Obama’s Cross

No, I don’t mean the presidential burden of an economy in recession, two foreign wars, and Rush Limbaugh. I’m referring to the pen that Barack Obama signed his first official documents with, which I had a very quick glimpse of on TV, just long enough for me to note that it wasn’t a fountain pen. I thought that it was very likely a rollerball and not a ballpoint, given the ease with which the lefty (not leftist, although Limbaugh might disagree) Obama scrawled his name. So who cares, right? Well, there are at least a few thousand kooky pen people around the planet, like me, who do, on top of several thousand other presidential autograph collectors who must be wondering what President Obama’s signature looks like. As it turns out, I was right about the rollerball. A dispatch from the Providence Journal proudly announced that “Rhode Island’s own A.T. Cross Company made the pen that President Obama will use to sign a series of inauguration documents and executive orders today. “The company, founded in Providence in 1846 and now based in Lincoln, was selected by the Obama-Biden transition team to provide the president’s official writing instruments. Marketing manager Lori Geshelin said yesterday that Cross has provided pens for many presidents. “With just a week’s notice, the company delivered the specially designed Cross Townsend black lacquer rolling-ball pens that will be used today. “They feature the presidential coat of arms and are engraved with Obama’s signature on the barrel. “The company sells a similar pen on its Web site, www.cross.com, for $135. A version in 10-karat gold is also available.” What—many of us immediately thought—not a fountain pen? No, apparently because these ceremonial pens are traditionally given away after the signing, and fountain pens would have been too ostentatious for the budget-conscious Obama—who got brownie points for using an American-branded pen, notwithstanding the fact that Cross Townsends are now made in China. This reminded me to look up another article I’d read years ago by autograph collector Philip J. Ross on American presidential pens. Ross reports that John F. Kennedy used a poor man’s pen—a dip Esterbrook—in addition to a black Sheaffer desk pen. For their signatures, Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton favored the even humbler $1.59 Sanford Sharpie—which, despite its lowliness, gets high praise from Ross as “one of the best writing instruments from an archival viewpoint because of the bold permanent marks it makes.” I don’t know what pens our presidents have used. Might Proclamation 1081 have been signed with a Montblanc? I rather doubt it; somewhere in my drawers is a slip of paper with Ferdinand E. Marcos’s signature from a blue felt-tip pen. (Remember when Papermates were in everyone’s pocket—along with the obligatory Cross ballpoint at Christmastime?) From my time as a speechwriter, I also remember getting drafts back from Fidel V. Ramos with his comments beribboning the margins in bright red, again from a felt tip. The only public official whom I recall wielding a fountain pen like it had been made for him (as it might well have been, given his prodigious writing talent and energy) was the late Blas F. Ople, whose Parker Duofold I lusted after, if not his cigarettes. If you think fountain pens are a throwback to some Jurassic past, meet Nancy Floyd, who—presuming she’s still alive at 73—makes goose-feather quill pens for the United States Supreme Court, not for the noble Justices to inscribe their judgments with, but to give away as presents. The Washington City Paper reported in 2002 that “The court has been offering a pair of quill pens to each attorney who argues a case before it for more than 200 years. In 1801, Chief Justice John Marshall first presented quill pens, parchment, and an inkwell to an attorney for note-taking purposes. Since the development of newer writing instruments, the court has continued the tradition as a way of offering lawyers a memento of their time debating a case. The court also presents quill pens to visiting dignitaries as an expression of goodwill.” Every year, the court orders about 1,200 pairs of quill pens from Nancy, who can make 100 pairs in about five hours if the need arises. I’m tempted to wish that our high officials were as tradition-minded, but I’m afraid of spawning another procurement scandal possibly involving fake Montblancs and overpriced chicken feathers. (I wouldn’t mind collecting the pen that was used to sign the ZTE-NBN deal.) When Joseph Estrada was about to take his presidential oath in 1998 amid the full panoply of the Centennial in Malolos, I wanted to tap my Palace friends to suggest that I lend the new President my oldest pen—a German-made one from the 1890s—to complete the effect. Wisely, second thought prevailed. That pen would have been lost to me, and lost on him. * * * * * This Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, most of the country’s best writers, young and old, will gather in Quezon City for the first Philippine International Writers Festival, also known as Taboan ’09, under the auspices of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). Taboan (meaning “meeting” in Visayan) is the literary component of the ongoing Philippine Arts Month, and it will bring together about 150 writers from all over the country, plus two guest writers from Thailand and Vietnam. It isn’t exactly the first congress of Filipino writers to be organized on such a scale. Just a little over 50 years ago—from December 26-29, 1958—almost a hundred writers got together in Baguio for the “National Writers Conference” under the Philippine Center of International PEN. By happy coincidence, Taboan will be opened by a lecture on Philippine literature today by someone who also figured prominently in that Baguio conference: National Artist F. Sionil Jose. In the first panel (“Ganito Kami Noon: Writing Through the Decades”), another Baguio attendee, Elmer Ordoñez, will lead off the discussion. Taboan will be, so to speak, a moveable feast, with panel discussions and other events scheduled to be held at UP Diliman on Wednesday, Ateneo de Manila University on Thursday, and Cubao Expo on Friday. The topics range from the practical (“Writing for a Living” and “Write to Life”) to the provocative (“The Young and the Litless” and “Atbp: Writing Off the Mainstream”) to the pensive (“The Poet-Critic” and “Text and Context”). A special feature of this festival is its emphasis on the younger Filipino writer (defined as those 40 and below) for whom this will be a formal debut of sorts, a recognition by one’s peers and seniors of acceptance into that loneliest yet also rowdiest of fraternities. There will also be strong and broad regional representation of both senior and junior writers. Our Festival Director is poet Ricky de Ungria, but as one of the festival coordinators (along with Prof. Lulu Reyes and fellow fictionist Sarge Lacuesta), let me thank our many sponsors—among them, the University of the Philippines, AdMU, and other partners such as the Filipinas Institute of Translation, Filipinas Heritage Library, Samarami Asia, Kape Isla, Kolektib, Pablo Gallery, and Mogwai, and, of course, the NCCA. The all-day panel discussions are open to the public, subject to the availability of seats, so come early to these venues on their appointed dates if you want to catch the action. Email me at penmanila@yahoo.com, and visit my blog at www.penmanila.net.