My little essay on my fountain pen is now up at The Hipster Conservative. Since I wrote the essay several months ago it’s worth saying that the pen which the essay concerns still enjoys daily use.
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I cannot match your passion, or at least that commitment to quality.
I can, however, relate a Pen Story.
Several years ago, my wife passed to me a standard issue pen made by Cross. Her father had given it to her as a gift for some occasion, but because she is a writer, and does a fair amount of writing notes by hand, she needs to be careful what kind of pen she uses, to avoid hand and wrist discomfort, or worse, injury.
I tucked the pen away, not knowing Cross from Papermate from Bic. A pen is a pen.
At some point, I pulled it out and wrote. I was not overwhelmingly impressed, but somehow its writing and smoothness and slimness grew on me. I became quite attached. Quite protective and cautious about where I kept it.
And then one day, it disappeared. I took my wife to the doctor for her pre-op for a hysterectomy. I recall signing something at the front desk as we left, getting in the car, and immediately realizing I didn’t have my pen. I needed to take my wife home, so I did. But I returned to ask at the front desk if my pen had been found (No). I retraced my steps; I scoured the car (I scoured the car a year later just to make sure).
It never turned up.
Sure. I could spend $20 on a new Cross (Staples has them); I could get one on eBay (yep, they got ‘em too). But I am the guy who enjoys Found Art just as much as I like Found Pens, because, at least under ideal conditions, both are free (my two most recent “installations” are fabricated from Free Range Materials, because, you know, I’m PC like that).
I embarrassed myself by telling a few of the Real Men Who Work with Tools and Know Stuff in my vanpool just how fixated I was with my Cross. One guy even told me how a certain inexpensive pen can be modified to accept a Cross insert, thereby, saving a lot of money. I told you they are Real Men.
But being a less inventive and mechanically inclined guy, I was going to have to do something, I just didn’t know what, and it was going to have to be cheap. (I do actually watch curb gutters for glitter, in case a local CEO loses his Cross.)
And then, like a stroke of Cheap Luck, the Zebra F-301 appeared. During my weekly constitutional at the .99 Store, amid the plethora of stuffed-drawer-worthy pens, there it was. Price and Quality are everything, and nothing, all rolled up into a transcendent moment (a moment that, thankfully, occurs nearly each week when I find that perfect bag of Bosc Pears, or Organic Dark Greens, or the oft-desired yet rarely found, Extra Large Tall St John’s Bay Black-T [I cleaned them out]).
(Note: For those of you looking for more of that $18 award winning White, it’s also gone; sold out that same day it arrived. Sorry.)
The F-301 is not quite the Cross, it’s true. But coming home, I perused the Net to check reviews—and yes, I know there are some “paid reviews,” readying to sucker-punch me into thinking I’d found—OK, well almost “found”—something wonderful. I hadn’t.
But—and this is the best part—I was able to purchase something Good Enough. The reviews honestly appraised the F-301. Indeed, I have been sated, at least for the near term, from my fixation (although I remain in mourning, or, at least longing). And, at $2 (I confess, I bought two—one is still in the package), I am exceedingly pleased, and can admit that while my employer offers plenty of pens for our work, I am confidently using the F-301 daily.