Awww. Cute, huh?
Anybody can spend a buck or two on a boring, generic pencil sharpener. But when did one of those make you smile?
One glance at this “Pencil Pup” — a little pooch whose ears bob up and down when you insert a pencil and twirl his tail — well, how fun is that?
It turns out the dog pencil sharpener is actually a museum piece. Sort of. I bought it in the gift shop of New York’s American Folk Art Museum ($4.50, folkartmuseum.org).
This little fella got me wondering if our quality of life would improve if more everyday objects resembled man’s best friend.
After all, there’s a considerable body of scientific study showing that (real) dogs are good for our physical and mental health.
So why shouldn’t surrounding ourselves with dog-themed household objects have similar stress-busting, cholesterol-lowering results?
By magnificent coincidence, I went straight from my museum Pencil Pup purchase to the home of a friend who offers the perfect case study of this issue.
Even a partial inventory of the dog-related objects at her place (specifically, English bulldog-related) is mind-boggling and suggests, she admits, that “dementia lives.”
On the other hand, she is a uniquely calm and cheerful individual all the time.
Perhaps that’s because she sprinkles salt from a tiny bulldog (the pepper emerges from a teensy accompanying bone) and keeps pending bills in a ceramic bulldog letter holder.
Her umbrella has an imposing bulldog head for a handle and she pads around her apartment in slippers shaped like — you guessed it.
Instead of the customary hourglass cursor on her computer screen, she’s got . . . a bulldog. “This might suggest I need immediate psych testing,” she laughed.
And there is much, much more, including a genuine, slobbering English bulldog who spends much of his day sleeping — with his head on a bulldog pillow.
“If all this stuff makes you live longer,” she said, “I’ll be around for the next millennium.”
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— Although bulldogs drool — and snore! — their popularity is growing. Last year, they were among the 10 most popular dogs in the U.S., up from No. 26 a decade ago. Lab retrievers are still No. 1.
— China is why classic pencils are bright yellow. In the 1800s, the best graphite (for the lead) came from China. American pencil makers thought yellow best illustrated the “regal” feeling associated with China.
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shopellen@tribune.com
Read senior correspondent Ellen Warren’s shopping column every Thursday in the Tribune’s At Play section and join the conversation at chicagotribune.com/ellenwarren
Sources: American Kennel Club, pencils.com
