Wigon's

In heaven, we never lose our favorite pens. In this stinker of a world, however, it seems to happen all the time. It's gotta be the same gremlin that ate our left Smartwool, coming hunting our ballpoints for dessert. We used to try to catch him — now we don't even bother. It just gives us another excuse to go to Wigon's, where the black Zebra Sarasa 07 — the pen that miraculously turns our usual chickenscratch scrawl into a script on the caliber of a Hawthorne diary — sells for exactly $1.10. After years of associating the mundane task of buying office supplies with obnoxious checkout bleeps, aggressively modern decor, and a chorus of "that-was-easy," Wigon's style is refreshingly anachronistic. It's a two-person show in there, which means no sulky teens pimping buyers' club cards. Its location is actually accessible, unlike the strip-mall megaliths 10 miles away. And best of all, their painstakingly precise approach and commitment to in-their-head math and handwritten receipts make replacing your At-a-Glance calendar as charming an experience as buying a slice of baklava at a school fundraiser. On the days when Hell hath no truer form than the modern marketplace, we're happy to buy our pens in this purgatory. May Wigon never close his gates.

Joe Wigon Office Supplies | 18 Free St, Portland | 207.773.0293 | (yeah, right).com