"He wanted to know why. Nader needed answers. Well, we didn’t have any. And neither did Paper Mate—Nader said the company waved away his concerns with a standard corporate non-answer about standing behind the pens’ quality.... 'For years I’ve been using felt pens, mostly red and black but sometimes purple, to mark up The New York Times,' Nader told me in a phone interview last year. 'I go through every page of the Times, and I mark up different articles and send them to different people. And I do that with The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.' When Nader says years, he means years. We found a black-and-white photo of him using what appears to be a Paper Mate Flair in 1972...."
From
"We Sent Ralph Nader Some of Our Favorite Pens. He Dismissed Them All" (NYT).
1972! Why, I remember when Flair pens first came out.
It was 1966. Before that, there were no felt-tipped writing pens. There were markers — specifically, the Marks-a-Lot — with thick points and permanent ink that were great for making posters on oak tag, but would bleed through writing paper and had a strong smell. So the Flairs, with their sharp points and dark but not overpowering ink, seemed miraculous. I felt very lucky to get my hands on a Flair back in 1966. And if you had multiple colors — purple! — you were a celebrity.
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41 comments:
1966? Crush notes about boys and rock bands emblazoned with purple hearts? I remember the first one I ever got and it was in a standard pen and ink cartridge Catholic school blue. Boring. Took the zest right of any intended happening. Those pens allowed girls to really up their high school note game.
"He wanted to know why. Nader needed answers. Well, we didn’t have any."
Well, I do. It's because of some government regulation somewhere, intended to save the planet.
Change my mind.
Obviously right handed.
It would be funny if the reason his pens are drying out too quickly was related to the consumer protection regulations he has been pushing!
In 1966 or thereabouts, the real celebrities had the 4-color bic pens.
Evapoflation!
Althouse has flair, Nader doesn't.
1966 UK schools strictly fountain pens. Only issues blue or blue-black, and inkwell or cartridge. Inky fingers.
Colored felt tip pens were very popular amongst shipboard officers when I was in the Navy. Captains usually used blue or red, Executive Officers (second in command) usually used green, and the various department heads (Operations Officers, Engineering Officers, Combat Systems Officers, and Supply Officers) would use whatever other colors were available. It was useful during correspondence review and/or editing, as it was evident who was asking questions or making various markups as documents worked their way through the chain of command.
I've been retired for almost 20 years, but I doubt anything has changed in that regard.
Felt tip pens were fantastic for graffiti-izing the Pee Chee folders
The new Ralph Nader expose: "Dude, Where's My Ink?"
"It would be funny if the reason his pens are drying out too quickly..."
And newer dishwashers don't dry quickly, if at all. It all balances out.
Give me Artline 220s, or give me death.
I loved those Flair pens in high school and college in the 70's!
Strictly black for me, let's not go overboard.
He spends his days marking up the NYT, the WSJ and the Washington Post and sending them to people? And his preferred Flair pens aren't lasting as long as they used too? This seems really odd to me. Maybe some kind of mental condition?
I'd put this in ink:
Ralph Nader did good.
Saved more lives than Fauci.
Magic Marker Liquid Crayons, then Bic 4 color, then fooling with Mont Blanc and those fancy pencils they don’t make anymore, now back to Bic 4 color. I perused Staples a couple week ago and everything all sucks
…oh, and orange Sharpie standard tip for the golf balls. Black for the autographs…not that there’s many of those…
Flair Fi Fo Fum.
They stopped making my favorite rollerball (the Uniball Vision - not the new Vision Elite, which isn't as good) so I switched over to gel ink and haven't gone back--the new inks are darker and dry faster so there's very little downside.
I go back and forth between a few; right now I'm enjoying the Sharpie S-Gels in .7 tip but they're a little light. The Pilot G2s have good ink but feel cheap (the clips break easily) and I like the Uniball 207 Signo for blue ink. The Bic 730R isn't bad but the ink flow isn't always fast enough and it too is on the light side. The Uniball Signo RT is probably the best pocket/jotting gel pen, always starts fast and dries quickly.
You don't always get a good feel with gels like you do with a quality rollerball but it's tough to argue with the appreciably-better modern gel ink.
Nader did more than most to drive up the cost of everything so he could make money off his activism. When he dies, it will be a good day.
I'm more of the Pilot pen era.
If you want a good pen, buy a Caran d'Anche Swiss pen, with matching pencil. None better.
