In Dan's defense

Why would anyone feel that strongly about a pen? What a weirdo.

Of course, I felt the same way for a very long time. But I felt that way while I was still subject to the many miseries of the BIC, Papermate, and various other desperate attempts at being a true pen. I floated from one pen to another with out much thought. Did I think poorly of the pens I was using? No, because I thought all pens were like that: leaking constantly or producing such little amounts of ink that it might as well have been a pencil.

That miserable state of affairs continued for quite some time until .....

Lo! Behold and tremble! The Pilot Precise V5!

This true pen entered into my life with stark, clear, consistent style, confounding me with its faithful and profound flow of ink. "What is this thing?" I thought. "I can write as fast as my professor is talking, I don't have to go back and rewrite the same word five times. When I write, ink comes out of the pen and onto the paper!!!" The revolution had started.

Now, I had used other types of pens which let the ink gush. But the shame of these was that you had to either a) have conformed your wrist and speech patterns to those current when the profession of a Scrivener still existed, or b) accept that your hands, paper and pants pockets would have massive ink stains. The first condition is still a goal of mine, but seems a bit far off these days. The second condition was a no-go once I stopped just wearing Dickies.

While there are other pens of the caliber and supreme dignity that the Precise exemplifies (G2, as championed by a good friend), the Pilot Precise V5 stands head and shoulders above the rest in performance, aesthetic acumen and even economy (I buy the 20 packs). Its the only pen I use when I am waiting tables; I give my customers a jenky Zebra Z Grip.

If you aren't convinced yet, lets just compare two handwriting samples, one before the glorious advent of the Precise, one after:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

My heart breaks for all of you who, while reading this, have no concept of how miserable your writing experience has been to date. Stop everything, throw all your Papermates and BICs away (or just put them out for public use) and go pick a pack of Pilot Precise V5s.

DFR