This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Exactly. There's nothing like unicorn bacon.
Hello, and welcome to episode 26 of Erasable, our first anniversary episode. I am on hosting duty tonight. I'm Johnny Gamber, and I am joined with the two presents that I hope I get for my birthday every year. Tim Wasem and Andy Welfle. How's it going?
Hey, Johnny.
Hey, Johnny.
Happy, happy Year Iversary. And Happy Pencil Day.
Yeah, Happy Pencil Day, guys. So tonight we are joined by Caroline Weaver of the CW Pencil Enterprise. Which is good. It's good to talk to Caroline, because the entire idea of this place existing seems so fantastic. I still don't really believe it's real.
It's sort of like if we had, like, it would be so awesome if we could, like, meet up and do a live podcast. It just sort of feels like that.
No, this isn't really there.
She just, like, took her interest in pencils and just, like, just ran with it. Made a store.
Yeah. If I, like, stumbled across that store in New York City, I'd probably slowly back away in astonishment until I got hit by a car.
And then you turn around and you look back, and all of a sudden it's gone.
No, I would get hit by a car, and it would just be, like, over.
Do you remember that scene in Amelie where and she sees Nino and she melts?
Oh, yeah.
Puddle of water. That would be me. Yep. Where'd Johnny go?
Yeah. There you go.
So shall we start? As we start every week with our tools of the trade?
Yes, indeed. I am, of course, drinking sad distilled water. It's also because I am drinking the sad distilled water. I don't know. I have a very sad writing instrument, too, which is my nose after rubbing it in graphite filings, so it's hard to read. It's very smudgy.
Is it sad water which is distilled, or is it water which is distilled?
Sadly, both, actually. Do you remember that documentary from the 90s or the early 2000s called what the Bleep Do We Know? No, it was like this speculative documentary. It was about, like. Like a bunch of sort of, I don't know, New age holistic kind of stuff. And they. They said that, like, water has personality, or if you, like, shout, like, emotions into water, it will change the molecular structure or something. It was very speculative. But. But, yeah, distilled water was, like, specifically, like, devoid of emotions and therefore sad. So.
Wow. Yeah, wow. I nailed that one.
I watched it. I watched it. I can't even remember when it came out, but I watched it in a little like a theater and it just blew my mind. I was like, oh, man. And I just look back and I just cringe a little bit. No, I am. I am drinking. I had a PBR earlier because I was inspired by Tim. I don't mean to steal your thunder, Tim, but actually I've been drinking a lot of Sapporo lately. I went to this good stuff, man. Yeah. I went to this good Japanese restaurant and had some and I just decided to buy some for myself.
So.
Super bubbly.
Yeah.
Is your Sapporo in San Francisco? From Japan or from Canada?
Let me look.
It's Baltimore. We get it from Canada. It's not Japanese.
Brewed and can by Sapporo Brewing Company, La Crosse, Wisconsin.
What?
For Sapporo usa. New York, New York.
Okay.
So San Francisco Sapporo comes from Wisconsin. It's probably just done it like the
San Francisco Japanese Sapporo comes from Wisconsin.
They probably just do it at the Miller factory and they make pbr. PBR is from Miller.
Oh, it's in Miller. Workers make it in the Miller Brewery.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Yeah, my great uncle was a very big PBR drinker.
Is your uncle Hipster?
We had a lot of tattoos, but it was in the airborne. So when he died, we started drinking pbr. Like, let's try this for Uncle Harry. And this was back when it was really cheap.
Yeah.
Like, oh, my God, this is good. And then a couple months later, we noticed the cool kids drank it. So we put it away for a while. Especially if you drink that much or something, you get tired of it. Like, this is how much for a 30 pack.
If hipsters really want to go wild, they should start drinking Schlitz or Strozz.
They do. In my city, they drink that and Shaffer. Oh, yeah, Schaefer tastes good, but if you walk past the can, you've got a headache the next day.
I hate Stroz. I have a friend who would drink Stroz and oh, man, it's so nasty. Yeah. So anyhow, yeah, I'm drinking a Sapporo, writing with my Blackwing 602 in the second to last page of my Ambition notebook. So I'm hoping. I know, I'm hoping to start up. Well, there's two new pocket notebooks I'm going to talk to you about today. So it's going to be one of those. I don't know which yet. So how about you, Tim? What are you drinking and writing with?
Well, it's sort of A complicated question.
Of course.
Usually I'm actually drinking cookies and milk, which is milk that I have just been soaking cookies in for the last, like, four or five hours.
So it's a little bit like oatmeal right now.
Yeah. Just kind of like, disintegrates.
It's like Irish oatmeal.
Yeah.
A little thicker.
And I'm. I'm writing with a goose quill that I actually sharpened with my teeth and dipped in the blood of the last unicorn, which died in my backyard yesterday.
Okay. Did you shoot it or did it just like.
No, I just dropped dead.
Get out of my yard, unicorn.
It was like a. Yeah, it was like a cartoon. Just kind of went stiff and fell over sideways.
Well, I saw that you were writing in your. In your rare field notes, and it just died.
Yeah. Is it my yellow two rivers? And it was like its horn just fell off. So what color is.
What color is unicorn blood?
It doesn't have a color.
It depends.
It's different to different people. Right. Initially, how pure is your heart?
Depends on how you feel about the fact that it's dead.
Yeah.
Which is so. I mean, I was sort of conflicted, of course. I was like, am I crazy? Does this thing exist?
