The writing was on the wall.

Funny how promotional items often outlast the thing they are promoting.

I have no idea where this came from. I was cleaning out the desk -- okay, I was just looking for something, not actually cleaning -- and I found this Blockbuster pen buried in a drawer. I don't remember getting it, but probably they were giving them away in our local store (which is now a restaurant). Or maybe they were giving them away when we lived in the city in the local store there (which is now a gym). Like everybody freaking else in America, I was a Blockbuster member, until I wasn't anymore. And now no one is. (Well, almost no one.) The last time I saw the Blockbuster name in use, it was in a drug store in Westchester that had a Redbox-like box with the Blockbuster name -- the brand's Hail Mary -- which failed in the US but can be found in Australia. Those Blockbuster Express kiosks were owned in the US by NCR, which then sold them to... Redbox.

Also dissolving in 2010 was Saturn, General Motors' attempt to do something different in the automotive field. GM cleared away all the detritus that hung around their other car lines and set up Saturn like a new company -- dedicated dealers, casual showrooms, very few models, well-built but not flashy products, and square dealing (the "no-dicker sticker" was a revolutionary idea). Moreover, they were into the whole fellowship stuff back when Subaru was a manly Paul Hogan-advertised brand instead of the soggy love stuff brand it is now. This pen comes from a 1997 Saturn-hosted event at Shea Stadium.

It turns out Americans expect to haggle over car prices, for one thing -- remember that the next time you go car shopping, because no matter how much the dealer may seem to sweat, they've built the haggle into the price. Perhaps we feel like if there's no haggling that we're getting ripped off. Over time Saturn abandoned the pricing policy, the family events, and even started to bring in new Saturn-branded cars like SUVs and the very cool Sky, but it was too late. Even though Penske made an offer for the line, GM decided to pack it in.

I owned two Saturns; one we traded in for something that could handle winter in the country, the other kissed a guardrail to death on a rainy morning. All I have left is the pen.

These pens represent broken dreams for franchisees, memories of jobs for others that once felt purposeful or fun. Those are the breaks, or perhaps in Saturn's case, the brakes. The fact is, even creative destruction has destruction in it.

The Blockbuster pen does not work anymore. The Saturn pen does. I don't know if that means anything, but I think it's interesting.