A New Use For Fountain Pens?

[penseroso]

 

I came across the following tip for avoiding Coronovirus contagion recently that I thought may amuse/reassure/please the fountain pen community:

 

<USE A PEN TO PRESS LIFT BUTTONS. This is a tip Prof W**g said he picked up from social media: Get a pen with a cap and remove the ink cartridge before using it. After using it [the pen], cap it and put it in your bag>.

 

Probably best not use a pen with an EF Namiki nib. Shame most of us don’t carry capped biros but good to know we are all equipped and prepared!

 

 

[flyingfox]

I came across the following tip for avoiding Coronovirus contagion recently that I thought may amuse/reassure/please the fountain pen community:

 

<USE A PEN TO PRESS LIFT BUTTONS. This is a tip Prof W**g said he picked up from social media: Get a pen with a cap and remove the ink cartridge before using it. After using it [the pen], cap it and put it in your bag>.

 

Probably best not use a pen with an EF Namiki nib. Shame most of us don’t carry capped biros but good to know we are all equipped and prepared!

Or press any buttons, really... Ticket vending machines at the train stations must be touched by thousands of germy fingers per day ewww... Money tend to have more germs than anything else as it is.

 

A while back, I’ve read a book written by someone who worked in hotel industry for a long time, in various capacities. The writer quickly learned to knock the doors using a pen, because human knuckle (or skin on the knuckle) is NOT designed to knock hundreds of doors every day... that it gets raw and sore real quick. Ouch. So- that’s another great use for a fountain pen, to knock hundreds of doors!!! Possibilities are endless....

[praxim]

Car key. Knuckle, Little finger. There are many options for buttons so that transference is less likely.

[Astronymus]

Take a small bottle of disinfectant or wipes with you. Press the button with whatever body part you want.

 

No, don't. ... You know, what I mean.

[inkstainedruth]

Take a small bottle of disinfectant or wipes with you. Press the button with whatever body part you want.

 

No, don't. ... You know, what I mean.

 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Mercian]

When manipulating possibly-contaminated surfaces in public, I favour the wearing of gloves.
Which (if one chooses the ‘right’ pair of gloves) can make one look like a minor criminal engaged on a caper.

 

If using a pen, why uncap it at all? Why not just use the end of the cap or barrel?
Although one would, of course, then have to remember to clean it before absent-mindedly putting it in to one’s mouth.

Perhaps operating the buttons in the company lift is actually a purpose to which one can reliably put those lowest-bidder ballpoints that most large organisations tend to purchase?
Although of course I acknowledge that, no matter where one works, trying to prise one of these unreliable cheapo writing implements out of the Hoard of Precious Things that has been entrusted to the Most Exalted Keeper of the Stationery seems for some reason to always verge on same degree of difficulty as achieving the Quest for the Grail

 

So yeah, we’re back to Square One, and would do best to follow Astron’s advice

[praxim]

A highly pedantic note: Here and elsewhere, people have invented a new virus called the coronovirus. The one which emerged in China is the coronavirus as in corona...virus. I have never heard of a thing called a corono.

 

Phew! I can now relax for the rest of the day.

[praxim]

When manipulating possibly-contaminated surfaces in public, I favour the wearing of gloves.

Which (if one chooses the ‘right’ pair of gloves) can make one look like a minor criminal engaged on a caper.

 

I have taken to a pair of white cotton gloves on occasion, when risk is high. My esteemed wife says they look too out of place. I point out they are commonplace in Japan. She reminds we that we are not in Japan. I remind her I am trying not to die yet. She says well, she's not dead yet. I could continue...

[Mercian]

 

I have taken to a pair of white cotton gloves on occasion, when risk is high. My esteemed wife says they look too out of place. I point out they are commonplace in Japan. She reminds we that we are not in Japan. I remind her I am trying not to die yet. She says well, she's not dead yet. I could continue...

 

 

In public I tend to favour black leather gloves (which are fine in a UK winter, but probably a bit warm for an Aussie summer to be fair).

 

In mucky places or in places where I fear contamination I would use a pair of nitrile medical ‘examination gloves’.

Since I did a St. John Ambulance course in First Aid I have kept a box of those in the car.

 

Also, since ALL the retailers anywhere near me STOPPED selling domestic gloves in sizes large enough for adult male hands ( ) I now actually use the same things when doing household cleaning or washing-up.

Except that those ones are labelled as ‘dairy’ gloves - because I bought them from a local farm supply store, where they are far cheaper.

 

I regard this lack of option to buy domestic gloves as a ‘feminist issue’ - when men can’t buy gloves to wear when cleaning the dunny, is it any wonder that all the boring household chores get fobbed-off on to women?

I wouldn’t mind not being able to find them in the local shops (opportunity-cost of shelf space for them), but the national supermarket chains won’t even sell man-sized gloves from their national online stores. Even though the glove companies do still make them. Gah!

Still, buying my gloves from the farm supply shop means that I now get 50 pairs for £3.50, instead of having to pay about £5 per pair, so I suppose that I shouldn’t really be complaining, eh?

[praxim]

I have a pair of unlined leather gloves which serve for much of the so-called cold weather here, and are very practical, with a real cashmere lined pair from the UK for the more serious weather. Information I posted here somewhere about survival of bacteria and viruses on surface types suggest that cotton or non-patent leather are good choices.

