Sixty-one years ago today, the ball-point pen was patented in the USA by Laszlo Biro. I’ll bet he would have never guessed that his invention would be a pal.

Call me crazy, but I grow attached to pens. I rarely lose writing utensils and as a result, have had some for several years. In fact, I still have pens from more than 10 years ago. Pens, as with most things, die. Some call it running out of ink, but I still miss them and look upon their replacement with a measure of distrust.

You see, when I use a trusty pen that has never failed to write, it’s disappointing when it stops working, but a particular brand of pen has earned my devotion because of its solid reliability. Their pens always write except for one reason – when they’re out of ink.

The company is Sanford, and I bought a box of the retractable Eagle Saga pens (item #79011) a few years ago and my problem is solved. When a pen stops working (I’ll usually check to make sure it’s out of ink, but every time I’ve checked, the ink was all gone) I can replace it with a twin and barely notice the difference.

Before finding the Saga Eagle it was a hassle to find a replacement because a new pen rarely writes the same way as the old pen, and there’s no way to know if it will be as reliable. You also want to avoid pens that require shaking or licking to convince them to write, like many hotel pens, but the only way to know is to use it.

I just looked on the Sanford web site and only found refills, but I have plenty of pens left for the time being and buying replacements will probably be cheaper anyway.