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Winnipeg Free Press
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
When it comes to Winnipeg stylophiles' caches, only the write stuff will do
In 2010 a fountain pen manufactured by Italian company Tibaldi set a record amount paid for a writing instrument, fetching an astounding $8 million at an auction in Shanghai. Renz Adame laughingly admits the so-named Fulgor Nocturnus pen, which is adorned with 945 diamonds and features a solid-gold nib, is a tad out of his price range. Nevertheless, the professional musician and dedicated stylophile — the term assigned to one who collects fountain pens, a style that relies on an internal reservoir or cartridge to hold ink — still plans to reward himself with something special when he toasts a milestone event later this month. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS Professional musician Renz Adame has been collecting fountain pens — writing implements with an internal ink reservoir or cartridge — since he purchased his first in Ottawa in 2017. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS Professional musician Renz Adame has been collecting fountain pens — writing implements with an internal ink reservoir or cartridge — since he purchased his first in Ottawa in 2017. Adame turns 30 on July 25. Lately he has been tossing around the idea of marking the occasion with a Pilot Custom Urushi, a Japanese-made fountain pen that is vermillion-red in colour and, according to online reviews, is 'beautifully resilient' and 'an absolute joy to write with.' While a new model goes for close to US$2,000, the West End resident is hoping to scoop one up for significantly less than that via second-hand sources. 'People might wonder who would ever spend a couple grand on a pen but I compare it to fine wine,' says Adame, an English horn player/oboist who performs with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra on a freelance basis, and who has also guested with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Ottawa's National Arts Centre Orchestra. 'As your taste develops, you start liking better and better wine. It's the same thing with pens.' RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS Adame says he really went down the fountain-pen 'rabbit hole' during the pandemic lockdowns. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS Adame says he really went down the fountain-pen 'rabbit hole' during the pandemic lockdowns. Adame, the eldest of four siblings, was born in the Philippines. He was 11 when his family immigrated to Winnipeg. He recalls his initial impression of his new home, as if it was yesterday. It was mid-April when he stepped out of the airport. Given the glowing sun and bright-blue sky, he expected to be greeted by a warm breeze, except he was immediately halted in his tracks. 'It was absolutely freezing out. The second the cold hit me, I was like, 'nope, I'm getting back on the plane.'' He toughed it out, and as he got older he developed a fascination with stationery, journaling and calligraphy thanks to his mom, an expert at cursive writing who never failed to create elaborate signs for family celebrations. Adame was studying music at the University of Ottawa in 2017 when he happened upon a store called Paper Papier in that city's ByWard Market. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS INTERSECTION Renz, collector of fountain pens, Close up photo of one of Renz's favourite fountain pens created with hand-poured resin. Story: Intersection piece on Renz Adame, an avid collector of fountain pens, both modern & vintage. He has close to 300 that he sorts according to colour, brand, age, etc. He is also a calligrapher and classical musician. Reporter: Dave Sanderson July 2nd, 2025 RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS INTERSECTION Renz, collector of fountain pens, Close up photo of one of Renz's favourite fountain pens created with hand-poured resin. Story: Intersection piece on Renz Adame, an avid collector of fountain pens, both modern & vintage. He has close to 300 that he sorts according to colour, brand, age, etc. He is also a calligrapher and classical musician. Reporter: Dave Sanderson July 2nd, 2025 He poked his head inside and thought 'my goodness' when he spotted a $50 price tag attached to a Faber-Castell Loom fountain pen that caught his eye. He left the shop empty-handed. After mulling it over for a few hours, he retraced his steps and splurged on the aluminum model. 