I cannot carry a pen.
I know that this seems like an absurd problem. Millions of people carry pens very succesfully every day, so what's my problem?
Thus far, I've found that pens can generally be divided into two categories. The first type of pen is some kind of rigid plastic, and has a cap. The cap is good. The plastic isn't so good. Inevitably, enough torque is applied to the pen as it sits in my jeans pocket that the capsule with the ink inside the pen breaks. Pens like this have an average life expectancy of about six days with me.
The second type is metal, much more expensive (and nice), but generally doesn't have a cap. Instead it uses some mechanical means to get the tip of the pen to extrude from the barrel. I don't break these, but what does happen is that somehow, the pen opens (presses, rotates, whatever) inside my pocket, thus placing the tip of the pen in contact with my pocket -- which then draws the ink out of the pen, all over my pants and thigh. Oops.
Maybe I should just give up. Aren't we supposed to be a paperless society soon, anyway? Yeah, that's the ticket!
Posted by Mike at January 8, 2003 01:19 AM