Cementing a Bond between boss and writer

/ February 14, 2015

Yesterday afternoon I drove to the offices of Syracuse Public Media site waer.org to pick up tickets to today’s Syracuse-Duke men’s basketball game.

I was offered the tickets after another blogger saw my story that mentioned Valentine’ Day plans that included taking my dear wife Karen to see the game on the movie screen at The Palace Theatre.

Joe B. Lee is the man behind the interesting Man Up blog, which you should check out, by the way. Obviously, since he volunteered to hand over those coveted tickets to today’s sold out game — yes, 35,000 people will be warming up the Carrier Dome — he also lives in Central New York. And there’s more. Lee is also the general manager of WAER, the public radio station housed on the Syracuse University campus that runs the web site for which I write my weekly Wednesday community blog column.

You could call Joe my boss. I do.

My friend, too, because we’ve known each other for a quarter-century, working in the Syracuse media, but for today’s story, my boss handed me an envelope that had a pen clipped to it.

Write it down. I have a slick looking new pen.

Write it down. I have a slick looking new pen.

I stuck the envelope with the pen and the tickets into my glove compartment and drove to the movie theater to see “The Kingsmen,” the new secret agent movie, which I will review on Monday for another freelance blog over at syracusenewtimes.com, with my weekly companion piece here, too.

Back at home, the tickets and the pen made their way onto the kitchen counter, all to be inspected by Karen. She told me I now owned a Special Mark Pen.

My 007 WAER Pen, write it down.

My 007 WAER Pen, write it down.

What a gift it is. I can now take notes on a reporter’s pad in any dark place. All I have to do is remove the cap from the ink end of my Special Mark Pen and place it on the other end to engage the flashlight feature, located on the writing tip.

A music critic’s dream, I thought, back to the days of gripping a pen light in my teeth and ahead to the ease of my future, at shows, at games, at movies if I so choose to take notes someday.

Then I thought of “The Kingsmen,” which tipped its hat to James Bond and all those 007 gadgets that made sleuthing life possible.

Thank you, Joe B. Lee, for my Special Mark Pen, my James Bond moment, my little bit of 007 heaven.

Do you ever have to write in the dark? What’s your favorite gadget? What 007 convenience would you want in your everyday life?

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56 thoughts on “Cementing a Bond between boss and writer”

  1. Well, how flippin’ cool is THAT? Do you have a fedora with a card that says PRESS in the band? You know, you could also probably look at someone’s tonsils with that pen. Or get Ellie B to chase the light? 🙂

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      • LOL! I don’t think Karen would allow you to actually remove her tonsils… just diagnose them. 😉 And I can clearly see you are not “cat people”. Cats would love the opportunity to chase a light, and wouldn’t view it as teasing at all. 🙂

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  2. Buenas, from La Isla del Encanto, Mr. B. What a cool pen you got there! Such a simple but fantastic solution to your writing in the dark days. Does it come with a magnifying glass? I can’t see a thing these days! Hope you enjoyed the game with Mrs. B.

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    • I, too, 50-plus close-in vision blues, Mrs. B. My progressive reading glasses are stylish, and take away the need for that wieldy magnifying glass. Although the Sherlock Holmes look may be OK on me, but not so much on you, Mrs. B. Now go out eating, drinking and dancing down there in your island paradise, will you? 🙂

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  4. Wow, I think the pen is an outstanding gift. I usually write in the dark and hope I can read it later! You deserve good gifts and wonderful, long lasting relationships. You put the time and effort into building these… Mark, hope you had a fantastic Valentine’s Day, my friend!

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  11. Mark, it’s a good thing I won’t be around to borrow your pen. I have sometimes “forgotten” to return cool pens when I borrow them. But yes, at one time, when I worked for Hospice, I had a pen that had a light in it, and I frequently did my charting in my car rather than face the hostility in the office. Actually, most of us were charting in our cars, but I was the only one with a pen with built in flash light–the others either put on the inside light in the car, or used flashlights. I had already resigned before the person causing the hostility was replaced as director, but my MS was getting worse at the time any way. Not sure what happened to that pen. I really loved it, but still have a large collection of acquired pens from different places.

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  13. Love that pen Mark and you have a pretty cool boss there – enjoy the game! ❤ I've written in the dark, and even though I couldn't see what I wrote as I wrote, it has always been legible in the light of day. 😀
    Diana xo

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  21. I once had a boss who was just crazy about pens, but not in a good way. If he were to sign something, it had to be with a fancy pen, none of those cheap Bic dealies for him. He would actually spend up to $50 on pens that would sometimes run out of ink quickly. I am imagining him seeing this pen though. Now this is a pen!! Nice!

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