Via John Rogers, there is apparently a website for, of all things, pen addicts.
Taking this one step further, there are apparently pens which are better for left-handed writers and vice versa. I just thought a pen was a pen was a pen. Am I alone not knowing this?
At any rate, here is an open thread.
Ned R.
Sometimes a pen is just a cigar. Wait, I have that wrong.
jon
I have to say that I certainly have my loyalties to brands when it comes to pens. Unlike everyone on that site, however, I only know them when I see them. At Target.
Zzyzx
Well as a left hander, the smudge factor is a real issue.
South of I-10
I’m a lefty, and using felt tip pens is a pain in the butt. I end up with ink all over the side of my hand.
I see Zzyzx beat me to it.
iluvsummr
The Supreme Court just got the "Hillary the Movie" case, which will decide whether documentaries that target a political candidate can be construed (and regulated) as campaign ads. Should be interesting…
lr
As a lefty, I say never borrow a righty’s pen, if it has a nib. You will ruin it and they will no longer be able to use it.
Comrade Stuck
It is a well known fact that southpaws are actually space aliens requiring "special" pens.
gnomedad
There is no interest too marginal to have a website. You are now aware of another internet tradition.
lr
Also, as a lefty I noticed that Obama is a lefty but writes backhanded. Does this mean he was abused in school and forced to slant his paper as the rightys did? I was never forced to do this.
South of I-10
@Comrade Stuck: I don’t know how you learned of our status, but you must be silenced so our march toward world domination can continue unnoticed.
El Cid
Sanford Uni-Ball Deluxe, 0.7mm. Best writing pen I’ve enjoyed.
Comrade Stuck
@South of I-10:
Don’t bother knocking, I’ll be in the Doom Room.:)
gbear
"Hello Balloon Juice."
"Hello gbear."
I’m an architectural drafter who learned how to draw pre-CAD, so I definitely had a thing for pens and pencils and the different types and thicknesses of lead and pen point. Friends would give me pens as birthday presents and I would think that was incredibly cool.
Give me a box of Pilot G-2 07 pens, and I’m a happy writer.
Incertus
@El Cid: Are you talking about the 207? I love those things–buy them by the ten-pack.
And for the open thread, anyone else see Dahlia Lithwick destroy the Senate Republicans over their whining about judges? She’s terrific.
Dennis-SGMM
Lefty here, and old enough and unlucky enough to have landed in one school district where they still believed that lefties had to be forced to write right-handed. Fortunately, dad got new orders and we moved away after a few months. I taught myself to underwrite, it was the only way to avoid dragging my hand through what I’d just written.
An uncle taught me to shoot (At eight years old) right-handed and to use tools the same. He said at the time that it would be easier on me long-term. He was correct: there’s an unintentional right-handed bias in the design of a lot of things.
John Cole
I have no idea if this is a “good” pen or not, but these are the ones I have been using lately.
I write so infrequently (I type everything) that all I use them for are notes and checks to the few companies that don’t lket me pay bills online.
burnspbesq
@Zzyzx:
I am also left handed, and when I started using fountain pens about 15 years ago, I had to retrain myself to "under-write" (i.e., keep my hand below the nib. Slower, but no smudging (and more legible to boot).
It may have helped that I started using fountain pens right after I got out of a cast that my left hand was in for three months. Muscle memory fades when you don’t do something for a while.
gbear
@John Cole:
Probably a fine pen but it looks too skinny for my fat fingers.
I googled my favorite Pilot pen just to see what came up, and what came up was a site called cultpens.com. I think I’d do well to just walk away from the computer right now.
AhabTRuler
I am right-handed, but I have been training myself to use my stylus & tablet (swear by ’em) left-handed. I now can function with about 80% efficiency of right-handed use.
However, I recently started to train myself to write with the left hand as well, just for giggles. It isn’t very good so far, but my left-handed writing is more legible than the other times I have tried it.
Oh, and I loves me some Zebra F-402‘s and it’s posh cousins, the F-701.
Napoleon
As a lefty, yes. Watch Obama when they show him signing documents. He does what many lefties do buy curling his wrist as he rights to avoid or put off dragging his hand/wrist over the ink before it drys. With certain pens you end up with the "bottom"of your hand blue with ink.
@lr: I think although that is one reason lefties do that, to get the slant right (I do it for that reason also) the smear factor alone is a good reason to do it.
Stoic
I want to find a laptop bag/book bag addicts site.
Bob In Pacifica
Yeah, the smudge factor. Lefties are always haunted by the smudge factor.
