Kvetch

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443570904577545403050717634.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Book review from today’s WSJ. I may need to read this one. The importance of the ball point pen, I think, is pretty big. And the timing and geography and politics involved make it sound like the story may illustrate some interesting things about the mid 20th century.

Plus, of course, I’ve been a pen geek since I could first write.

From the book review at the WSJ:

Common objects often have uncommon stories. The zipper, the pencil and the paper clip were devised by inventors who long struggled to produce things we now take for granted. Unearthing the histories of these humble objects vmay reveal much about the hidden underpinnings of our everyday world. That is the case with “Ballpoint,” Hungarian author György Moldova’s chronicle of the vicissitudes of the ballpoint pen’s invention and commercial development.