OKAY, THIS IS NOT POLITICS, but given that I work at Barnes & Noble, I think it's very funny, and I was very pleased that I checked Lance Mannion's blog tonight.

At Barnes and Noble...
...you can buy all kinds of things to write in or write on. You can buy journals, notebooks, memo pads, blank books, travel logs, diaries, pocket planners, and whatevers. You can buy them in all sizes with all sorts of covers. Paper covers, leather covers, embossed covers, denim covers, covers that are replicas of covers of actual books---Reform School Girls!---covers that snap shut, covers that lock, covers that you close with a ribbon and others that close with an elastic band. You can buy note paper, stationery, greeting cards, calligraphy paper, and post cards. All of it's handsome, all of it's useful, although all of it's overpriced, and if you didn't want to spring for any of it and you still wanted to write, you could makes notes on napkins in the cafe.

Except...

You know what you can't buy at Barnes and Noble, my Barnes and Noble anyway, the one where I was tonight in the mood to write?

A pen.

Lance, I don't know which is your Barnes & Noble, but if you walk into my Barnes & Noble in Clifton, New Jersey, and ask at Customer Services, I guarantee you they will lend you a pen to use while you're there.

Barnes & Noble booksellers are way cool and generous to a fault.