Pencil Sharpener

I don’t use ordinary #2 pencils very often. I probably use them most often for marking walls when hanging pictures. For ordinary writing, I invariably use one of several mechanical pencils. I do like to maintain a reasonably complete home office, however, so my office has always contained an electric pencil sharpener. When I moved to Clifton Springs, I discarded an outrageously large sharpener and replaced it with a much smaller electric sharpener from Staples. That device was not very good and recently completely failed to perform its only function. I discarded it and ordered a similarly sized electric sharpener by Bostitch. That device arrived at my doorstep yesterday. It works great. (Ironically, between the time I ordered the new sharpener and when it arrived, I purchased yet another mechanical pencil.)

The photo below shows the front of the box my new sharpener came in:

In the lower left corner of the box are graphics that presumably describe features of the sharpener, but I have no idea what “Power Meter” means. There is no meter on the shapener. Why does the power meter picture show a pointer at 6?

Here is a photo of the bottom of the sharpener box:

I had purchased the sharpener knowing nothing about its warranty. I was impressed by the 7-year warranty promised on the box. My delight was diminished when I read the sharpener instructions:

Notice the section labeled “ONE-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY.” Sigh!

On Charlie Kirk

 I do not approve of political assassinations (or any other kind of assassinations, for that matter.) I mourn for Charlie Kirk’s family, but I cannot grieve his loss. Kirk espoused racist and anti-gay views, and promoted unfounded conspiracy theories. His passionate support for so-called Second Amendment rights is ironic, given the way he met his demise. (He was quoted in The New York Times as having said: “I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”) Charlie Kirk was a talented propagandist, but he was a menace to the Republic.

It is a travesty that flags are flying at half-staff to honor Kirk’s memory. If he deserves such an honor, then so does every other gunshot victim. Were we to follow this logic, flags would fly at half-staff every day of the year. Perhaps sending a message that way would not be a bad thing.

Labor Day Haiku, 2025

Labor Day weekend
A time for Trump to rid us
Of public unions.

I added the above haiku to Lionel Deimel’s Farrago yesterday. You can read about it on my Web site here.