I figure a lot of people spun pens back in school. I mean you at least imitated it, or tried it. In middle school I happened to see someone holding a ballpoint in his hand, gave it a flick with two fingers, and the barrel went dancing between his fingers. Looked sick. So I copied him. And of course the result was predictable: the useless thing spun less than 180 degrees across the web of my thumb before plummeting out of my hand. But I wasn’t discouraged. Practice makes perfect, and spinning badly doesn’t get anyone pregnant, doesn’t hurt you either. Idle hands, so why not. Over time my right hand, whenever it wasn’t writing, kept endlessly messing with the pen between the web of the thumb and the index finger. They say persist at something long enough and it becomes a habit. So one day in class I suddenly noticed my pen had dropped to the floor from a failed spin, and realized I’d been spinning for over 40 minutes without noticing. That was when it hit me: I’d picked up a bad habit called pen spinning.