OT: I did buy myself something special for Christmas. In fact, I bought twelve copies.

 I like pens but I love pencils. Most people's experiences with pencils revolved around the #2 pencils, yellow, that we used to write with in elementary school. Those pencils were very, very inexpensive. But they worked. And I think a hidden benefit for schools and parents is that using pencils instead of ink pens kept ink stains off clothing, desks, walls and fingers. And off the clothes and faces of the children who might have been targets of others' more malicious penmanship.

I like yellow pencils as an historic meme but when it comes to actually writing with pencils in the here and now I've come to prefer Veblen pencils... Not Leica level pencils but pencils that are clearly a cut above the standard fare. 

The pencils I re-discovered this year are the Blackwing brand and I'm loving them. 

Blackwing pencils were used by art directors, writers, journalists and pencil forward hobbyists for most of the 20th century. They were preferred by the writing cognoscenti -- and well loved. But the corporate bean counters killed them off in the earliest part of the 21st century. People sought out hidden stores of surviving Blackwing 602 pencils and paid dearly for them. People who could not find secret troves of the pencils generally sat in a corner chair in their offices with the lights off, staring out the window and brooding. A palpable malaise covering their affect like a fog. Lost. Despairing.

Someone (meaning some company...) bought the rights, and the magic pencil making roadmap, and revived the pencils in 2010 and brought them back into the market, much to the joy and relief of fine pencil addicts everywhere. 

According to the company the pencils are made with aromatic, California incense-cedar wood wrapped around imported Japanese graphite. The big, rectangular erasers on the word negating end of the pencils are, in fact, replaceable. Good to know when the eraser wears down before the graphite "lead." 

I splurged. I bought a box of $12. The price was bracing! Lofty territory indeed. The box of 12 cost a royal  $30. Even though I knew that mostly rich dentists, lawyers and wealthier photo bloggers buy these as status symbols I actually use them because they write cleaner and better than other pencils I've used. And occasionally it's nice to be able to stop writing and actually smell the wood. To breathe in the subtle scent of cedar and then reflect and continue writing that very special note. 

The company's motto is printed in gold against the dark green of the pencil shaft. It reads, "HALF THE PRESSURE, TWICE THE SPEED." 

I reckon the box of pencils will last me at least through 2026. I'm happy to have them at my fingertips. I might even start writing in cursive again. Why pencils? Because way back when we were first starting to learn to write that's the tool we used. Most people's creative writing started to fail when they switched from pencils to pens, and then worsened still in the transition to word processors. But it's not too late to go back to the good stuff. It's never too late to revisit your childhood genius.

Note to other bloggers and novelists: You don't have to endlessly re-write if you can deftly erase unwanted words with a simple and handy eraser. Just sayin'. There's a nice eraser on every pencil in the box!!!

I'm sure I'll read in the comments about my flagrant, over-the-top buying habits yet again but even though these pencils are 600% more expensive then those available in a bulk box of 250 yellow pencils  from China it's really all about the handling, the haptics and the way a good pencil can make one feel. Just like a second grader again. And, of course, in your essays you'll find that special Blackwing Look that we all envy.

Cooties. That's up next.

A portion of the profits from the sale of Blackwing pencils goes to support music and arts programs in schools. That sounds nice...