A beginning

I just purchased a Moleskin® notebook for myself. It is the "legendary notebook of Hemingway, Picasso, and Chatwin." I don't know who Chatwin is, perhaps I should.

[few minutes later]

I just googled (1) "Chatwin" and the only likely candidate I turned up was Bruce Chatwin, a travel writer of the late 20th century whose best known works, In Patagonia and The Songlines, I've never read. Anyways, I'm now going to unwrap my Moleskine® notebook. I've now unwrapped my Moleskine®, nothing much has changed. It came with nine stickers, each with the word "writing" at the top, in letters that gradually shrink in size as if I were looking at an eye testing chart in the doctor's office. There is apparently a history of Molesking® on the inner flap.

I've read the history. So, for about two hundred years, many (at least a handful) of western civilization's greatest artists and intellectuals have jotted down their "sketches and notes, ideas and emotions,...in this trustworthy...blah blah blah". Chatwin (who is/was indeed the travel writer I figured) continued this tradition, buying one hundred of the little notebooks before heading off on a great adventure. But Bruce Chatwin was not enough, the Moleskine® was in danger, demand was simply too weak. And so, in 1987, production—at the time consisting of a small family-run firm in Tours—was discontinued. "Le vrai moleskine n'est plus" said the owner a stationary shop to Chatwin as he attempted to replenish his stock for his next adventure. Today, thanks to Modo & Modo of Italy, the Moleskine® has returned. It even has an events section on the website. I think the Frenchman was almost right: In 1987 the moleskine was no more, but in 1998 it died.

I'm off to write a few sonnets with my Moleskine® as my muse. I'll let you know how they go, but don't hold your breath, I only have till Thursday to write them.

[This is a footnote, I don't know how to make superscript letters on the internet] 1. How long till to google makes it into the Oxford English Dictionary? I figure it will happen when the word ceases to refer to the act of performing an internet search using Google's search engine, and is generalised to refer to any internet search with the object of the to google being the item/person/idea searched for. The question is then, how long will this take? I say six years, if it is to happen at all. By the way, I no longer consider the Oxford English Dictionary the ultimate arbiter of English that I once did. I am now the ultimate arbiter of English. And you. And Winston Churchill.