National Handwriting Day is January 23, coinciding with the birthday of the original John Hancock.  This day of recognition for handwriting was, not surprisingly, conceived of by the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association (WIMA).

Your brain on cursive.  Writer and former Voice editor S.D. Livingston contemplates the usefulness of handwriting in an increasingly digital world.  “[P]ressing a letter on a keyboard doesn’t activate our brains to the same degree that handwriting does.”  Write Stuff — X Marks the Spot, May 11, 2012.

While you’ve got pen in hand.  Janice Behrens makes the case for old-fashioned correspondence.  “The sense of your personality that is revealed to the recipient by your penmanship – far more evocative than the use of electronic smilies, bullets, fonts and underlining.”  The Lost Art of Letter Writing, October 20, 2004.