Consider this a respectful response to our “Ode to the Big Pink Eraser.”
I’ve never been a fan of a stand-alone pink eraser. It never stays next to my pencil, for one thing. For another, well, it gets lost a lot, which is essentially the same thing. It’s bulky, too. A fistful of eraser comes in handy at times, but most mistakes are not large enough to merit the blunt-end surface area of Big Pink.
But what to do? I’m not meaning to suggest that the stubby nubbin on the pencil end will do the job. Though handy and right-sized for most corrections, everyone knows the tiny cylinder’s useful life is way shorter than the pencil’s. Nothing is worse than a long and lovely pencil with a worn-out, flat eraser.
My go-to solution to the woefully inadequate standard-issue pencil-top eraser is (drum roll please) the add-on eraser cap. This roof-shaped little darling has a beveled shape, just right for most corrections. Its generous size extends the life of the pencil top so that pencil and eraser are friends and collaborators as nature intended. No longer do I have to cast away pencils with flat nubbins on the end. Pencil and eraser last a good long time, working together until the end of the pencil’s natural life span. Caps come together in a pack, so each pencil can have its own. Best of all, the little guy stays right on the job, ready for each correction crisis at the flick of the wrist.
To those of you who are unconvinced, I say, to each his own. There’s room for all of us in this big world of ours. But agree with me that, next to Big Pink, the Eraser Cap deserves its rightful place in the toolboxes of test takers everywhere. Wooden pencils are amazing, but they’re even more useful when paired with the right cap.
Patty Camloh(https://chariotlearning.com)