Wooden Notebook Case: High-Class or Shop-Class?

Over at Gizmodo, Kat Hannaford has this to say about the kind of person who might by this wooden notebook case:
You know that eccentric uncle, who sits surrounded by leather-bound books in his study, drinking whisky? That?s how I imagine these laptop cases smell..
When I read this, my hair prickled on my neck. I am that eccentric uncle, and I sit in my ?study? surrounded by old books and dusty gadgets, sipping whisky. The synchronicities then pile up in a Jungian whirlwind: When I was in school, we made pencil-cases in shop-class (called ?woodwork? in dusty old 1970s England) that were just smaller versions of this heavy, over-protective laptop case. Plywood, front and back? Check. Varnish chosen to make the wood look as cheap as possible? Check. Leather-lined interior and rare-earth magnets to hold it closed?
Actually, no. We were on a budget, and I believe the only way I knew to make a magnet as strong as these was to wrap a wire around a nail and hook it up to a transformer (which I did do, and often). But those aren?t the only differences. The wooden pencil-boxes we made cost pocket-money. These boxes, just as ugly as mine, top out at a pocket-stripping $350 for the 17-incher. I obviously can?t afford that. All my spare cash goes on whisky.
MacBook Pro cases [Rainer Spehl via Kat Hannaford]
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