Qercus 277

When I have introduced 11 year old kids to word-processing I have often done so whilst using a pen-knife (what else) to fashion a feather into a quill pen. The art of that introduction is to wait until one of the audience can stand it no longer and ask, "Why are you doing that, sir?". Of course the lesson is that whilst a computer is a great invention there are times when it may be more appropriate to get out a pen or pencil—or even a quill pen. And yes, that is the derivation of the name of our Electronic Quill column.