| I have taken to doing crossword puzzles. I'm bad at them. I have no awareness of popular culture or literature. However, I do them all in pen.
Why? Because I find them much easier that way. I'm not proud or, um, hubristic. I just hate pencils.
When you write in pencil on newsprint, the dark color of the paper and light color of the pencil combine into a furiously annoying enigma of illegibility. When you erase the pencil, the print smears. Pencils are highly annoying in crosswords.
Pens, on the other hand, write very clearly on paper. And to solve the problem of my infamous fallibility, I use a very simple solution: when I'm not absolutely sure of a solution, I write it very very lightly. This way, I can darken the letters later if I become more convinced of my answer, or I can easily write over them if I need to change it. Thus, my utter incompetence goes by only very minorly punished. | 
