BALLPOINTS

I leaned by today’s National Day Calendar that today is National Ballpoint Pen Day. It’s the anniversary of the day in 1943 when the ball point pen was patented. Remember those first ballpoints? They blobbed all over whatever you were writing. They certainly have improved over the years. Though I write perhaps once check a month now, I use one of those special gel pens. Heaven forbid someone alter my check and use it for nefarious purposes.

Other than that check, and my daily solving of the New York Times crossword puzzle, I’ve little use for a pen these days. Most of what I write is done electronically. I make notes in pencil on little pieces of scrap paper, and I write my initial grocery list in chalk on a slate. True.

I always have to laugh when people tell me they are going over to the quarterly Vendor Fair at our community center. They go to get the free ballpoint pens. Perhaps they are using them as décor. (?)

Perhaps they are ballpoint pen artists.  Nah – I’d know by now if they were.