Totally Random Pen Stuff 12 is a round-up of interesting pen related blog posts that we have recently come across.
• We always love these little features that magazines do, peering into the working bags of random VIPs.
PC World got Claire Chambers, founder and CEO of luxury lingerie maker Journelle, to share what kind of tech she deems essential to running her business. In addition to a Blackberry, iPad and MacBook Air, she also totes plain old pen and paper.
She told the magazine she sticks to Behance Dot Grid notebooks and Uniball Vision Micro pens.
Sounds like a “precision” personality to us.
• You know how you can take a retractable pen apart and put the pieces back in different order so that they’ll shoot out of the pen when you press the plunger?
Sure, anybody who’s been through the 5th grade does.
Well, apparently that constitutes a deadly weapon to the administrators at Spotsylvania High School in Virginia. A 14-year-old student who pinged some fellow students with a few pieces of hollow plastic was charged with assault and suspended from school for a half-year.
The boy told WTVR Channel 6 in Richmond:
“I did something stupid,” Andrew said after court. But he doesn’t think it was a criminal act worthy of the charges and punishment. “I can’t get it through my head why they would do that.”
Now the case is going to the Virginia Supreme Court, where the panel will decide whether the school overreacted.
You think?
• Ink is usually designed to stay, so it’s hardly ever good when you get it on your clothes.
The stain removal specialists at Whirpool recently shared a few tips on removing ink from fabric with The Daily News in upstate New York.
One interesting suggestion: Stretch the stained area over the mouth of a glass, then drip rubbing alcohol through the stain into the glass. As it passes through, it should take the ink with it.
Never tried it, but sounds like a neat trick.
Of course, as always, you have to try removing the stain before you wash and dry the item.
• If you love fountain pens and Frank Sinatra, then Montegrappa has come out with a set of pens you might like.
The limited edition Montegrappa Icons series pens are designed to invoke memories of Sinatra, from the music notes on the nib, to the shape of a fedora on the cap. In addition, the barrel is pin-striped and the clip shaped like an old microphone. Oh, and in case that’s not enough, there’s a turquoise set into the microphone.
The pens are available either in blue, as a fountain pen, or orange, as a rollerball. Only 1,915 of each have been produced (1915 being the year of Sinatra’s birth.)
Of course, if you want one of these, you should be prepared to spend. They’re retailing between US$2,000 and US$3,000.
Ink removal is a bit hit and miss – alcohol can remove some inks good ole’ soap and water can’t, but the best bet is to not get ink on material in the first place. If anyone has a fool-proof way of never getting ink on material, I’d love to know (especially if it doesn’t include head to toe pvc).
I guess schools are going to start charging pupils who ping rubber bands around soon. I understand that there is a potential danger if, for example, the pen innards were to hit someone in the eye, but when we reach a stage in society where a school can’t take a child aside, explain the danger, sit them in detention for a few hours or have them on litter pick up for a week and instead resorts to the legal system for what is a juvenile prank, we’re in trouble.
Sigh…unfortunately, I know of no way to keep ink off…it seems that every time I handle a pen, I end up with marks on me or my clothing.