In praise of the ball point pen

Apparently the ball point pen comes top of the necessary items in a journalists kit bag.

ballpoint pens are as valuable as a reporter's notebooks and press passes.It is for this reason that journalists latch onto ballpoint pens like squirrels onto nuts.
Without their ballpoint pens, reporters are rendered useless and feel as vulnerable as they do without fedoras.

writes Christopher Ortiz,adding that

At any given time, a journalist will have anywhere from two to 20 of ballpoint pens on their person, as well as another hundred or so squirreled away in various drawers, glove boxes, purses and brief cases.This isn’t so much because journalists are afraid of being caught without their trusty writing instrument so much as it is because such pens are becoming a rare commodity in the modern day newsroom..