U.S. Patent 19,783

I’m sorry. I feel that I’ve let you down. National Pencil Day was last Thursday and I’m only telling you now, when it’s too late to join any of the pencil-themed festivities which doubtless proliferated all around this great nation of ours. I envision crowds of school children lifting their shining faces to a cloudless blue sky, each waving a bright yellow Dixon Ticonderoga in time with the splendid brass band playing a rousing march. Possibly the presentation of tableau vivants depicting such milestones as Hymen Lipman’s 1858 patent of the attached eraser. I wouldn’t know. I missed it too.