One for the Graduates

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 6, now on sale at The Legendary Lead Company.  I have just a few hard copies left of the first printing, available here, and an ebook version in pdf format is available for download here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

It is a real shame that commencement exercises across the country had to be canceled during this most unusual time.   That doesn’t mean, though, that I can’t offer something by way of best wishes to all of those transitioning to the next stage of their lives:

This Ritepoint came my way along with a bunch of other pencils, and I really didn’t notice it in the fuzzy auction pictures.  Too bad that part of the top is broken, but as thin and vulnerable as it is, I suppose that isn’t surprising.  This is the Ritepoint “Mortarboard Cap Pencil for Graduates,” sample number 939:

Although the mortarboard tops were available in black only, the rest of the pencil was available in all of Ritepoint’s available plastics – “use the school colors for best results,” the imprint suggests:

Ritepoint had a knack for great stuff like this, and I’ve posted about them here before - unfortunately, the articles aren’t live anymore (they were printed in The Leadhead’s Pencil Blog Volume 1, pages 167 and 339).  For a little throwback, here’s the pencil in the earlier of those two articles:

“I can’t remember the name, but the fez is familiar,” I said, riffing Austin Powers. 

Hug your graduates, and always, always, ALWAYS keep a sense of humor about these things.