Having had parts of my anatomy grabbed on the streets of Florence that I never want touched again, I think I’d go for Starb…oh, who am I kidding? All the fondling in the world is worth the museums and architecture!

Given a choice between having my coffee at Starbucks down the street or having my coffee in Florence … All I’d need would be enough time to pack a change of shirts and skivvies and my toothbrush — ciao!.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts should you end up test-driving a PenAgain. If they make a decent product, maybe the Revolution could lobby them to make a pencil version?

(Amusingly, the amount of “stuff” I need for an afternoon at Starbucks and a month in Italy…is not so different. I overpack horrifically for day-to-day, but need to add very little else for much longer journies.)

I’m not going to be carrying a “man purse” any time soon. If I can go for a week in Europe on business with one small bag, I can surely go across town for an interview with nothing more than a pencil in my shirt pocket and my Moleskine Reporter in my back pants pocket. Keep it light and simple.

I humbly beg your forgiveness and add my best wishes for finding comfortable writing implements.

Obviously our requirements for a pencil would be different (at least until the pre-carpel tunnel twinges turn into the real thing for me).

Additionally, being a girl, society allows me to travel with more than just what I can stuff in my pockets. I can certainly see how a “perfect pencil” would make a good companion were I traveling sans bag.

(Have you tried the “PenAgain” www.penagain.com? It’s a Y-shaped pen that is supposed to be easy to grip and less fatiguing for the hand. They don’t make pencils, but otherwise it looks like a good idea.)

I don’t use the pencil extender at my desk. Instead, when I have used a pencil down to a too-short-to-be-comfortable length, I put it aside for use out of the office with the Perfect Pencil extender. In my opinion, the Perfect Pencil is kind of pointless (no pun intended) in the office, where a good pencil sharpener is always at hand, along with a supply of new pencils. But when I leave the office to do field work or interviews, I really don’t like to carry a lot of “stuff” with me. The Perfect Pencil reduces my kit by at least one item. That’s the main way in which I would suggest the extender would be useful — using up those little short pencil bits.

In addition, I have large, arthritic hands just beginning to feel the effects of diabetic neuropathy and possibly a pinched nerve. Also I shattered my right elbow in an accident last spring, and although the bones have healed, I still have some long-term wrist and hand movement problems. While my fingers may once have been nimble, now they are sort of stupid and slow, and prone to drop things. So the extender is definitely helpful. I wish it fit the Triconderoga, which is the only pencil that truly feels comfortable any more “as is.” (Although those slide-on soft plastic grips are a godsend for regular-size stylii.)

I use it for everything, especially *gasp* drawing (well, more sketching to be accurate). I like the weight of it, how it just fits in my hand and the fact that sharp lead is just a click away.

Others can keep their wooden pencils, I’m sticking with my mecahincal friend. :)