Eat Your Heart out, Mrs. Danvers

While we, or at least I, am on the subject of domestic organization, I announce with pride that I have just solved a problem of long standing.

I tend to get up early in the morning to drink coffee and read the paper. Just about every day I come across an article I want to send to someone, the name of a new author who seems interesting or the address of a web site I want to explore. Once in a while I jot something down on a scrap of paper. Then I lose the paper. It would not be sporting of me to cut out an article when I see it and leave a big hole in the paper, so I make a mental note to appropriate the material at the end of the day. But I either forget all about the article, or can’t remember which paper or section it was in.

For ages I have been saying, “Why doesn’t someone invent a sort of receptacle for a notebook and pencil, which you could wear around your waist, like housekeepers wore to keep their keys?”


So, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce . . . the Châtelaine. The flap at the top closes with Velcro and can be folded over a belt, or over the color-coordinated strap seen here. Slip it on first thing in the morning: the pencil and the notebook allow you to make notes which you can carry with you throughout the day, the optional scissors allow you to cut out things if you are sure no-one else wants them. Note the additional pocket at the bottom which solves another problem, namely that of picking up an important document and putting it down in a soon-to-be-forgotten place.

If I had enough ambition, I would hot-foot it to the United States patent Office and then jump on the first plane to Hong Kong to arrange for mass production. I would soon be a millionaire. I can see it now: the sports Châtelaine, the evening Châtelaine (maybe Judith Liebler wants the contract for this one), the furry Châtelaine for non-PETA members—the possibilities are endless. The AARP would endorse me just in time for Christmas. The Shopping Network would love me. (But wait, there’s more. If you order one for Grandma now, you can get a second for no extra cost in genuine Naugahyde for your absent-minded Grandpa!)

What a great idea. Excuse me while I write it down.