Hi Treena ...
> Bravo! I confess I have never seen such
> a comprehensive treatise on such
> underappreciated objects. I find such odd
> facts fascinating (I'm not joking.)
I love arcane and obscure facts as well. Unfortunately, time and
space required that I present the abridged version here. There is
much more to the story of the ball-point pen and the Parker T-Ball
Jotter. However, I highly recommend Petroski's book. I was astounded
to find that someone could write a 400+ page volume on a subject so
seemingly innocuous as the pencil. But the story is really
fascinating, along the lines of the James Burke series,
"Connections". Question: What do whales and dolphins have to do with
the making of pencils?
I love those how-do-things-work books, odd facts, the David Feldman
books, like "When Do Fish Sleep" and "Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise".
One of my favorite websites, http://www.straightdope.com/ is based on
a series of newspaper columns that have appeared over the years. The
author, Cecil Adams, has published numerous "Straight Dope" books.
You might want to check out the site and explore the archives. Not
only does Cecil attempt to find answers to the most unusual questions,
but he does it with a great deal of humor as well.
Have fun ...
--
Shel Belinkoff
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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