These are a few of my favorite new things — rustic wood pencil holders from Got Wood? Workshop in Spring Hill, Kansas, via Etsy. You pick your wood. He makes the holder, sends you a photo for approval, and voilà — you’ve got mail. The one on your right, ordered first, is elm and sits in the living room. The one on your left is Osage orange and handles desk duty.
(The flaming marshmallow ornament commemorates a 2016 stay in a forest preserve cabin, complete with two campfires and s’mores.)
This ordinary Office Depot pencil I found in the hallway outside my apartment struck me as odd. I couldn’t picture the academic and professional denizens of my building using a pencil clip or belonging to a union. You’ll note, too, that the point has been sharpened with a pen knife or the like, not a conventional school or office sharpener. This is the tool of a working man, not of a writer, artist, student, or dilettante. This is a pencil that has more important things to do than languish on a desk or in a backpack. This is a pencil with places to go, measures to mark, things to do every day. I wondered.
When I stopped wondering, I realized it must have been dropped by one of the contractors installing The Flamingo’s new fire system. I will leave it with the manager in the hope that it will find its way to useful employment again.
Addition: See Michael Leddy’s post about the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers logo.
Some might think it would take a 3 mile pencil to write one of my longer blog posts. Meanwhile, the peanut erasers turned up tonight in a search of my stash.
Here’s one more post in pencils and things mode — if you’re not aware of O’BON, purveyors of colorful graphite and colored pencils made from newspaper, as well as other writing-related items, check them out. Here are the O’BON Wildlife and O’BONanza pencil series with an O’BONanza kiwi notebook made with bagasse (sugar-cane paper). The 2B pencils write well and are beautiful to hold and look at, plus they’re very easy to sharpen. The bagasse notebooks are smooth and lightweight, and may even serve as a conversation starter when you write at your favorite café or teahouse.
Yes, I do have more pencils than clothes, or brains for that matter. Here are the latest. I’m insane.