argh agh klabble flabble

mmhmmm. that's about all i'm capable of at this point in the morning.
it's 9:25, i've been up since 6:30 ("working," ostensibly, although i doubt that the strict definition of work does not involve the watching of this video over and over again), and i am but a wee step further than i was yesterday in my search for the origins of the fountain pen.
in fact, i am, as we speak, downloading the patent from the U.S. Patent Office for said writing instrument. yes, yes, it's an assignment. i've had over a month to work on it and i've gotten exactly nowhere.
next on the list is brassieres and suspenders. yes, i created this list for myself. why didn't i pick less obscure items? i mean, i love digging for the origins of things, but this is ridiculous. i mean, did you know that the origins of the chocolate truffle are virtually indiscernible?
it probably ought to be said that the other writers are probably not approaching this project with the same technique i am. i went immediately in search of experts to whom i could speak on the phone. most people, i bet, went straight to the library, which i finally did yesterday.
let it be said that one major disadvantage of living in a city is that the branch libraries tend to be not as well equipped. i grew up in a college town, where our community library, while small, had just about everything a schoolkid could want. and if i couldn't find it there, all i had to do was wander up the street to the university library.
at some point this weekend, by contrast, i will have to meander downtown to the harold washington library to suss out the origins of suspenders and brassieres. the information, alas, is deemed too racy, it seems, for the lincoln-belmont branch of the chicago public library. hmph.
sprocket seems at a loss, by the way. i've moved my workstation to the dining room table temporarily, while i transfer everything from my desktop to my macbook, which i'm now going to use for my permanent workstation. consequently, sprocket's customary spot, in his papasan chair by my desk, has gone unused since i've taken over the dining room. it seems he prefers to be closer than one whole room away.