Pencil Souvenirs

Pencil souvenirs are really promotional pencils. They promote the venue that is inscribed on them and they promote the self-importance of one for having visited it. The venue says, "You've been here, well done, here's a pencil (you have to pay for it of course)". The purchaser says, "I've been there and here's a pencil that proves it."

My neighbour has recently returned from the Holy Lands bearing with her a cross which encapsulated, she said, an actual real particle of the original holy cross of the lord. She also displayed to me a tiny plastic bottle, similar to the soy sauce bottles included in take-away Sushi boxes, which contained blessed water. When confronted about the authenticity of such items she was nonchalant. "Well, my son wants to buy a pencil wherever he goes", she said. "Am I not allowed to bring a piece of the holy cross from the Holy Lands?". "But you don't even believe in God," I retorted. "Never mind God," she snapped. "I've been there, haven't I".