When I was in 6th grade, there was a kid named Matt who always tipped back on his chair and chewed pens. And as sure as the sun will rise, that pen always exploded in his mouth. He would always be leaving class to head to the boys room to clean up the blue mess left behind on his face.
I can only imagine how happy Bic or Papermate was by this act of constantly having to replace his exploded pen.
And I can only imagine the disappointment of Mother Earth that another pen was headed to the landfill.
Now that I'm married, I face a similar problem. A husband who is a writer who keeps a pen/pen cap in his mouth and leaves mangled pieces of plastic all over the apartment.
But honestly, how often do we even think of these things? It's a pen. It's meant to have a short life. And it's so small, how could it possibly matter if it ends up in the landfill?
But it does matter.
On average, Americans throw away 1,600,000,000 pens every year!
Did you just pull that pen out of your mouth? I did.
But now there is a solution. The Seven Year pen!
My friend recently introduced me to this gem of a pen and I'm in love with the idea. I won't need to buy another pen till I'm...well...let's not go there.
I dare Matt to try and chew this pen...that would be a lot of ink to clean off his face!
And no pen caps...even better! I won't be picking up mangled pieces of dead pen carcus. And think of the money you'll save.
You can get your Seven Year Pen on the Seltzer website. I was very excited to see that Seltzer was carrying these pens as they have a lot of other cool, eco-friendly stationary stuff. I love this site and I hope you will too!
Happy writing!
Last night when I heard the news that Steve Jobs passed away, I became overwhelmed with sadness. With all that is going on with Occupy Wall Street, it's rather strange that I would feel this way over a CEO of a large corporation.
But to me, Apple is more like family than big business.
My sophomore year of college I purchased my very first MacIntosh. It was 1988 and I was one of only a few girls in my sorority house to have a computer.
If it's possible to love a machine, I was in love with my Mac. Everyone loved her and she affectionately became known as "Polly."
Her unique font, user-friendly system and ultra-cool design made you want to run over and turn her on.
She came home with me on college breaks and eventually moved with me to Washington.
And then she became older. She slowed down and eventually became obsolete.
There wasn't a love connection with my next computer. A regular PC that didn't respond to me in the way Polly did.
But eventually, another Mac came back into my life. The iMac. A beautiful, white, spaceship style that fit into our family like an old friend.
By this time, Apple products were also producing a small carbon footprint, improving their product's environmental performance by "designing them to use less material, ship with smaller packaging, be free of toxic substances used by others, and be as energy efficient and recyclable as possible." It was a dream come true.
With that in mind, our Mac family began to grow with the addition of QTMcGee, my laptop, and Larue, my iPhone.
This blog was born on a Mac and continues to reproduce on one. Apple products made a huge impact on my life and John's. Movies, scripts, blogs and books have all been written and produced on our Macs.
We are forever indebted to Steve Jobs and his vision that helped our visions become realities.
My deepst sympathies to his family. Our thoughts...and Macs...are with you.
