MONTREAL – Jason Durant, 21, originally of Oak Ridges, Ontario, was disappointed when the “moleskine” journal that he ordered online turned out to be a journal made out of an actual mole’s skin.
“Having a moleskine journal is a status thing at McGill,” Durant said. “I just wanted to have a more sophisticated ensemble going into my third year, you know? I didn’t really anticipate becoming a modern day animal pelt trader.”
The Journal, purchased online at a now-defunct website named “Madama LeClerc’s Fortunarium,” contains 149 college-ruled pages, which are bound between what appear to be the ventral and dorsal halves of a very large mole.
“It’s grisly,” Durant said. “I wanted to look like a grown-up, not like a grown-up cultist.”
Nevertheless, Durant claims that he will use the notebook in the upcoming semester, both because it is “a heckuva conversation-starter,” and because “it’s kind of cute, once you get past the whole taxidermy aspect.”
Durant’s classmates have mixed opinions on the Journal. Classmate Claude LaBaste, 22, claimed that the Journal was “Superclassique.”
Diana Barton, 19, who sits next to Durant in “Arts Through the Ages,” disagreed, explaining that it was “Creepy! Creepy! Creepy!”
“I’ll be sitting in class, and he’ll be writing in his Journal, and I’ll just keep feeling as though I’m being watched.” Barton told reporters. “I’ll look down, and I’ll see its beady little eyes just looking, you know? What are they looking for?”
Eric Jackson, also 21, remained neutral on the subject, saying, “no big deal. It just looks like a Mole sandwich filled with paper.”
Immediately before press time, however, Durant’s journal ceased being a subject of conversation altogether, after another student received a moleskin journal from Madam LeClerc’s made entirely of excised human moles.
