A few months ago, my partner Mallory and I somewhat accidentally started doing the New Yorker crossword puzzle together. Fairly quickly, we were hooked, and now we do the New York Times crossword together most days. It’s been a fun way to get our dopamine hit—much better than scrolling social media or binging Netflix, neither of which hold much appeal for either of us. It’s a particular kind of rewarding seeing ourselves getting better at solving with each passing week (we can solve Monday through Thursday puzzles fairly easily now; Friday through Sunday still require some assistance).
We solve the NYT crossword digitally (I’ve tried getting the paper delivered to my door, but in the apartment complex where I live, it turned out, sadly, that neighbors couldn’t be trusted to not steal it before I could grab it from just inside the gate, even though I’m up at 5 a.m.), but we still solve the New Yorker crossword in the print magazine. So it was with no small measure of joy that I found the following Retro 1951 Tornado pencil at FLAX Pen to Paper yesterday:
Needless to say, purchasing it was a no-brainer.
