My return to school has reunited me with pencils and I think I’ve developed an appreciation for mechanical pencils that I never had before. Mechanical pencils are steadfast in their commitment to push the lead along, but just by a tiny amount, nothing that the lead can’t handle.
If the purpose of the lead is to morph on paper into class notes, shopping lists, rude doodles or anything else we imagine, then it’s the unrelenting mechanical pencil that pushes the lead to meet that potential.
If you think about it, it’s a metaphor for the people in our lives who support us and who egg us on. So if you find us calling you a mechanical pencil in the next few weeks, it’s not because we think you’re lanky, or that you’d look good with an eraser-shaped hat. It’s just our quirky way of saying thank you.
I always use mechanical pencils.
All these pen people with their ink staining everything: “Oh look at me, I’m a pen person. I don’t make mistakes. Everything I write means something. Even the crossed out bits!”
Stupid pen people.
Yes! I love writing in mechanical pencil. In fact, I really don’t like when I have to write with anything else. Good call on this salute!
I have several points to share:
(1) I love the old-fashioned wooden, No. 2 pencils. The feel of the wood, the way that the tip softens with usage and the beauty and simplicity of the design will ensure that they have a lasting place on my desktop.
(2) Mechanical pencils are admittedly better for technical drawings or extended note-taking sessions.
(3) My complaint with mechanical pencils are: (a) unless you have a clear pencil, you never know how much lead you have left; with wooden pencils, it’s obvious and (b) when I press too hard on the paper with a mechanical pencil, the lead breaks in a rather abrupt and shocking way; wooden pencils tend to wear down rather smoothly.
(4) Long live fountain pens!
Mechanical pencils rule. Pens drool.