Re: OT More pens (was Re: Phoneme winnowing continues)

Tristan McLeay scripsit:

> Why they're called lead is beyond me.
The same reason that aluminum foil is often called tinfoil, and
refrigerators are sometimes called iceboxes: cultural lag.  Once,
when aluminum was more expensive than gold (the pointy top of the
Washington Monument, that *ahem* erection in Washington, D.C., was
made of nothing less), common foil *was* made of tin.  And of course
a box around a block of ice was the first refrigerator.

Lead works great for writing with.  It's just expensive and toxic.

--
Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.
        --Arthur C. Clarke, "The Nine Billion Names of God"
                John Cowan <jcowan@...>