Charity: Writing Off The Weapons

The pen is mightier than the sword — and maybe even more enduring than the nuclear missile. Wisconsin-based Parker Pen is offering a line of pens composed partly of metal from American and Soviet missiles decommissioned in the wake of arms agreements between the two superpowers. Half the sales price of the pens will go to the Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief, a charity for victims of catastrophes around the world. Parker, whose pens have been used to sign the arms-control treaties, is offering a range of instruments from a humble ball-point for $30 to a top-of-the-line fountain pen for $300. Each carries an emblem forged from the melted-down missiles.