I have a pair of magic pencils. At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

This started a few years back when I called for volunteers to do a classroom assignment and was met by crickets and groups of boys who averted their eyes in the hope it would make them invisible. I held up my pencil and said that that if there were no volunteers I’d let the magic blue pencil decide. I dropped it on my class roll sheet and announced the name of the person the magic blue pencil had chosen.

That would have been all of it except, a couple weeks later, I once again called for volunteers and my students instead requested that the magic blue pencil decide. After that, the transparent blue Pilot S3 mechanical pencil (similar to this black one) became a regular character in my class. The magic blue pencil always chose the person who secretly wanted to go next. When students protested I told them that the magic blue pencil was never wrong.

On a couple occasions I pretended to receive phone calls via the magic blue pencil. The phone call explained the students were about to do a large project. I pretended to protest and when students protested the assigment, I said they should blame the magic blue pencil. I had tried to defend them.

The Pilot S3 (top) and the UNI Kurutoga Roulette. That Kurutoga looks scary.

However, over time, the magic blue pencil got replace by a UNI Kurutoga Roulette in Gun Metal gray. The magic gray pencil looks scarier and more weapon like but is no less wise than the magic blue pencil. It always chooses the person who was supposed to go next. It’s also partly made of metal and makes a satisfying thump when it hits the roll sheet.

I recently, through a sale, acquired a Karas Kustom’s Bolt. It’s made of brass and feels heavy enough to be a weapon. It may, someday, replace the magic gray pencil.

Until then, I’ll keep relying on the wisdom of the magic gray pencil. (Something like that.)