02 Apr 2025

The Last Marks of the Tiny Pencil

by Joe MacLeod

Dixon Golf/Compass Pencils, 3.5", Box of 144 via eBay.

I worry about tiny pencils sometimes. Not regular-sized pencils, I think they have lots of users, like artists, and schoolchildren, learning to write, but no more cursive, right? That’s too bad. I don’t know what tools children have in school, do they still use pencils or do they all have tablets or whatever? There’s people who work crossword puzzles in newspapers, I guess there are still enough of those people out there for the moment. Math? Are there mathematicians who still use pencils? Did you know there is a Pencil Makers Association?

I don’t use a regular pencil too much. In the house, it’s only when I’m getting ready to hang a picture or drill a hole in a wall for a screw and I need to mark the spot, that’s it. I have a notebook, but I write in it with a pen. I used to draw pictures with a pencil, there was this one that I loved, the Ebony pencil. It didn’t have a number, like No. 2 or the softer No. 3, the Ebony was just EBONY, and it was super smooth and great for smudging and blending.

The type of pencil I use the most these days is the tiny one, it doesn’t have an eraser, it doesn’t have a number, I’m talking about the ones they have in the little plastic trays with the Keno cards in bars, for gambling. You fill out how many Kenos you want to play, and if you’re superstitious, you select some numbers to bet on being drawn, otherwise you just tick off the “quick pick” box and acknowledge that you’re dealing with a randomly independent variable, or whatever it’s called in probability and statistics, I did not do well in that class, twice. I have a pretty good record with Keno, I think it’s the only form of wagering that I am ahead on, or at least breaking even, but that’s what people who have a problem with gambling say, because they only remember when they win? I swear, though, I can’t prove it, but I do pretty good at Keno. I don’t bet a lot, five, ten bucks, tops.

Keno card on a bar with tiny pencil and a beer. — Keno and tiny pencil. (I lost ten bucks)

I made a list on my Apple computer Notes application of TINY PENCIL uses, because I was thinking about tiny pencils, and how it seemed to me they were losing their place in the world, and that made me kinda sad, so I lost myself in activity, lest I wither away in despair,¹ and made a list of where the tiny pencil is still relevant. I’m still kinda sad about it, but I’ll be OK.