BBC

A Danish Noris

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The Staedtler Noris can regularly be seen in news reports here in the UK (stock footage of school kids often include scenes of children writing with a Noris because of its popularity in schools) …so normally a Noris in the news (BBC or otherwise) wouldn’t be worth mentioning. Today is different though: because of a football (soccer) game between England and Denmark this evening the BBC News at Six viewers got a rare glimpse of what is going on on the streets in Copenhagen.

A fan writing well wishes on a wall – for a Danish football player who fell ill in a recent match (Image © BBC News)

Unlike here in the UK, where the ‘normal’ hexagonal Staedtler Noris is most popular, this unrepresentative sample of one from Denmark seems to suggest that the Noris Triplus Jumbo, which is not a common sight in the UK, is more common in the land of Hygge.

The screenshot has been taken from BBC News at Six on 7 July 2021. I believe that the use of this image falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.

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In praise of the pencil

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Yesterday’s edition of the Financial Times featured an article by Tim Harford about our beloved pencil.

Tim Harford is a journalist (‘the Financial Times’ undercover economist’) and is also the man behind my favourite radio show: More or Less.

He is certainly non stranger to pencils as they feature in his work every now and then. In his radio show he even managed to sneak in a definition of ‘ferrule’.

His pencil work got him several mentions here at Bleistift.blog so far. Last year, this blog mentioned his pencil article for the BBC and a few years earlier Bleistift.blog ‘campaigned’ to get the pencil added as the 51st thing to his series ’50 Things That Made the Modern Economy’.

His latest book, How To Make The World Add Up, is currently Radio 4’s book of the week. If you not only like stationery, but also statistics or numbers, then please have a listen.

You won’t be surprised to read that a signed copy of his book is on top of my Christmas wish list. A signed copy must be expensive, I hear you say. Well, you’d think, but actually it’s much cheaper than what a pack of copies of Eberhard Faber’s Blackwing sells for in the UK.

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Portillo / Staedtler

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Tory turned TV presenter Michael Portillo has visited Nuremberg as part of his latest series (series 7) of Great Continental Railway Journeys.

Michael Portillo in one of his trademark high visibility suits is left of the fountain, the Staedtler store is right of the fountain. (Image © BBC)

I was delighted to see that he was outside Staedtler’s own shop in Nuremberg’s city centre and hope he had time between filming to visit the store.

I believe that the use of the screenshot, taken from the BBC series Great Continental Railway Journeys, falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service

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£10,000 per night, including pencils

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If you want a holiday in style (and with nice pencils!) check out the Grand Resort in Bad Ragaz, featured in the BBC TV series Amazing Hotels.

A night there can set you back £10,000, but this will get you 600 m2 of floor space and some nice pencils: You get three Caran d’Ache Edelweiss pencils in HB, a Staedtler Mars plastic eraser and a Pelikan ruler.

Caran d’Ache, Staedtler and Pelikan (Image © BBC)

Luckily, these days the Caran d’Ache Edelweiss pencil is much easier to find than in 2012 when I did a review here on Bleistift – There seem to be several online shops inthe USA and in the UK selling this pencil now.

You can watch this episode on the BBC iPlayer (if your location allows). The screenshot was taken at 22 min and 58 seconds into the episode.

I believe that the use of the screenshot, taken from the BBC series Amazing Hotels, falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service

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The Underrated and Humble Pencil

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George, a reader of Dave’s Mechanical Pencil blog and of Bleistift, has contacted me this morning and told me about an article Tim Harford wrote about the pencil. Not much later my wife contacted me about the same article. The article is part of the “50 Things That Made the Modern Economy” series.

In 2017 I was hoping that the pencil gets voted to be the “51st thing”. My blog post Vote for Pencil! might have added a few to the pencil, but in the end “credit cards” won.

An image of a humble pencil from an old blog post – to make this one less boring

Luckily Tim Harford, who made several ‘appearances’ on this blog in the past, has finally had a closer look at the pencil.

You can read his article Have we all underrated the humble pencil? on the BBC web site.

Just a few weeks ago I finished his book “Messy” (around $9 or in the UK around £7). Fascinating reading, like his other works.

His podcast More or Less: Behind the Stats is available for free.

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