And the Award for Worst Representation of an Elk Goes To . . .

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We were laughing about this one all weekend at the Ohio Pen Show:

This is a “Pal”, and David Nishimura wrote a great article outlining the history of these lower quality pencils over at his blog - worth checking it out at http://vintagepensblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/pal-pencils.html.  I wish I’d written it!

This example is very typical of an early side-clip Pal, complete with the imprint above the clip:

as well as the imprint on the reverse side, which looks like it might have been copied just a little too literally from some lawyers instructions.  “Put “Patented Silver Plated” on the back,” someone must have said, and the client dutifully followed those instructions . . . including even the quotation marks.

But the reason I bought this one was because the good folks at Pal, bless their little pointed heads, attempted to include fraternal emblems mounted on the caps of their pencils . . . and I think they must have hired a second grader to do their artwork:

Were it not for the “BPOE” above it (for Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks), I would have no way of knowing that’s what this furry thing was supposed to be.  It looks like it should be hanging on someone’s refrigerator, with “The Elk goes moo” written in crayon underneath it.