Take 1 (short): I’m not sure how to convey the gravity of accident, but I’ll put it simply: never have so many gel pens lives been cut short by a single trip through a washing machine.

Take 2: (good news/bad news): Good news – I get to buy new shirts.
Bad news – I have to buy new shirts.

Take 3 (pensive): One would think removing a fistful of gel pens from a shirt pocket before washing would be easy.  But there they sat as chemographic time bombs waiting for me to slip up.  The roar of carnage was silent but the aftermath woud be a stain on the shirt of readiness for a generation.  Let us never forget.

Take 4 (epigraph): Here lies the bodies of a 1/2 dozen gel pens.  The suicide bombers of the laundry world.