I’m trying to parse the parallelism.