I learned an important lesson on the plane to Toronto that I thought would be good advice to share. Pay close attention.

ADVICE: Never playfully throw a pencil at your father across the aisle of a Boeing 767. If you DO choose to playfully throw a pencil across the aisle at your father in a Boeing 767, be sure to stop after your first successful hit. The first time it will probably go well. The second time will likely not.

If you choose to disregard the above advice, be forewarned of the following potential dangers.

It is POSSIBLE that the second pencil throw will not gently hit your dad on the arm as it did the first time, but instead, in the most impossible way, bounce off his watch face (that takes a certain amount of initial skill) and fly two seats past him and across the quiet gentleman reading the newspaper, only to land in his aisle several seats across the plane.

If you are unfortunate enough to have experienced this first disatrous occurrence, let me warn you of what will come next. Firstly, everyone involved in the pencil incident will sit stunned for several seconds, including you (the pencil launcher), your father, your onlooking mother, and the accosted and innocent other passenger (the pencil's final desination). Then you will likely colour very dark pink while the generous newspaper-reading passenger says in a good-humoured way, "Well, I was thinking of doing the crossword puzzle" and your father says, "We tried to leave her at home." You will probably colour a little deeper at this point, and possibly get a swat from your mother, who, incidentally, missed any physical connection with the pencil due to your extraordinary aim with the watch face.

All in all, an incident likely to leave many long-term emotional scars. It probably wasn't worth the second pencil throwing attempt.

The moral of the story?
Pencils should really be used for writing.