 

To answer the specific question about what to use, I habitually use my car key because it flicks out and folds up readily, being otherwise largely superfluous given only the fob needs to be present to unlock, drive and lock the car. Little finger for touch screens, then dip it in sulphuric acid and ... oh, well, be a little bit careful sometimes. I am no germophobe, just using obvious, ordinary, precautions against transmissible diseases when they are likely to be around.

[Astronymus]

I am no germophobe, just using obvious, ordinary, precautions against transmissible diseases when they are likely to be around.

Did your wife accuse you of that too? As long as you are not wearing a hazmat suit doing the groceries you are safe, I think. I'm no expert for such disorders though. On the other hand the hazmat suit would definitely keep you safe from any germs and viruses. Hm...

 

Back to the pens. Why not use some exposable, cheap ballpoint instead of a beloved fountain pen. Seems more reasonable if you know you leave the house facing a virulent biosphere.

[praxim]

No. I made up the last parts of the purported conversation. When you have been together a long time, a mutter can assume a lot of meaning.

 

I have only tried it once or twice (cotton gloves at supermarkets in Summer rather than multi-purpose Winter leather). Precautions are somewhat novel to me, considered in my span so far, yet I can see that some will make sense beyond an ordinary "wash your hands on arriving home" routine.

 

I acted in good time to deal with smoke pollution before things sold out, pollution which quite likely helped to kill off a friend in January, all things considered regarding susceptibilities and effects. While I make light of the measures, and we enjoy life outdoors as do our children even more so, neither air pollution (AQI>2000) nor fairly avoidable disease are especially funny.

 

edit: I wrote "AQI>2000" as what we encountered. Over 200 is considered hazardous and is the highest rating.

Edited February 21, 2020 by praxim

[bemon]

Car key. Knuckle, Little finger. There are many options for buttons so that transference is less likely.

Yup, this. Anything that I can touch with my knuckle I do, and I don't touch my face. I'm a little over the top when it comes to my reluctance to put my hands on public surfaces. Always use paper towels to touch taps and doors in public rest rooms etc, and I don't touch the bottom of my shoes. And I'm probably a little over the top, but it amazes me how many people are out there that are the complete opposite.

 

I'm sitting in a meeting the other day (very casual, I know this guy well) and we're chatting. He pulls off his shoe, puts it on his desk right in front of him to fix a lace and then puts it back on his foot then puts his hands right in the spot his shoe was. Glad we're on casual terms, because that was not a hand I would have wanted to shake.

 

Or my mother in law who takes our daughter in to a public rest room, carries her out and then proceeds to boost my daughter on to her shoulders by holding on to the bottoms of her shoes.

 

I won't even put my shoes in a duffel bag until they're inside another shoe bag. Ever see someone at the gym pull off a pair of shoes and toss them into their gym bag? After treading through God knows what? People are f'n animals and I'm rambling.

[Mercian]

Yup, this. Anything that I can touch with my knuckle I do, and I don't touch my face. I'm a little over the top when it comes to my reluctance to put my hands on public surfaces. Always use paper towels to touch taps and doors in public rest rooms etc, and I don't touch the bottom of my shoes. And I'm probably a little over the top, but it amazes me how many people are out there that are the complete opposite.

 

I used to be really relaxed about this stuff, but at the first large office building I ever worked in I saw a few guys who would leave a toilet cubicle after flushing, and then proceed to just walk straight out of the toilets to go back to work. No hand washing at all

And these were well-paid white-collar workers. People you’d expect to ‘know better than that’.

 

Perhaps they were using the toilet cubicles for something other than what you’d expect? Who knows? I never asked.

Ever since I saw that behaviour, I’ve been a little wary of door handles, stair banisters, etc. in ‘public’ spaces.

 

Having also had a part-time job as the cleaner of a pub (a ‘nice’, ‘family-lunch’ type pub, not some back-street dive-bar), I can confirm that some people really are no more than dirty animals

[bemon]

 

I used to be really relaxed about this stuff, but at the first large office building I ever worked in I saw a few guys who would leave a toilet cubicle after flushing, and then proceed to just walk straight out of the toilets to go back to work. No hand washing at all

And these were well-paid white-collar workers. People you’d expect to ‘know better than that’.

 

Perhaps they were using the toilet cubicles for something other than what you’d expect? Who knows? I never asked.

Ever since I saw that behaviour, I’ve been a little wary of door handles, stair banisters, etc. in ‘public’ spaces.

 

Having also had a part-time job as the cleaner of a pub (a ‘nice’, ‘family-lunch’ type pub, not some back-street dive-bar), I can confirm that some people really are no more than dirty animals

 

Coke. Definitely coke in the stalls. But in the end that doesn’t really make a difference. I have sanitizer everywhere I go. The instances that really make me cringe are when I have to handle a POS machine. “Debit or credit?” “Here. Credit.” “Oh, I’m sorry sir, we don’t have tap. You’ll have to enter your PIN.” “WHAT KIND OF ANIMALS ARE YOU???”

[Eoghan2009]

I was amused some years ago to see bics impregnated with antibacterials

[praxim]

I'm sure it keeps the bic very safe.

[Astronymus]

From plastic eating bacteria...?

[praxim]

Who knows from what a bic suffers? I have never asked one.

[inkstainedruth]

Well, I'd say that on FPN Bics suffer "the slings and arrows of misfortune...."

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth