Fw: Tunesday 23rd September 2025

Fawningly, 

As most of you know these Tunesday missives take me away for my other research. This week’s dispatch has unfortunately slowed my investigations into Graphitodynamics[1], or how pencil lead responds to emotional intent, and Point Decay Theory[2] (PDT), the modeling of temporal pencil tip entropy. For those interested, I have included references to recent papers where my previous research has been instrumental. Please forgive me, but having created the science of Feralsign Praxis[3] (FP) which is a speculative field examining wild or non-human agents in civic visual systems many of you are surely excitedly awaiting my new discoveries. Creating whole fields of study often leave me with little time for the arts. I am reminded of this exciting new field when examining the aptly named “BlackWing” 602 which was a favorite instrument of Leonard Bernstein. The “BlackWing” is the epitome of Feralsign Praxis, if one overlooks the fact that Leonard Bernstein was not a marsupial or camelid. The “BlackWing” of course is a pencil with a specialized immense eraser for the elimination of catastrophic calligraphy accidents. The humble pencil, which following the discovery of pure graphite in Borrowdale, England, was invented by Nicholas-Jacques Conte in the later 18^th century after finding the recipe to change the hardness of a graphite with various mineral clays. Nick’s fortuitous discoveries came after many attempts of mixing graphite with cultured butter which were unsuccessful but did lead to the emerging use of “grease”.