It seems after two months the 150th Anniversary of Hymen Lipman's patent on an eraser tipping concept for pencils continues to generate interest in writing about the continued survival of the pencil in today's high tech world.

Here is today's Chicago Tribune article titled "Lowly pencil still the write tool" in which I am quoted on this topic. It seems these newspaper writers are always mystified that the wood cased pencil has not gone the way of the dinosaur with the development of so many new communication tools. We all know better, that it's not the sexy, newness of the writing tool that matters most, but the tactile feeling of making your graphiteⁱ mark on paper that keeps us coming back for more. Of course the comparatively low cost of pencils versus other writing alternatives is certainly a big help too.

The longevity of the wood cased pencil was also the theme of one our our prior Incense Cedarⁱ Institute Pencil Doodle Contests titled "The #2 Pencil, Still #1 in a High Tech World". We will scan and upload the winners from this particular contest to our Doodle Contest archives. I recall the children were quite inventive in their themes for these drawings.