'Because I didn't know very much at the time, what I failed to realize was that the pen, which has a smaller nib, was more for map-making than calligraphy, so it wasn't overly practical,' he says, adding he would bring it along to class from time to time, but for the most part it was kept in a drawer in his apartment. Adame moved to Vancouver in the fall of 2019 to pursue a doctorate in music at the University of British Columbia. His pen predilection might never have moved past that first specimen, he feels, if COVID-19 hadn't come along in the spring of 2020, throwing the world into lockdown mode. Practically overnight, he went from rehearsing and performing '24-7' to being stuck at home, unable to do much of anything. One afternoon, he was scrolling through YouTube, only to come across video after video of individuals showing off their penmanship by writing with fountain pens. There was a chat function and after posing a few queries about what he was witnessing, 'the rabbit hole opened up,' he says with a wink. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Adame was initially intrigued by stationary, journaling and calligraphy thanks to his mother, who is a skilled cursive writer. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Adame was initially intrigued by stationary, journaling and calligraphy thanks to his mother, who is a skilled cursive writer. Unable to shop in person, he began perusing online stores. Within a month, he was up to 15 pens, a number that continued to increase as soon as pandemic-related restrictions were relaxed. 'I lived on West Hastings (Street), a couple of blocks from the Vancouver Pen Shop. Probably once a day when I would start to lose my mind from boredom, I'd walk over to the shop and hang out for a few hours — so much so that they eventually offered me a job on weekends, since I already knew where everything was,' he says, listing ultra-fine craftsmanship along with the wide range of what's available as reasons he was drawn to the hobby. Since moving back to Winnipeg, Adame has maintained an Instagram account dubbed There he regularly shows off models from what is currently a 300-strong collection, along with examples of his highly skilful handwriting. And while a lot of his fellow collectors specialize by focusing their attention on a specific category of pen — choosing between modern or vintage, or concentrating on a certain make or shade — his cache is 'all over the map.' 'I have a bunch that are probably 100 years old at least, but I also love the look and feel of new pens,' he says, citing 26 Market on Princess Street, Seduta Art on Arthur Street and the Pen Counter, inside U.N. Luggage on McDermot Avenue, as local suppliers he frequents on a regular basis. 'I get the question all the time — 'what's your favourite pen?' — and I tell them they can't ask me that. It's like asking me what my favourite food is. It changes depending on the day.' Maja Furlong is the president of the Vancouver Pen Club, a 19-year-old organization Adame joined when he was living in B.C. Furlong grew up in Thompson. She remembers picking up a $15 Sheaffer fountain pen from Woolworth's in 1976 to assist her with a Grade 6 essay. 'My thinking was if I used a good pen I would get a good mark, and even though I still have it, I never used that pen again,' says Furlong, seated on an outdoor patio at the Vancouver Public Library's Kitsilano branch, where the club is holding its monthly meeting. (Forget Stanley Park or the Capilano Suspension Bridge; during a recent trip to the West Coast, we made a point of attending the Vancouver Pen Club's June get-together.) Furlong bought her second fountain pen in 1992, during a trip to Vienna. No. 3 — the one that got her 'hooked' — came along nine years later, by which time she was living in B.C. 'I was working at a pharmacy and one of my co-workers would use a fountain pen to write in the pharmacy's communications book, which everyone was required to read. I asked him about it and he mentioned an online store, which in turn led me to all these other stores in Vancouver that sold fountain pens.' There were only five people, Furlong among them, when the Vancouver Pen Club held its inaugural meeting in December 2006. At last count, there were 353 members, she says, ranging in age from 10 to 80. 'There's a small handful like Renz who have moved away, but the majority live in the metro Vancouver area,' explains Furlong, who now lives in Tsawwassen, B.C. 'We usually average between 20 and 25 at the meetings, which are a great opportunity to be in a room for two hours with people who all speak the same language — fountain pens.' Furlong has attended pen conventions in Los Angeles and Portland, Ore. She currently owns a shade over 1,000 fountain pens, which she stores in zippered pen cases, glass shelving units, even coffee mugs — anything to have one close at hand, she says. 'The problem is my husband and I don't have any kids, and we're not getting any younger,' she continues, noting she especially loves chancing upon pens — 'the thrill of the hunt,' she terms it — that carry a personal inscription such as a name or date on the casing. 