When the Pen truly is as mighty as a Sword...

Okay, strange thing just happened to me at Denny's - and no, the strange thing is not that I ate at Denny's.

As I was getting up to leave and pay for my delicious meal - okay, it was mostly edible - I went up to the register, and tried to look for a pen to sign my check. You see, I wanted to pay by credit card, but first you need to add in the tip before you hand over the check to the cashier.

I'm looking around, and then I see this Gi-normous-looking thing that may, or may not be, a pen. It was right next to the cash register, and when I leaned down to look at it, it was indeed a push-top pen - only it was 8 times the normal size.

At first, I thought it was a gag, but when I picked it up, it ACTUALLY wrote! It had a huge rubber grip on the tip, which made it a bit easier to handle, but I couldn't imagine using it the whole day. I'd develop carpal tunnel just looking at it.

I asked the cashier if they were using this kind of sized pen so that people would stop stealing pens, but she said no. Apparently, she brought it to work, and probably wanted to get amusement by the customers trying to weild a pen the size of a machete. We both had a good laugh, as I was trying to keep this "monument" steady while signing my name, and really, I haven't had this hard a time signing a check since that time I was in Mazatlan - and that is an ENTIRELY different story.

The irony was, this was EXACTLY the kind of pen I'd have love to have stolen... ;)