Certainly I use modern ballpoint pens for "business" purposes like signing checks, but I still prefer the smooth, lovely look a fountain pen gives to friendly letters and thank you notes, don't you? Of course, Sally's teacher insists that the children use fountain pens in Palmer penmanship class but now the school is allowing them to use ballpoints, too. Which certainly makes for fewer laundry disasters. But I wonder if something is lost in the process of encouraging children to write cursive without a nib. (I prefer extra-fine.)
