First Class
PRESENTING ...
A NEW WAY TO PRESENT
You never really know you
need a better mousetrap
until you see it. This is also
true of Papershow, a bet-
ter way of whiteboarding—an activity so common in
the corporate world that the word has merged from
two words to one. It’s simple, right? You stand in front
a bunch of yawning people and draw badly with a
marker, rubbing deer-hunter orange ink onto your
sleeve. It works, in a way, until you want to send your
Rembrandt to the Buenos Aires branch.
Enter Canson and its better mousetrap. Papershow
has three main parts: a magic sheet of paper, a magic
pen and something that looks like a flash drive and
works similarly, plugging into the USB slot of your
computer. Using the pen, you draw your pie charts
on the special paper, which has an invisible grid
baked in. The pen sees what you are drawing and
where (thanks to the grid) and sends that information
via Bluetooth to the USB device, which displays it on
the computer screen. Made a mistake? Scratch it out
and move on. Papershow knows what to do. Like
to write in red? No problem. Thick lines, thin lines?
Piece of cake. And, when you’re finished, save your
work as a PDF or other format and e-mail it back to
the mother ship.
Season of the Witch
Nearly 300 years after the infamous
witch trials in Salem, Mass., Laurie
Cabot was named the city’s “o;cial
witch,” thanks to a citation awarded
her by former Gov. Michael Dukakis
for her work with special needs chil-
dren. These days, Cabot is an out
and proud witch. She owns her own
shop, The Cat, The Crow and The
Crown, where, in addition to selling
merchandise, she teaches classes
and seminars to aspiring witches.
Cabot has known since the age of 3
that she had a wizard’s abilities.
“I was very intuitive,” she says.
“I thought I could hear [people]
speaking when it was just their
thoughts.” Cabot says her intuition
is a common trait, and she helps
people develop theirs.
“It’s a natural part of the human
brain,” she says.
Just in time for All Hallow’s
Eve, interested parties should try
for themselves what Cabot’s got
brewing. Two of her fall o;erings
include “Witchcraft as an Art”
(Sept. 27-30) and “Speaking to
the Dead” (Oct. 2 and Oct. 16).
lauriecabot.com