And I like those G-2 pens. Long story, short, I spent my last couple of years at my job in the post office in internal exile and so I had lots of time to doodle. Those G-2 pens are great for doodling.
henqiguai
re: #9 lr (March 21st, 2009 at 11:03 am)
Okay, so I’m strange (and hence the ‘name’). But I was sort of guessing that maybe he got some brush ‘pensmanship’ training when living in Indonesia, until I looked it up – Indonesian written language uses the Latin alphabet. Another theory shot to pieces.
But lefties have all sorts of strange contorted postures when writing. ‘Cept me; I’m exceptional…
demkat620
The only thing I know about pens is I don’t like medium point. It looks sloppy to me.
demkat620
The only thing I know about pens is I don’t like medium point. It looks sloppy to me.
OriGuy
@gnomedad: You think that’s obscure? I ran across a site about shoelaces. I learned a way to tie shoelaces that is more secure than the way I learned as a kid. They never come untied by themselves.
South of I-10
@Comrade Stuck: Alright, you can come out. It is way too beautiful of a day to be stuck in your doom room. What the heck am I doing inside? Off to plant something . . .
burnspbesq
There will be blowback from this.
In a meeting with the editorial board of the Oneonta Daily Star, Tedisco called Rush "meaningless to me."
http://www.thedailystar.com/local/local_story_079041516.html
More popcorn, please.
Brick Oven Bill
"President Barack Obama said that the budget he’s submitted to Congress would wean the American economy from boom-and-bust cycles by building a “firm foundation” for growth with spending on alternative energy, education and health care and chipping away at federal debt."
Giving the President the benefit of the doubt, he believes this. It is what I understand is taught in school these days, but it is false.
Economies are built on things that are harvested, manufactured, mined, and constructed as these are the activities that create wealth. Health care, education, and alternative energy for the most part consume wealth. This is why we should institute tariffs and build nuclear power plants.
burnspbesq
@Brick Oven Bill:
You do understand (I assume) that the United States is a party to a multilateral treaty, properly ratified by Congress and therefore having the force of law, that greatly restricts our ability to take unilateral action to impose tariffs. Are you suggesting that we withdraw from that treaty, or simply violate it, in the same way the Cheney Organized Crime Family violated numerous treaties to which the United States is a party?
bootlegger
Round 2 begins!
Anyone have UCLA over "Nova?
bootlegger
@Brick Oven Bill: You are flat out wrong BOB. The record of developing economies is clear, "health comes before wealth". You can’t build shit with an uneducated, sickly workforce. It just ain’t possible
les
The Lamy Swift. Chunky enough for fingers adapted to larger tools, and enough drag on the roller ball to slow the pen down to my speed. Standard ballpoints, I skitter all over trying to keep up. A wonderful creation.
Nicole
I am a fan of the Stabilo pens for left-handers. They write smoothly and have these lovely little divets that hold your fingers in the correct position as you write. Seriously one of the best things ever for southpaws.
mr. whipple
As the saying goes, there’s an ass for every seat.
My dad had an old outboard motor in the garage he wanted to sell and asked me if I could find a price for it. So I do some googling and find that yes, there are people that collect old outboard motors…even building racks in their homes to display them.
Laura W
@bootlegger: I have UCLA, because my birth in LA superseded my Bruin Hate. Although now that I see Villanova’s mascot is a wildcat, I feel stupid. But IIRC, my picking strategy placed CA teams over cat teams, so maybe I outsmarted myself after all.
Are you the person with a Labradoodle? I swear some man in this joint has one.
Comrade Stuck
@bootlegger:
yep me, unfortunately. They are down thirteen at present:(
Delia
As a lefty who overwrites, I’ve never been able to use either fountain pens or rollerballs. Something about the way I hold the pen makes the ink skip. Either gel points or good old ball points are fine.
When I was in first grade one, day my teacher and the principle spent about an hour trying to teach me to underwrite. They finally gave up. In retrospect I think it was because my handwriting was perfectly legible when I wrote the way I wanted to even if I smudged the side of my hand, and completely illegible when I did it the way they wanted me to.
Delia
@Nicole:
I might consider ordering some, except that whenever my daughter, who is also left-handed, comes to visit she chews the end off every pen in the house. I try to only leave Bics out.
bootlegger
@Laura W: It is I. I actually owe some props to whomever recommended non-corn dog food to treat his poodle ear. It worked great. I had no idea nearly all dog food is mostly corn.
bootlegger
@Comrade Stuck: I see that, not pretty. But since you’re hot on my tail in the standings my response is more fist-pump than condolences.
