A Day About Pencils - Dr. Ed Iannuccilli

A Day About Pencils - Dr. Ed Iannuccilli

The call came out of the blue from Newsy. I was not acquainted with this newsgroup that describes itself as a popular source for 'concise, unbiased video news and analysis covering the top stories from around the world.'

“With persistent curiosity and no agenda, we strive to fuel meaningful conversations by highlighting multiple sides of every story. Newsy delivers the news and perspective you need without the hype and bias common to many news sources.” My goodness.

I was surprised to learn of its substantial number of subscribers. Well, it turns out that meaningful, uncontroversial, human-interest conversations are part of the mix, and I liked that since I would be involved in something uncontroversial.

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When the call came, I hesitated, under the paranoic, irritated weight that this might be another annoying, unwelcome, unsolicited call. When will we find a way to get rid of them?

Well, I was wrong. This was legitimate and seemed genuine. It was. I listened, smiling.

“We would like to have you be on a news, fun spot.”

“News spot? Really? Which and why?”

“Tomorrow is National Pencil Day, and we read your column about pencils in GoLocalProv.” That did it. I was hooked, but I needed a little more preparation because it had been a while since I had written the piece and done the homework. I made an online tune-up, finding some stuff that I had not found earlier, or did not have enough room for, in the column. For example:

Did you know that you can buy a pre-chewed pencil? Or that people use the eraser on the pencil to stick sewing needles? That the ‘lead’ is a mixture of graphite and clay, not lead? And, on average, a pencil can be sharpened seventeen times, draw a line 35 miles long, and write approximately 45,000 words. Wow! No wonder Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck used pencils to draft their novels.

Over fourteen billion pencils are manufactured worldwide annually, enough to circle the earth more than forty times.

Pencils can write in zero gravity and are used on space missions by astronauts. They can also write underwater!

More fun chatting with the newscasters. We talked about how the return-to-school energy seemed to skyrocket at the end of summer when we had enough of vacation. It was time to get our pencil box restocked. With what? Why pencils, a few crayons, erasers, a hand-held sharpener, a small ruler, all fitting neatly in a firm cardboard box that folded over twice and snapped shut with a pop.

And we laughed over the story of how on occasion, we were the teacher’s pet and allowed to sharpen pencils for the class.

I recently bought ten boxes of pencils with twelve in each box. The newsies laughed. “Well, I use them every day to write in my journals, I keep them sharp, and they feel good. They also make a great gift.

Ahhh, wooden pencils. Painted in gold, they look regal.