Great article and comments and I'll totally agree with those that favour fountain pens. I used to use a propelling pencil (cheap Pentel)for most writing/scribbling then a fountain pen (Parker)for 'proper' writing. Then I was given a Lamy Safari (which I fitted with an italic nib) which I LOVE. More recently I was given a second Safari with a fine nib so for a while carried around 3 fountain pens (Parker, Lamy x2) plus the Pentel pencil. Then in the past couple of months a friend showed me his Rotring Quattro Data Pen - WOW! Two coloured ballpoint tips, propelling pencil AND stylus for touch screen PDA/phones all in one very ergonomic pen. So at present I carry the Rotring and the Parker on a daily basis.I'll admit whilst I love the look and feel of the Rotring it's not perfect - the pencil can only hold 4 or 5 leads and the black ink is patchy. In answer to Joni's post earlier I used to write in black, black and black. Now the Lamys have black and the Parker has blue/black ink. I'm not obsessed BTW! Most of the writing I do these days is with either the fine Lamy or the Parker 25.