Desktop Blotters

[ChrisGreaves]

When was the last time you saw, on a desk, a genuine desktop blotter?
I think for me the last time was in my first job at BHP Newcastle NSW back in 1968/69 or so. BHP was a conservative firm, and I remember the horror when propelling pencils were introduced.
What on earth was wrong with us sharpening our coding-form pencils with a small pen-knife? Cleaning ladies came in each night to sweep up the shavings around our desks.

The top sheet of the blotter pad was an acreage of doodles made during boring phone calls, and each evening the cleaning-lady would stuff the top sheet into a waste bin and that is how we were able to claim that we had lost some critical phone numbers, and how we learned to love the efficiency of the cheaper restaurants in the sleazy parts of the downtown core.

I was amazed to see that they can still be had from a variety of modern suppliers.
Cheers, Chris

[HansV]

I still use a desk pad, but I threw out my last desk blotter many years ago.

Desktop.jpg

[BobH]

My Dear Mr. Greaves, you have succeeded in confusing this older person with your post.

To what do you refer when you use the term 'blotter?' Coming first to my mind is the rocking device with a bit of absorptive material, usually leather, on its convex surface used to ensure that one's ink is dry on the paper, thus blotted, and will not smear.

You then go on to describe the charwoman tossing out the top sheet. I must admit to being perplexed as the blotters of my experience do not have a top sheet that can be tossed out. She might toss out the entire blotter but she would likely then be herself tossed out as the blotters of my experience usually had a silver or gold handle on top.

It is my understanding that in some of the commoner sorts of office a device called blotting paper is used for this purpose; however this is never used in our chambers lest our clients think less of us.

Please do me the service of explaining your meaning.

I remain respectfully yours,

[ChrisGreaves]

To what do you refer when you use the term 'blotter?' Coming first to my mind is the rocking device with a bit of absorptive material, usually leather, on its convex surface used to ensure that one's ink is dry on the paper, thus blotted, and will not smear.

That was an INK blotter, and some appear in the link from my first post.
The desktop blotter, and I can see that for someone as old as you this could be confusing , is a blotter that sits on the desktop.

You then go on to describe the charwoman tossing out the top sheet. I must admit to being perplexed as the blotters of my experience do not have a top sheet that can be tossed out. ...

I do apologize. I keep forgetting that you were not born and raised in a civilized country. i had the good fortune to be born in a civilized country (where i saw many a desktop blotter) and raised in a colonial state.

In those times we all learned to do handwriting, dipping our pen nibs into ink-wells and trying not to smudge our handiwork. I had the good fortune to be taught to write one way until the age of ten, and then was awarded extra hours of tuition in school, after school, to be taught how to write in a completely different way.
I say "good fortune " because I was ready, willing, and able, to leap at the opportunity to use punched cards, whose only case was upper, and at a time when cursive script was neither available or supplied. Not even line printers on that old IBM 1620. Just a 407 accounting machine.

Here is a link to your "Ink Blotter". These were fun devices. On this model the handle unscrewed to release the clamping mechanism and hence the paper, but for six-year old hands it was the devil of a job to get it all put back together again before one's father returned from the kitchen with his fresh cup of tea,

And here is a link to a desktop blotter. These were pretty boring. A slab of blotting papers was wedged in the left-hand side, then the opposite edge was wedged into the right-hand side. Easy-peasy.
In my experience, the number of sheets was always too many to wedge into the sides until you reduced the wad to a sufficient thinness so that the whole pack would do its sine-wave trick and refuse to sit squarely.

We must get together someday and reminisce about The Good Old Days when we actually thought that you might meet me trackside for ten minutes in the middle of the night ...
Cheers, Chris

[PJ_in_FL]

In most of my history at work I would have a desktop blotter/calendar with one sheet per month. Handy to keep track of appointments and meetings that I didn't want to bother putting into Outlook, plus to doodle or jot down phone numbers or simple notes. I'd also tear off the sheets of months and tape or pin on the wall for project planning.

At home I have a blotter that is covered in mouse pads from a former company. I'll have to take a photo when I'm back home. I'll also have to clear the desk off enough so the blotter and pads can be seen.

[ChrisGreaves]

In most of my history at work I would have a desktop blotter/calendar with one sheet per month.

OK, but that sounds more like a pad of (large size) writing paper, rather than large sheets of genuine blotting paper.

Mind you, given the amount of rain that falls on Jacksonville, I'd have thought that blotting paper would be handed to all dis-embarking passengers at JAX
Cheers
Chris

[stuck]

I've never, ever, had a desktop blotter, either at home or at work.

Ken

[John Gray]

I think that Chris suffers from blotulism...

[ChrisGreaves]

I think that Chris suffers from blotulism...

I don't see how that can be. My pension is so small that I can't afford to pay Income Toxics nowadays.
Cheers, Chris

[BobH]

AAAH!

By 'blotter' you mean desk pad! Why didn't you say so!

[jonwallace]

When I worked (sorry, was employed) my colleague ordered a desk pad every year. He used to jot todo notes, scribble down specimen numbers that needed fixed/deleted or restored (diagnostic microbiology is like that) from the lab system, patient numbers for data searches (never names!) etc. When it was full and illegible, he'd tear off the top sheet and start again. Tough luck for the jobs he hadn't got around to, but our philosophy was "if somebody really needs it, they'll ask again"

That last bit was to guard against those pillocks who would respond with "oh, did I ask for that?" when you gave them hard-won data wrested from the labyrinthine clutches of the lab system.

[stuck]

When I worked (sorry, was employed)...

I can relate to that.

...Tough luck for the jobs he hadn't got around to, but our philosophy was "if somebody really needs it, they'll ask again"...

I can also relate to that. I regularly disposed of Post-It notes on which I'd scribbled stuff 'to do' but never did.

Ken

[ChrisGreaves]

AAAH!

By 'blotter' you mean desk pad! Why didn't you say so!

I do apologize, Bob. I was writing in English
Cheers, Chris

[stuck]

I do apologize, Bob. I was writing in English
Cheers, Chris

I love the irony there, when you've only just claimed to have never claimed to be a Brit


ken

[ChrisGreaves]

... when you've only just claimed to have never claimed to be a Brit

Oh Boy! Are you ever stuck now
When did I ever claim to be not a Brit?
Or if you prefer, when did I never claim to be a Brit?

I was thinking just this morning as I listened to the news in French from SBS Sydney - not about the coronation, but about the Chunnel anniversary (6 May 1994)
You want real irony built with real iron? Plans to build a cross-Channel fixed link appeared as early as 1802 and 192 years later it was opened.
Twenty two years after that Brits chose Brexit and now get Brexcited about long delays using the Chunnel to cross into France

I was born in England, as you know well.
It's just that I had the good sense to take my family to Western Australia just before I turned ten. That's what makes me a proud Western Australian. Total cost ten Pounds for each parent; Liz and I traveled free. But I had to leave behind my No5+ Meccano set. I went back to look for it in 1998 but found no trace of it.

And I took out Canadian citizenship only to gain a Canadian passport, and I wanted a Canadian passport only to make it faster and easier to get OUT of Canada at the Lewiston Queenston bridge border crossing - the shortest route into the USA from Toronto. I might be the only immigrant to Canada who applied for a passport to get OUT of the country!

Cheers mate!