Fall:It’s Not About the Weather

 Ah, autumn!Here in Houston, Texas, we can’t rely upon the weather to tell us when fall has come. After all, we won’t be raking our leaves until the end of December. So for us, fall is when children go back to school, even if temperatures are still in the triple digits. More specifically for us at PW, fall is what we prepare for in June and July, at the same time the pen industry is readying its bounty of pens to introduce for the fourth quarter. It all comes together in our annual Fall Preview of Pens—a veritable harvest of writing instruments to fit every taste. Our theme this year is “Writing Our World:In Harmony with Nature,” and we think you’ll agree as you dive into our special section that pens fit as perfectly into the landscape as they do in your hand or shirt pocket.
And our October issue could not be a better time to feature Montegrappa’s new Chaos pen, with its skull and twining reptiles, along with its creator—the legendary actor-writer-director Sylvester Stallone. When we announced in our February issue that Stallone had become a partner in Montegrappa, we reported that he would not be a mere figurehead, but a true partner with a great deal of artistic input. Read our story “Chaos of his Own Making”to find out how the pen design evolved—and what it means. It was inspired by the imagery of Stallone’s hit movie The Expendables, but its meaning and symbolism may surprise you.
Also not to be missed in this issue are the first of a series by Richard Binder on filling mechanisms (he starts with the plunger filler); Julian H. Kreeger’s story about Peter Bock AG, the German company that manufactures the nibs used by many pen brands; and the second installment of Deborah Basel’s three-parter on handwriting, in which she advocates cursive as a vital skill—which brings us to a sobering thought.
While Basel was preparing the article, we learned that Indiana became the forty-first state to quietly eliminate cursive from its curricula. Individual schools may still decide to teach cursive, but they will not be required to do so. They will, however, be required to teach keyboarding, which is seen as a natural replacement for what has become an “archaic” and “unnecessary” skill.
In media coverage of this decision, which was announced in early July, journalists mentioned that regardless of the prevalence of texting, children still need to learn how to sign their names and read cursive written by others, if nothing else. But they are missing the most important argument of all—that handwriting is a vital component of literacy, and cursive handwriting is part of a total package of language skills that includes being able to write and think fluently. There is also reason to believe that handwriting fluency is linked with reading skills. Not sure there is a connection?Read Basel’s article “Cursive: Key to Fluency” and Dr. Robert Rose’s “A Doctor’s Perspective” and then get back to me.
In the meantime, enjoy this issue and all the exciting pens in its pages. By the time you receive this, depending upon where you live, maybe there really will be a refreshing briskness in the air, and you’ll grab a coffee to enjoy along with the magazine. Here in Houston, I think it’s safe to say we’ll still be drinking iced tea. But autumn is not about the weather, really. Fall is a state of
mind.