A Lesson in American Terms

When I was almost 18 I spent a Summer working and staying in America with Frank, a good friend of my fathers.

This lovely man had opened his house and workplace first to my brother the year before and now to me. It was a great experience and I was fully immersed in American culture for 3 whole months. One evening as we stood chatting in the kitchen - no doubt eating Pretzels and watching the Vikings on TV - we somehow got onto the subject of hobbies and collecting things.

'So did you ever collect anything when you were in school?' he asked

'I can't really remember' I pondered for a moment before the memories of primary school came flooding back 'Oh yes I did actually! Fancy Paper and Rubbers!'

Frank nearly spat his root beer all over the table before collecting himself and looking rather embarrassed. After a few agonising moments we finally worked out that the correct American term was 'Erasers'. So no - for the record this 10 year old girl did NOT collect condoms along with her Fancy Paper (and btw 'Fancy Paper'? WTF?).

Anyway, this all came back to me when the lovely Ben of Esdevium Games contacted me to see if I wanted to do a review of some fun and colourful rubbers, I mean erasers. Naturally considering my affinity to them in the past I had to agree.

Unfortunately though I don't seem to have learned my lesson and have passed on the potentially life damaging term to my daughter:



(Note how I 'ordered' them and 'bought' them. Sorry Ben - you get no credit here I need the brownie points)

Now being a rubber fan I may be biased but I love these Iwako erasers. There's a huge array of types...

Iwako Koala

Iwako Giraffe and Bear

Iwako Fish

Some of them even come apart:

So they all picked out their favourites and then headed off to school to dish the rest out to their classmates.

The iwako erasers retail at £1 each and are sold through Waterstones, Toys R us, Game, WH Smith and more. They are also non-toxic and environmentally friendly. I think they'd make great stocking fillers or going home presents for parties. Darn it - maybe I should have kept them all!



Disclosure: Esdevium Games sent me the erasers, I wrote the review, no money changed hands :)