“Through the gutters there’ll be water running wilder than the sea…”
That was a quick Mark Lanegan William Topley break, before I proceed to the topic of this post, which is the green Parkette Deluxe Butch let me pick out from one of his many junker boxes. One man’s junk is another woman’s new favorite fountain pen.
Parkette. What a name. It calls up chorus lines, false eyelashes and klieg lights bouncing off nylon stockings. The naming strategy certainly doesn’t wash today. We get Jockey for Her but not Jockette, Davidoff Woman and not Davidoffette. I don’t know if Parker intended it to be a feminine diminutive, though I can’t see how it would not have crossed their minds.
I chose the Parkette Deluxe because a) I like green, and b) I really like green. My only concern with the pen was the nib, because the tip (as so often happens with these old pens) had broken off. After a few minutes with Micromesh, I had an oblique italic, with a smidgen of flex. Mark Lanegan William Topley makes a reappearance, this time with the refrain from Highway 5, from the album Prince of the Deep Water:
Afternote: Now why did I keep writing Mark Lanegan when I meant William Topley? I only realized this after going through my music backup discs and seeing the Screaming Trees. Advancing age, too many doses of naproxen sodium, too much ink vapor inhalation?