Ralph Nader is 90 years old, so yet another senile old fool (joining Joe Biden and Dan Rather in people who don't know when it's past time to retire). Of course he blames the pens and their manufacturer without considering that the paper has changed, incorporating more recycled paper than in the past.
Nader is gonna call his next book about the pens Unsafe at Any Lede
Got a box of Flair pens during lock down, forgot how great they were. Fun for doodles taboot.
Althouse:
"I'll just say I wouldn't have written "continue roasting Mr. Trump" so close to "eaten by cannibals."
Right up there with N.I. G. on the pajamas comment.
Caran d’Anche! Best pen ever!
I have bought 12 packs of those things, and by the time I lose the first three the rest have dried out. Sharpies are even worse.
It's ...interesting...that a really good line of hi-liters which work well with inkjet printer ink (no smudging or smearing) bills itself as "Bible Safe".
Yeah, a whole lotta non-Christians, agnostics and atheists are gonna consider that a reason to buy!!
SNORT
Josephbleau said...
If you want a good pen, buy a Caran d'Anche [sic] Swiss pen, with matching pencil. None better.
*******
It's ...interesting...that Caran d'Ache is a French transliteration of "karandash", the Russian word for "pencil".
I have a couple of old Montblanc pens and pencils. They've held their value, but mostly because of their clips and other detailing in gold.
Otherwise, most mechanical pens and pencils just don't have the status they once did.
Trump had Sharpie develop his own personal marker for signing everything, complete with his famous signature displayed. Every member of the MAGA cult should buy dozens of these suckers.
Perhaps someone should send Mr. Nader a highlighter. While the world has progressed since Unsafe at Any Speed, Mr. Nader has not.
Hot Market for Pencils Helps Kids Turn Lead Into Gold
With digital gadgets commonplace, some students have become obsessed with pencils, bidding up their trade value
The most valued commodity in the schoolyard marketplace is one of the most basic.
Every kid wants a pencil—especially a carefully carved stub of a pencil called a mini....
Angie Leventis Lourgos, the mother of a 10-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy in Niles, Ill., said her house was a pencil junkyard: Stubby pencils. Color pencils. Chewed-on pencils. SpongeBob SquarePants pencils. Valentine’s Day-, Halloween-, Christmas-. Hanukkah- and Earth Day-theme pencils. Weird bendy rubber pencils that were kind of funny but useless. Plus, scattered pencil shavings and eraser nubs.
WSJ, earlier this month
Flair pens changed the way music manuscript looked back when we used to just scratch it out. Lots of round things became square(ish) things, just turn to the wide side and scrape the page. I used to do it in pencil, check my work and then go over it with a Flair before we hit the copy machine. Pencil originals never copied right, even with good Xerox machines. I found a bunch of that old stuff awhile ago and was stunned at the heaviness of the paper stock we used.
Unsafe at any screed.
Readering said...
1966 UK schools strictly fountain pens. Only issues blue or blue-black, and inkwell or cartridge. Inky fingers.
4/27/24, 4:54 PM
You were only given a fountain pen if you demonstrated a responsibility and capability. I used one up through 12 or 13 or so, then only used ink with a variety of tips when writing required calligraphy. Then computers came along...
I think we all have our favorites, but the requirement for pens to stand the test of time is a niche market. Luckily there is still that market.
Sometimes, the journey of writing is more important than the writing itself (not in the Brian the dog way, of course).
Second mention today. Sharpies feature weirdly in the amusingly negative book review of the dreadful-sounding memoir, Sociopath, in the New York Times.
Remember when Times book reviews were about important books, and the reviews were three times longer? Now reviewers don't get a chance to convey much about the book, which is too bad in this case, because the reviewer, at least, writes well, setting herself apart from her peers.
Pilot Precise, V5. Purple is impossible to find, so blue. Don't leave them in your car. Or purse. The ends bend. The ink pours out if they get too hot. It's a complicated relationship, but I can't leave them.
Cartridge pens for school, 1967.
Home-made wood pencils for status: start with dime-store #2. Use propane torch to burn off the paint (not forgetting to inhale the fumes). Sand to taste with fine emery or carbo paper. Stain and/or oil with Watco. Polish.
Glorious.
This makes Nader seem like he's been crazy all his life.
Drinkwater: this is precisely why I don't default to just trusting scientists. Though it is funny.
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