RSA
The deal with me is that I write without curling my hand over or twisting it under, which means (a) smearing everything with the side of my hand as I write and (b) pushing the point of the pen into the paper, rather than pulling it as a rightie would do. This just scratches the paper for a lot of fine-tipped pens and tends to spread the nib on a fountain pen, leading to huge blotches.
Laura W
@bootlegger: Thought you might enjoy a look at the two doodz my dog and I were with this week down on Sullivan’s Island. They had just been groomed that very day, so Monty’s (the smaller reddish one) wild head furs were tamed. He’s a character and a half. Ralph the blond is much larger and is my favorite….very sweet and docile.
Delia
@bootlegger:
A lot of dogs get health problems from the corn meal in most dog foods. My mutt had chronic loose bowels until I switched him to a non-corn food. Then last summer I was visiting my sister, and Pippin would scarf up her little Papillon’s leftovers and got the runs again. So while we were working that out, my sis realized that her dog had some health issues that went away when he ate my dog’s food.
It’s not that great for cats, either. But it’s cheap and the fed subsidizes corn production.
bootlegger
@Laura W: Baxter is a first cross "failure", his hair was more lab than doodle. He has the standard poodle’s long legs but the lab’s hair. He was therefore culled from the breeder’s stock. We rescued him from a shelter. He’s a nice, gentle 100 lb. shedder with stilts for legs. Turns out those legs are great for running through our forest so I now call him a Forest Dog.
Here’s our Baxter soon after we got him. He’s about 25 pounds heavier now.
bootlegger
@Delia: The gluten protein in corn is hard for animals to digest.
Subsidizing corn is one of the worst agricultural policies ever. I understand the politics of it, but other than on the cob, popped, or in bread it seems to cause nothing but trouble. Corn syrup alone probably costs us more in health care than we ever make on it a a commodity.
Laura W
@bootlegger: Wow. I would never have guessed him as a labdood! I can’t believe his weight as well. Monty and Ralph have the lightest, most delicate bone structure, esp. Ralph.
I know there is controversy re. this crossbreeding "trend", but ya know…they are my good friends’ dogs so I sorta have to love and accept them as they are. (Although, I really really wish they were trained and had a boundary or two in their lives!!)
Edit: Could Bruins suck ass any worse?
bootlegger
@Laura W: The first gen crosses are true crossbreds, but they then breed the "right" dogs back to pure standards, then again, then together so they get the dogs like your friend’s. I think the AKC has even recognized it as a breed now. The shelter had some typical doods but they were skittish and showed no interest in the kids or me. Baxter walked right up and put his head in my lap. We were sold.
I thought the Bruins would put up a better fight. Guess not.
Dave Trowbridge
I used to think a pen was just a pen, and constantly lost even "nice" ones with no particular regret, until someone gave me a Montblanc Meisterstück rollerball pen. That one I’ve been using for five years now. My wife, who learned calligraphy from Lloyd Reynolds at Reed, questioned my enthusiasm until I put it into her hand, at which point she said, "Oh, I see."
Chuck Butcher
I am agressively left handed, but…
I am righteye dominant, which means I throw and shoot and hammer right handed. This cross dominance makes me something just short of ambidexstrous with tools.
I like fatter pens, my hands are pretty beat up and muscle bound. I quit cursive as soon as I could, smudge factor is way too high and printing allows me to lift my hand from the paper. Needless to say my handwriting is atrocious.
Funny, nobody tried to make me righthanded, it was quickly obvious I was a lefty and allowed for, the problem came with baseball because I batted left and threw right after being inappropriately equipped with a left handed mitt.
Chuck Butcher
@bootlegger:
After another 45 minute excursion brushing Gus with both the mane drag comb and brush I can say he’d be an inappropriate White House dog. 1 gallon of compressed hair and probably close to same tomorrow.
Emma Anne
@gbear:
Hah! I like the Pilot gel pens too. You can get a big package of them in a bunch of colors at Costco.
Dustin
As a lefty I’m definitely not surprised to find that some pens work better than others. We lefties have known that for years. Me, I think I’ve found my perfect pen (which, like my TV shows, means they’ll probably discontinue it after this year): the Pilot V5/RT . It’s extra-fine, dries fast enough that it doesn’t smear, can write in the vertical and always has a consistent ink flow, has a metal clip that doesn’t break or snap like cheap plastic clips, and doesn’t clog in a dusty work environment. All in all, the perfect pen for lefties who write really small.
bootlegger
@Chuck Butcher: Damn! I’ll count myself lucky then. Baxter probably needs a brushing too, that time of year.
srv
Yes, that pushing the pen rather than pulling the pen causes the tip to clog more ought to be something I figured out. I just assumed right-handers were equally tortured.
