The news came through my Facebook feed as if it was no big deal. But it was. The last Luby’s in town had abruptly closed.

Pieces of pencil lead on the floor marked up the new carpeting ... he used to steal pencils before he knew better. “That was my way of living,” he joked. These days he’s a buy-and-hold ...

Common mechanical pencils come in sizes to accommodate 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9 mm leads, but there are bigger and smaller ones available. Perhaps one of those really large drafting lead holders could be ...