School Supplies: cheap fountain pen edition
I'm distracting myself this week with things that deliver a little dopamine at my desk.
It appears I’m starting a series here featuring my very particular opinions on the best analog school (or desk) supplies. I mean, you were, like me, one of those kids who absolutely lived for the moment you could finally buy new school supplies, right? Right?
❑ A new lunch box. Would it be Super Friends, The Muppets, The Osmonds, Charlie’s Angels, or maybe The Fall Guy?1
❑ A pristine box of Ticonderoga #2s.
❑ Brand new crayons.
❑ Some Pink Pearl erasers. (Still buying these, for a different purpose.)
❑ Looseleaf notebook paper. (Was anyone else pissed when the list specified “wide ruled”? College ruled is the only rule. That is all.)
❑ And a Trapper Keeper, if you grew up in a particular decade and were really lucky.
If you are either a kid in the elementary school years or the parent of one, you probably mostly think about this stuff in August and early September. Since my kids are past the age of the 470-item-long shopping list (that now includes things that we should absolutely be willing to fund with our tax dollars in support of a decently educated next generation but somehow as a society are not), I am now free to daydream about and buy favorite supplies anytime I feel like it.
So while others are worshipping PSL season or getting their elf on full-tilt now that Halloween has passed2, I’ll be hanging out here in my school supplies happy place, grown-ups edition.
I love a good fountain pen.
No, I didn’t practice my third grade penmanship with a tapered metal nib or take my college seminar notes with one (actually, now that I think about it, I might have used a Pilot Varsity disposable number on occasion, so I take that last part back). There is something undeniably delightful about using a fountain pen and a bit of colorful ink for pursuits both precious — say a postcard or birthday note to a friend — and mundane — staff meeting notes, perhaps.
That satisfying scratch of metal on paper, juxtaposed by the smooth liquid flow of ink. A fountain pen instantly gives my handwriting more personality. More fluid swoops. Little variations in the saturation of the ink based on the speed or pressure with which I send the nib along down the line.
But you can keep the expensive options. I like a relatively cheap one.
I used to use a plastic-barreled, metal-capped Pelikan Pelikano or a similar Sheaffer, but a few years ago I was in the McNally Jackson Goods for the Study store in New York, and I fell hard for a Kaweco Sport compact fountain pen. It’s short when closed, full-length when the cap is popped on the bottom to write. The basic plastic version comes in a ton of colors — serious, sophisticated, playful — and takes my favorite J. Herbin French ink cartridges. Plus, they’re usually under $30. (There are metal options that are great looking, too, but they’ll cost you more.) I’m partial to a fine or extra-fine nib, but there are five sizes available in the line (as well as nibs for calligraphy), so you can do you.
The only downside? It might be hard to stop at owning just one.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a grocery list to write … along with several dozen letters to council members and senators.
Hope you can find some little spots of joy this weekend.
Side note: I recently watched the new Ryan Gosling/Emily Blunt Fall Guy reboot movie, and, my people, it was a hoot. I enjoyed the heck out of the whole thing, but Hannah Waddington’s totally unhinged agent character is effing fab and so deliciously styled.
I’d be upset on behalf of the November holidays, but honestly, anything that brings some comfort and joy to you right now feels wholly appropriate.
Now I want a fountain pen. Thank you.
can’t resist: brand new elmer’s glue and fine point sharpies or le pen!