Uhm, holy fucking shit:

Carbon Copies

Pencils [are] made from the carbon of human cremains. 240 pencils can be made from an average body of ash – a lifetime supply of pencils for those left behind.

Each pencil is foil stamped with the name of the person. Only one pencil can be removed at a time, it is then sharpened back into the box causing the sharpenings to occupy the space of the used pencils. Over time the pencil box fills with sharpenings – a new ash, transforming it into an urn. The window acts as a timeline, showing you the amount of pencils left as time goes by.

We’re almost out of Dad; Grandad turned out to be more of a 5H and really just not that useful. Going to have to learn to live with him, I guess.

It’s entirely possible that more people will be killed driving to the dealer for the [Toyota] recall than lives will be saved from going through the safety theater demanded by the Department of Transportation. […] I face 19 times more risk walking home the mile back from my Toyota dealer than I would driving a car that one assumes has the electronic defect.

Theodore H. Frank; so very true. Fantastically good piece.

Color me gruntled

Turns out Ben Zimmer is taking over the “On Language” column for the NYT. I am stunned. Amongst the various pinch-hitters that have been filling that space since Safire shuffled off his mortal coil, I rated Zimmer’s as superior. Vastly superior, even. This led me to assume that the NYT would either