Pens and Paper

Cursive writing: What about signatures?

In their mad quest to drop cursive writing in favor of allowing students to use keyboards and texts, schools may have forgotten one reason why we learn to write: so we can sign our names. Here's a Toronto Star story on a man who has to teach his teenager how to sign his passport.

Cursive - foiled again!

I know I'm getting old ... I can't believe there are students who can't write cursive. Watch a Toronto Star video on it here.

Yes, you can mail a pigeon!

I just love it when one way-cool find leads me to an even way-cooler find, and that was the case with this stationery. Having some time in Texas to explore Austin, I happened upon a store that carried some neat writing paper. I bought one set made to look like old-fashioned telegrams, and then after humming and hawing, said what the hell, I'll buy the one with the Letter Writers Alliance imprint, mostly because the pencil was neat. (Yes, I bought a few other items, too. It's an illness.)

After checking the URL on the pencil (I know, the irony ...) it turns out there really is a Letter Writers Alliance, which includes pen pal listings, a blog, some really nice cards and writing paper, and a carrier pigeon. Yes, really. It's a plastic pigeon that's legal to send through the U.S. mail, providing you put the proper amount of postage on it. It doesn't get any better than that. To find out more, visit the website.

Pens are best ... BMW says so!

I don't usually get pen-related press releases from automakers, but a recent one from BMW made me sit up and take notice. The company actually surveyed Germans on their pen habits and released the BMW Handwritten Beauty Survey. (The company makes very nice cars, but could use some work on its titles.)

Of those surveyed, 52% overall enjoy writing by hand. Among women, 62% enjoy writing by hand, and 82% are especially happy to receive something handwritten. Among both men and women, only 10.5% believe that an email or text message would make the same impression as a handwritten note.

Among professional groups, public officials rely on handwriting the most, at 62%.

Only 5% of those surveyed reach for a fountain pen when they need to write something, but 57.4% liked the idea of either giving or receiving one as a gift. The numbers were even higher for women alone, who also said they believe handwriting is significantly more attractive when done with a fountain pen.

Liquid ink may even have properties we never imagined. Of those couples still married, more than half said they signed their marriage certificates with a fountain pen. Of those widowed, divorced or separated, 36% couldn't remember what type of writing instrument they used.

That said, when people reach for pens, it's usually a fleeting moment. While only 39.5% prefer to write letters by hand, 89% use a pen for jotting notes as reminders. Despite all the phones, laptops and devices we carry, 71% of people regularly have "something to write with" on them, and 83% of independent professionals rely on pen and paper when they're away from their desks. Electronic may be easy, but ink is inevitable.