Now I’m wondering whether I should instigate some protest at the leftorium or consider what else the nun with the yardstick was right about. I’ll check with Larison.
srv
Given that Obama is a hook lefty as mentioned above, I’d guess our president is also not aware of ballpoint solutions. Perhaps we should buy him some of these pens.
Little Dreamer
You apparently aren’t left handed. I have to use certain kinds of pens or the ink gets smudged all over my hand and the paper.
Also, some inks are just grainy and I don’t like to use them.
Little Dreamer
When my brother was in grade school, the teacher and school officials decided to make him right handed instead of left handed. He’s spent the last almost 60 years stuttering because of it. Damn them! He’s right handed now though.
I was lucky that by the time I came along they stopped doing that.
futzinfarb
Pens? Pens are mundane! Pens are boring! Mechanical pencils, on the other hand…ok, I admit I have a problem. BTW the best mechanical pencil ever: the Sanford Digit, 0.5mm. IT’S now apparently out of production after Sanford was bought out by Papermate, but still occasionally available from old overstock.
p.a.
What, no pron sites?
Quick google yields: http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/
And slightly OT but more offbeat: http://www.oughtred.org/
a slide rule site.
I love my Zebra F-301 Compact.
Delia
The thing I do that drives righties nuts: I have the mouse on my desktop on the left side. I haven’t reprogrammed the functions. I just can’t easily use it with my right hand. If my son or anyone else wants to use it, they have to move all the wires. Whenever I’m at someone else’s computer I have to shift the mouse over to the other side.
demimondian
Oooo — pens!
I’ve collected pens since I was a teen-ager — fountain pens, gel pens, this pen, that pen, but particularly calligraphy pens and styluses. (Rogers gets the reason right, too…Appendix D of the second edition of _The Lord of the Rings_ played a large role in this.) In my case, this is particularly amusing: I’m profoundly learning disabled, and my handwriting is just this side of totally illegible.
In order to be able to teach, I practiced drawing on a board for hours at a time. I draw beautiful letters now.
passerby
@Delia:
I’m a rightey but ditto on the rollerball. I don’t have the right touch to keep a continuous stream of ink going.
When we got to the fourth grade, we were allowed to use ink, Schaeffer stylus pens with washable blue ink only.
I’ve lost my touch for using a stylus and today prefer a reliable Bic medium ballpoint, the basic kind with the clear shaft and color coordinated cap. I also find that the Paper Mate Flair felt tip pens produce a, somehow satisfying, bold stroke. [insert colorful joke here]
But the absolute finest pencil in the galaxy is the Mirado Black Warrior. It’s a round pencil, black with gold embossments and good luck finding a #1 (nice and dark) without having to buy a gross.
I ordered a box of 1doz. #2s on the nets and us them to write whatever just because when I’ve got one in my hand it makes me wanna write. (Crazy, I know.)
Edit: and Delia, WRT the mouse, last month I switched over to my left (wireless) so I could write with my right. I was amazed at how quickly I was able to adapt.
Karen
My husband makes custom pens. Out of any wood the person wants, except cross-cut cocobola. He uses that for cops who want them.
To totally frustrate him, I buy the Pentel R S V P medium point at Office Max for myself.
inkadu
Ah, good, finally someone mentions my workhorse the Pentel RSVP.
But if I was doing anything more than scrawling notes and letters, I would go with the G-2.
My English teacher in high school was a lefty who always wrote with a felt pen with a calligraphic nib. Go figure.
inkadu
Good grief.
I just found several web pages devoted to making pens for spinning. The RSVP MX apparently is a popular hybrid.
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Rsvp-Mx-for-Pen-Spinning
The internet scares me.
DaveInOz
You obviously need to visit the most inappropriately named website on the whole of the internets
Pen Island
W
@DaveInOz.
You beat me to it!! I can’t believe that it took until comment #67!
bob h
Something I Did Not Know: I knew that Rush had gotten a physical deferment from the Vietnam draft because of an anal cyst. What I did not know is that his Dad had the same affliction, but lied about it in order to fight in WWII. I think this needs to be brought to broader public attention.