Among other things, Goren

"Among other things, Goren" or "A love letter of sorts about Goren and Pentel mechanical pencils" (perhaps "ode" would be a better word than "love letter"? But I already used "ode" recently and I wanted to have a different word choice.)

After a long drought, I finally got to watch an old episode of Law and Order. It was lovely. The second (or third, or fourth, etc) time around you can focus on the little details more. And those can be the best part. Goren's left handedness, that one blue mechanical pencil, his nice hands and gestures, all of it. That was just what I needed after the morning's experience of watching Saving Private Ryan. It was a good movie but not in the happy fun kind of way. 

I rewatched the very first episode of the first season. In it, one of the characters (a guest star) looked a lot like one of the characters in Requiem for a Dream but I checked and it wasn't the same actress. I thought it might have been though. In this episode, Goren wears a watch (on his right wrist, since he's left handed [that's what I do as well, otherwise it interferes when you write]) which he doesn't really do past the first few episodes I think. There's also a part when he's interrogating (ah) someone and his sleeves are rolled up, which is unusual for him but a characteristic of Elliot in SVU. Perhaps they were trying to allude to that. I will always wonder (like about the legs) about the props person who procured that blue mechanical pencil (which is a model that I procured for myself as well, just to have the same kind of pencil as Goren used - throughout the entire series)... I wonder if it was a preference of Vincent's because he thought ink pens would smear, being left handed or was it just something that the props department picked up without a second thought - as long as it writes, it works kind of mentality? Regardless, I admire the consistency of him using that same mechanical pencil throughout the series. It's not my personal favorite model, but I do like the side-advance style which is a feature on my personal favorite mechanical pencil, which also happens to be the Pentel brand which is the brand that Goren's blue mechanical pencil is. If you would like to buy either my favorite kind of mechanical pencil (my specific pencil is green and blue and .7 mm lead thickness, sans the removable eraser because I use a larger rectangular eraser) or the one that Goren uses (I wonder what lead thickness he preferred)*, I've linked to the Pentel website. I have also used the same kind of mechanical pencil for at least 3 years (maybe even before that) which is not as long as Goren did but still a decent amount of time and the one that I have used for so long definitely has sentimental value and I would be rather unhappy if I somehow happened to lose it. Thankfully that has not happened yet. This is an inferior poor man's version of Pentel's side advance mechanical pencils. Don't settle for a pencil like that one. 
[While poking around on the Pentel website for the links there, I thought about my favorite writing utensil brands - Pentel for mechanical pencils, Staedtler (it's German) and Sharpie for markers, and if I used colorful gel pens more often, Gelly Roll. I do use writing utensils of other brands but I don't have a particular affinity for them.] 
*according to Pentel's website, they only make the pencil in blue for the .5 mm and .7 mm models, not the .9 mm one. Assuming this is the way it was in the early 2000s, we can deduce that Goren used .5 mm or .7 mm lead because his pencil was blue. Also, according to the website, that is the very first model of side advance mechanical pencil that they made, and a customer review mentions that they used that same pencil way back in 1981. Also, from reading other reviews, it seems like other people too have the same sentimental feelings towards their preferred mechanical pencils.  

It was a pleasant enjoyable experience to watch Goren again and think about all those little things that I like about that character. I think a few nights ago I had a dream which I don't remember a ton about, but I think I was in a parking garage with someone/some people (police officers, I think they might have been? And I was with them) and I was telling them how Goren is my favorite character, and I think perhaps he was even there too, in the garage but at a bit of a distance. I wonder if I'll ever encounter someone similar to that - an intelligent, perceptive, worldly NYPD detective like him. I do wonder. Does someone like that indeed exist in the real world? 

In any case, that's enough fawning for now and I think the proper course of action now is to watch something with James D'Arcy in it so I can fawn over him too. 
I also think I might be good at being a set decorator because I have great attention to detail. 
Also, I have gotten an idea - if in any other tv show or movie I happen to notice that a specific writing utensil is used, I'll try to make note of it. Maybe I will even apply this to other people that I encounter - a record of all the writing utensils I encounter over the course of some amount of time... that actually sounds interesting.