Do y'all do crosswords in pen or pencil?

I too love mechanical pencils, shanks, and wouldn't use any other kind. Unless I were on a desert island or something.

I also dislike ballpoints but sometimes I'm forced to use them, not only for forms with copies (love your use of "promiscuously"!). Since I'm left-handed, and unlike Leonardo da Vinci, write from left to right, if I use a felt or ink [sic] pen whose ink doesn't dry immediately I find the heel of my hand blackened or blued by the time I'm done.

Fascinating story about Kipling!

Here's a tidbit: I don't know what kind of writing instrument he used, but Goethe wrote everything standing up at a kind of draftsman's table.