Man Finds 15 Years of Ailments Due to Pencil Stuck in Head

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A friend sent me this article from the Latinos Post, about a man who found he had a 4-inch pencil stub stuck in the back of man’s throat.

[S]urgeons at Aachen University Hospital, the largest hospital in Europe, successfully removed the pencil from the head of the young man, who reportedly recovered successfully from the procedure and left the hospital in only a few days, despite lingering blurry vision. The man cannot remember when or how the writing implement ended up in his head, although he recalls taking a serious fall when he was young and then having a significant nosebleed.
[Link]

Typically, I would say that a nice, freshly sharpened wooden pencil will cure what ails you, but I think this is definitely an exception to that rule.

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I’m a huge fan of Medium — Evan Williams’ new publishing platform. I’ve had the opportunity to write a few things there, and though I haven’t written anything pencil related for it yet, Caryn Vainio has:

Don’t Be Afraid of a Pencil. »

The golden nugget from her post:

[S]ketching is one of the most critical skills I think you could learn if you work in any environment that requires you to build something, whether that’s a physical product or a piece of software. And you should learn to stop being afraid of a pencil and a piece of blank paper, because sketching is fast, visible, collaborative communication, and it doesn’t matter how well you can draw.

She’s absolutely right. I work at a web development shop, and although I have absolutely no artistic background, I will often grab one of my ever-present pencils and sketch out a very rough layout of how I think content should be structured on a site we’re building.

Because as Vainio points out, we’re not drawing something — it doesn’t have to look polished. We’re just getting a visual idea down and on paper.

It’s worth a read! And hey, if you want my thoughts on Medium, check out this post on my personal blog.

 

Sneak Peak Pic of the Palomino Blackwing Pearl

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Got a snapshot of the new Palomino Blackwing from the guys at Cal Cedar! Check it out:

Palomino Blackwing Pearl

I’m basically the Perez Hilton of pencils. Should I write snarky remarks all over the photo in freehand?

Perez Hilton's Blackwing Pearl

In any case, it’s great to see it. I image the white pencil against the dark desk washes out some of the lacquer detail a little bit, but I’m assuming it’s going to be a bit more, well, pearlized once we can see it in real life. I quite like the black eraser accenting the black lettering on the white barrel, though I don’t know how I feel yet about the brass ferrule. I may want to try a pink eraser in it to see if it looks like a rare albino Blackwing.

Thanks, Alexander, for sending this photo over!

The Palomino Blackwing Pearl — now, with an exclusive preview!

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It’s been a very Palomino-focused spring around here at Woodclinched. I hope that soon I’ll have some more Yikes! stuff to show you, but in the meantime, there’s some news out of California Cedar Products that I can’t resist sharing.

Pencils.com and Palomino (I’ve never sure which brand is now the authoritative Blackwing spokes-entity) just announced this week the creation of the Palomino Blackwing Pearl, the third pencil in the Palomino Blackwing lineup.

It sounds like the performance is just right in the middle of the two existing Palomino Blackwings:

The Blackwing Pearl features a lustrous pearl white finish and black eraser, along with a balanced and smooth graphite core that is softer than the graphite found in the Palomino Blackwing 602, but firmer than the graphite found in the Palomino Blackwing.

I spoke with Pencils.com president Charles Berolzheimer, “WoodChuck“, last week about the new pencil. The phrase they’re using to describe it is “balanced and smooth.” I asked if they’re going to put that as the motto on the barrel, and he said no. Charles did, however,  tell me a little bit about the style of the new Pearl.

“It’s going to be pearly white, almost a pinkish, translucent hue,” Charles told me. “We talked a lot about introducing another eraser for it, but we’re going to stick with the black eraser. We’ll still have a series of replacement erasers so people can hack their pencil.”

Admittedly, I imagine a pink eraser would look really good with this pencil, but honestly, the black eraser on the white pencil with that gold ferrule? That’ll look really lovely.

The Blackwing Pearls will be released to the public on May 2, and will apparently be available both on Pencils.com and in retail stores, where the product line has really been become more and more prevalent. No word yet on their price, but I’m assuming they won’t cost more than their counterparts ($19.95 for a dozen, or $163.98 for a gross).

I am proud to announce, however, that Woodclinched has discovered some top secret images of the new pencil. Prepare yourself for the exclusive world premiere of this highly-anticipated pencil:

A fabulous Photoshop mockup of the new Palomino Blackwing Pearl

Just kidding. This is the product of my terrible, terrible Photoshop “skills”. I used to have a vector of the Palomino Blackwing logo, which I can’t seen to locate, so as you can see, I expertly re-created it.

I will, however, attempt to talk my way into a advance sample, so I can give it a good try, all in the service of my Dear Readers. And hopefully, the real-life thing will look much better than this abomination, above. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, check out the full press release here. And after May 2, check out Pencils.com to buy it!

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I was honored to write about pencils for The Pen Company’s company blog. They’re a burgeoning pen shop in Hertfordshire, England, and asked me to write about why their audience, generally fountain pen users, might be interested in a pencil:

[C]hances are, you use a fountain pen as a tribute to days and technologies gone by. Like those who drive with a manual transmission or shave with a straight razor, fountain pens are a simpler, purer, more beautiful way to accomplish your task. There are no springs or roller balls. You just use a reserve of ink, an irrigation duct, and gravity to get ink to paper. Pencils are participating in that grand tradition, and in fact, is an even simpler, purer way to accomplish that goal. While the craft of pencil production has been honed over the decades, it’s fundamentally the same concept of writing as ancient cave drawings by human ancestors — you pick up a piece of carbon, rub it on a surface in a certain pattern, and flecks of that carbon stick to the surface in that pattern. [Link]