In a New York Daily News profile, artisanal pencil sharpener, comedian, and Melville House author David Rees describes how he got into the business. Hint: It had nothing to do with George Bush no longer being president and suddenly making Rees’ hilarious, anti-Bush  Get Your War On cartoon suddenly not being quite so, er, relevant — the man just loves pencils. Now, he’s sharpened hundreds of pencils for $15 a pop.

What’s more, he’s become so convinced that he can change the world by sharpening pencils that he convinced us to publish his how-to/manifesto, How to Sharpen Pencils. It pubs this week, and you can get a little taste of it in the demonstration video below, where he actually gives three tips from the book on how you can sharpen pencils at home — for free.