Erin Billy

I used to have this really wonderful and stylish black plastic Waterman fountain pen I bought in Paris. It had an orange clip and cost about US $5 (30 francs, I think.). It was cool because it looked good–the plastic was a kind of nylon-like softish plastic with a matte finish. And it wrote pretty well. I liked to use it as my main writing utensil.

But I lost it. I’d picked up another one at some point and given it to my father, and one day over at his house on Lakeview, I quietly lifted it out of his lazy-susan pen tray. (I still need to tell him about that.)

I was happy again. But one day, after telling my students how much I liked the pen and how they weren’t made any longer, it disappeared from my classroom.

Now I’ve been looking for one of them again, but I don’t know what they’re called. I’ve got a standing search on eBay for ‘plastic Waterman’, but I’m not too hopeful.

Anybody know where to buy another one? Or at least what they’re called?

San Francisco Chronicle Interviews Erin (Article has a photograph, too.)

Last week I was interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle (by Ellen Lee) about the CD-swapping site lala.com (see my review of lala). I talked for a while, a bit more than 30 minutes, if I recally. A freelance photographer (Megan Rathfon) came over to my house the next day to take a few shots of me working on the computer.

Not a whole lot to tell. They were a lot friendlier and more professional than some of the reporters I’ve dealt with in the past, and I had a nice conversation with the photographer about the business in general and about photography equipment.