'We do have twin nieces, but they've both told me they have zero interest in fountain pens. So like a lot of people who collect pens or whatever, you start to wonder, hmm, what's going to happen to all this down the line?' Back in Winnipeg, Adame allows that he may not be the easiest person to go for a bite with. Reach into your pocket for a pen to jot something down and right away he's curious, be it a fountain pen in your hand or not. 'I honestly always glance at what people write with. I've run into a few people in coffee shops who write with fountain pens, which is always super fun,' he says. Additionally, he'll study still frames from movies and TV shows that other pen aficionados have posted online in an effort to determine the precise sort of pen a character is employing. 'Even when I'm at the grocery store, I always have a fountain pen in my pocket. I'll be walking through an aisle and go 'oh yeah, don't forget to buy lettuce,' and I'll pull it out to make a note to myself.' Monthly What you need to know now about gardening in Winnipeg. An email with advice, ideas and tips to keep your outdoor and indoor plants growing. David Sanderson Dave Sanderson was born in Regina but please, don't hold that against him. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Triad teachers, students preparing for once-in-a-lifetime trip abroad to learn about Holocaust
(WGHP) — By now, most teachers across the country have said goodbye to their students, turned out the lights in their classrooms and started a well-deserved summer vacation. But there are dozens of North Carolina public school teachers from the coast to the mountains preparing for what will likely be a once-in-a-lifetime experience abroad learning about the Holocaust. That includes Damian Adame, who just finished his fourth year teaching World History to ninth-grade and tenth-grade students at Page High School in Greensboro. 'It's a mixed bag. There are a lot of emotions that go into it,' Adame said. 'There's excitement because this is honestly something that I've wanted to do. But, at the same time, it's also a little daunting.' Adame is one of nearly 40 North Carolina public middle and high school educators selected to travel to Poland to learn about the Holocaust in the very places where much of it happened. Led by retired Greensboro Rabbi Fred Guttman, they'll spend eight days visiting death camps, ghettos, communities and museums and eventually bring it all home to their students. 'One of the cool things about this trip is it's not just a tour of the camps. It's not just a tour of these areas where the events occurred,' Adame said. 'It's a walking classroom. We're going to learn and take all these things and implement them in our classroom in a brand-new way.' The trip is funded by many organizations and private donors, including longtime Holocaust education advocates Zev and Bernice Harel of Greensboro. Zev is a Holocaust survivor who was sent to several death camps as a teen, including Auschwitz and Ebensee. He spent decades sharing his story all over the world. 'I felt comfortable doing that because the Holocaust was an experience that not too many survive,' Harel said. 'Each time [I was] speaking about human adaptation and what survivors did in order to make it possible to survive.' 'At some point, the survivors realized that if they didn't start talking, everything that happened and everything they witnessed would disappear with them eventually,' Bernice said. Now, at 95 years old, Zev isn't able to share his story like he used to. So in a lot of ways, this Holocaust education trip is picking up where survivors left off, ensuring stories such as Zev's continue to get told. 'Every person that goes on this trip is hopefully going to have a deeper understanding, but it's also going to give them a deeper connection,' Adame said. 'It's going to make us more motivated to give a better scope of what's going on with this event.' The teachers leave for Poland on Monday, and FOX8's Katie Nordeen and McKenzie Lewis have been invited to join them. You can expect their special stories on Teaching the Holocaust in September. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


Newsweek
04-05-2025
- Health
- Newsweek
Waitress Cuts Her Finger on Glass, Three Years Later She Learns the Truth
