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“So … you wanna sell our pencils, do you?”
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Pencil of Damocles hanging menacingly
This is based on a trope that doesn’t really happen any more. Rather than begging, homeless people would sell things and pencils was a common item. The joke is that they were really representatives of a big pencil conglomerate and would be fortunate to be able to go into pencil retailing.
I remember newspaper machines used to have have boxes with the day’s paper. You’d put a few coins in, open the box, and take one paper from the stack. I imagine that was also an available resource for merchandise for re-sale.
I hear people in Argentina are hard-selling socks in the street, too, so the tradition is still alive.
I ran into a homeless dude in Chicago selling tourist magazines, I told him I didn’t need a magazine but appreciated he was at least not just asking for money and gave him some cash anyway.
Streetwise has been a thing in Chicago for decades as well!
The Big Issue is the UK equivalent. Evidently both were inspired by Street News in NYC, which is the the first with that purpose.
The Danish counterpart, Hus Forbi
This is based on a trope that doesn’t really happen any more.
It happens all over the world.
Larson’s context is American cities. When I was a child I would see people selling pencils, shoelaces, and combs like this. Poverty is a much bigger problem, but I haven’t seen that kind of retail in decades. Stuff on blankets, yes. But not small consumer goods. Hans Christian Anderson wrote about the little match girl, but I have never seen a child sell matches either. I have seen children selling gum in Mexico.
I have seen children selling gum in Mexico.
Exactly my point. You said it’s an old trope that doesn’t happen anymore. It may not be pencils specifically everywhere, but it most definitely still happens in the general sense. You have the kids selling chicle in Mexico, people (especially kids) sell toothbrushes in east Africa, adults sell 10-packs of tissues all over the world, hell, I’ve seen people walking around selling bottles of water in Vegas.
The modern job market, as a whole.
Did he apply for a job as a pencil pusher?
Please explain ☹️
Back in the day, some places had laws against begging. A poor person would buy a dozen pencils for a nickel and ‘sell’ them to passersby.
Mr. Bigshot is treating the beggar like a young MBA looking for an important job.
Here’s my guess.
Guy is poor, just needs money, and is desperatly attempting to get a job as a pencil salesman. This is a job it’s hard to be passionate about. My boy now needs to convince this richo boss dude that he’s passionate about pencils to get this job
Otherwise I’m lost too. If cows made tools they’d be pretty useless you know
Cow tools would have amazing collector’s value, though, and you could put the cows to work for the price of hay.
They would certainly lack a certain sophistication
I don’t get it
