You Done for Safety Today?
This pencil clearly originally said: "Hammermill Paper Company / What have you done for safety today?" But now the provocative slogan has been truncated. Try reading it the way a diner waitress might ask you: "You having any more coffee today?" And if you're done with safety today, does that mean you're ready to get dangerous?Truncate it further: "done for safety today?" suggests that Hammermill Paper is through being safe. Further: "safety today?" suggests that modern standards for safety are a joke.
But these truncations are caused by the fact that the pencil is shortened as it is used. What if we printed the message going in the other direction? Eventually, the pencil would ask: "What have you done for" (who? one wonders) and "What have you done" which is perhaps the most disturbing. But the company name fares pretty well, being shortened to "Hammermill Paper Co," "Hammermill Paper," and "Hammermill."
Hammermill Paper was acquired by International Paper in 1986. Hammermill and the paper industry in general are responsible for lots of water and air pollution from chemical delignification and chlorine bleaching, much of which went into lakes and rivers that me and my family got their water from. Thanks Hammermill! What have you done TO safety? Maybe I'll name my first tumor after you.
File this along with the "Too Cool to Do Drugs" pencils printed by a school; which reversed their meanings when they got slowly shortened to: "Cool to do drugs," "Do drugs," and "Drugs."
Paul's Special
I'll say he is! I suspect that this came from the "Paul's Teacher's Pet" teacher supply store, which also had "Paul's Teacher's Pet" pencils. I don't know how their "Paul's Special" is special compared with their other pencils. Insofar as I can determine, "Paul's Teacher's Pet" is no longer in business.Beaver Hollow Conference and Training Center
We've all heard of those team-building exercises at corporate retreats to the woods, which kind of amount to summer camp for office workers. Apparently Beaver Hollow hosts these.http://www.beaverhollow.com/
Choice by Empire
An extruded pencil with plasticky lead. I've tried worse, I've tried better. Empire is well-known for developing and improving these plastic pencils. The Empire Pencil Company seems to no longer exist.CanvasDealer.com
This dot-com had everything going for it, but then they used Comic Sans on their promotional materials. Now CanvasDealer.com is no more. Yet another reason to STAY AWAY FROM COMIC SANS for official signage and any literature where you want to project an impression of respectability.Bison Brand
These pencils say: "Bison Brand TL 67969 No 2" and: "Imperial - Bison Brand - #439 - 2".I asked my mom about these, and she reported that these were promotional items from the Bison Brand dairy (still in operation, but now known for chip dip and cottage cheese) in the old hometown. She opined that they were excellent pencils, and I am also fond of them.
http://www.bisonfoods.com/
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