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A waitress who got a shard of glass in her finger while cleaning was adamant there was still something in there—and three and a half years later, she got her proof in a wild way. Cristina Adame, from Aurora, Illinois, told Newsweek she was working at a restaurant years ago, when she accidentally got "shards of glass in my index finger while trying to clean broken glass debris that was at our cup and soda station." "My boyfriend had tried to remove whatever was left, and we thought for sure that it was all out," she said—until October 2024, when she "started getting sharp pains in my finger," leaving her incapable of using it properly. At the same time, "a large bump formed on the side of my finger, along with what looked like a small dot of dried internal blood in the middle." A shard of glass had been embedded in Cristina Adame's finger for more than three years. A shard of glass had been embedded in Cristina Adame's finger for more than three years. TikTok @ Concerned, Adame went to a doctor, but was assured her it was not glass, as she "insisted it was," but instead a herpetic whitlow that would heal within a few weeks, though they advised her to get a second opinion if it did not heal. A herpetic whitlow is a contagious skin infection featuring painful blisters on the skin by the fingernail, caused by the herpes simplex virus. It should go away on its own, but may require antivirals, according to Cleveland Clinic. Things appeared to calm down, but in March 2025 the same issue arose, and "an even larger bump" formed in the same spot on Adame's finger, and she sought a second opinion while giving them information on her previous visit. This time, the doctors cut into her finger—not directly into the bump, but into where the speck of dried blood was—and found no glass. Just when it appeared Adame would never get an answer, weeks later she was washing dishes with hot water when she noticed a small hole "open up on the side of my finger." The hole appeared to be bigger the following day, and Adame took matters into her own hands. "I run to my bathroom to use the end of a floss pick to try and open the hole up more. I finally am able to see the hole more clearly—and I bite the excess skin flap covering the hole. "That is when I felt, and heard a loud crunch! I press down on my finger, and lo and behold comes out the glass of three years!" She shared the wild story to her TikTok account @ on April 11, where a video showed the shard of glass sticking out from her finger. Adame told the backstory, before finishing: "Lo and behold y'all, the glass from three years ago... literally popped out. "This is glass from three years ago! How am I still alive?" Pictured: The circled area where doctors cut in to try and locate any glass, and, right, the hole left where the shard emerged. Pictured: The circled area where doctors cut in to try and locate any glass, and, right, the hole left where the shard emerged. TikTok @ There are dangers to leaving glass in the body, including tetanus and other infections such as cellulitis and MRSA. A small splinter of glass may be safe to leave in the skin as the body should naturally get rid of it as it sheds skin, according to a medically-reviewed article from WebMD, however you should consult a doctor if redness is spreading around the area, the area is swelling, or you have not been able to remove the glass for 12 hours—or in Adame's case, three years. TikTok users were shocked by the story, with Adame's video viewed more than 3.6 million times, as many shared their own stories. "Our bodies are so cool," one user wrote. "My dad had shrapnel coming out of his body for my whole childhood after he got back from serving in the army." Another recalled: "I cut my hand while cutting avocado and a year later after it healed my body pushed out a tiny piece of avocado skin." "I sliced my hand on a broken window a couple of years ago and still have little bits of glass pop out," one said—and as one detailed: "I have a piece of pencil lead in my palm that got stuck in elementary school 17 years ago." Adame told Newsweek that since the glass finally emerged, "my finger has healed very nicely and I have no more pain [or] discomfort, finally, after three long years."
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Yahoo
Arkansas man arrested in West Peoria after ‘terroristic threats'
WEST PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — A man wanted in Arkansas for alleged 'terroristic threats' as well as alleged possession of a stolen U-Haul and illicit drugs was arrested in West Peoria Friday morning. Jeremy Adame, 38, was arrested at the 600 block of North Waverly Avenue just after 9:30 a.m. Friday morning, said Peoria County Sheriff Chris Watkins in a Facebook post. He was staying at the location in West Peoria when he was arrested by Deputy Blaine Duhs with the U.S. Marshals Task Force and detectives with the Peoria County Sheriff's Office. Adame was allegedly also in possession of a stolen U-Haul truck and methamphetamines, according to the post. Adame is set to be extradited to Arkansas, and there is no cause for public concern, Watkins said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.