Greatest Pen Spinning Video Ever

Way back in May 2009, OWL’s annual “How to…” feature told you — and some of us OWL editors, too — how to spin a pencil on your thumb. What the feature didn’t tell you (because, honestly, we had no idea) is that there are tournaments for such things.

Check it out:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UCtOZzPYg8]

This event took place in January in Hong Kong, which is only one of the many places this dizzying new pastime is taking off. According to Wikipedia, pen spinning has a dedicated following in Japan, South Korea, and the U.S.

Here are three other things I learned while writing this post:

1. Pen spinning is considered a form of “contact juggling”;
2. There are different types and classes of juggling (who knew?);
3. The name “Hong Kong” comes from a Cantonese word that means “fragrant habour” in English.

Awesome! That’s it for me today, OWL readers. If you don’t have a copy of the May 2009 issue of OWL and want to learn how to spin a pencil on your thumb, click here.

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com