But, hey, free unicorn meat.
But. Exactly. There's nothing like unicorn bacon to have in the morning. So it was purple. Yeah.
It's blue when I see it. What does that mean?
Means you're sad, man.
I'm double bummed.
Yeah. Sorry. Sorry, Johnny. So I am actually drinking, as we alluded to, early a pbr. PBR Tallboy. And I have to give a shout out on the Facebook page to Corey Roth, who posted on my picture of my setup for tonight's episode, and he said, pbr Tall boys, you're definitely ready for opening day. So. Which is exactly right. Which is why I'm. Why I am.
I forgot to post my setup. I'll do that after the show.
Yeah. And I'm writing with a vintage laddie, which I am now flush with, so I'll get to. Later. Johnny, how about you? What are you writing with?
Well, I'm looking at the app or the doc. Sorry. The doc says I am drinking an upside down cake, which is comprised of four ounces of rum, two cups of sugar, not sure which kind of sugar, one can of ginger ale, and one scoop of butter pecan ice cream, which is supposed to be a joke, but actually sounds delicious. I would totally try this. Might make me sick, but I'll try it.
Yeah, two cups of sugar and one Drink.
Yeah, I have a sweet tooth, sir.
Hopefully you have a mouthful of them, because that's going to be like.
That's going to be the mother of all headaches.
What's wrong with Johnny? He's dead.
Diabetes.
As for writing, I mean, whatever, dude. We're all going to die anyway.
It actually says that on the page.
My philosophy degree talking. I'm drinking the last of the Jameson from St Patrick's Day, although I really bought it in March, which just shows how little I actually drink lately, which makes me sad, but also glad. I don't know why. And I'm writing really great.
Until he stopped drinking.
Man, driving got boring. He's talking really quickly. I'm writing with a really cool pencil I'll talk about later. Called the Bic Extra fun. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's extra fun. Oh, yeah. So instead of doing the pencil of the week this week, since it's our one year anniversary, we're going to reflect a little bit on one year of pencil blogging, which is something that only the three of us in the whole history of humanity could do.
Pencil podcasting, you mean?
What did I say?
Blogging.
We record that, man.
Leave it.
Yeah, I'm gonna leave this in, but I'm gonna edit that a little bit.
Sugar.
Two cups of sugar.
Two cups of sugar.
Okay.
Pencil podcasting.
Okay. So one year into pencil podcasting, something of which only the three of us can reflect on, what do you guys think and feel about pencil podcasting? One year in? I feel very good about it. I'm really surprised that people listen to a pencil podcast.
The are sort of like, like, I don't want to get all like, metrics and like advertising on you, but, like, the amount of audience that we acquired really quickly. Well, first of all, it's probably entirely due to the pen addict. Thanks, Brad. Yeah, thanks, Brad and Mike. But it's. It's amazing to me how quickly we built an audience and just kind of kept that and even. Even more so. And you guys probably agree with this. Like, like more so than the podcast. Like, the community that we've just built on Facebook is insane. I mean, in over amazingly good way. Yeah, 500.
So many are active. Yeah.
So, like, I just tell people, hey, we have, you know, we have this many listeners. We have 500 people in our Facebook group, and there's like cool original content every single day. Like multiple times a day is amazing. So it's, it's interesting to me because I feel like I've learned a lot of new skills, like audio Editing. And that's definitely. I am not a skilled audio editor, as anybody who's ever listened to show knows.
I think you do a good job.
Well, thank you. And. But then also, like just all the things we've done, like the Teespring campaign we've done and sticker runs and.
Yeah, those things went crazy.
Yeah. E commerce sites, which we'll talk about later. Yeah, so it's. It's been a really interesting experience and I've definitely done things that I wouldn't have just normally done running my pencil blog.
Yeah, true that. It's been just. It's just been a kind of overwhelming how well it's gone and how supported feel in doing it. Because when we first got this thing going, it was just kind of like a, you know, just natural. Like we all really want this to happen and wish there was this podcast. So we wish this was a thing and so let's just do it. Let's just make it a thing. And it just went so well and we have a community that's stronger than I ever would have imagined us stumbling into. And so we obviously couldn't have done this with it, like you said, without the Pan addict being so kind as to promote it in the first place. But more, I think, even more so than them. I mean, they were great getting us some exposure, but the group has been so supportive. It's just been kind of unbelievable. I mean, still, it's a year later and I actually have had a few conversations in the last couple days with people about spring break. We're like, what are you doing over spring break? I say, well, I got a recording session for a podcast I'm doing. They're like, you do a podcast? And I go through this whole thing and still by the end of it, they look at me like, huh? Yeah, it's definitely my.
It's definitely my quirk. Like, you know, my icebreaker.
Yeah. Yeah. I was talking to someone about it recently and they're like, what do you have two or three listeners? It's like, no, we have like three or 4,000.
Yeah.
No way.
Or when I tell people that the episodes are an hour long, they're like an hour long. I was expecting you to say like 15 minutes. Just about pencils and which. The argument I make with anybody is like, if you're passionate about something and interested about something, if you get into anything enough, you're going to be able to talk about it. I mean, that's the point. I mean, there's no. Nothing that you're really into should be able to be talked about in 15 minutes at a sitting. Like, which I think just says a lot about. And this is the next thing I want to say is just how thankful I am for you two. Like, we've never met in person, but this. I don't think this would have nearly gone as well if we didn't have a group that felt so comfortable and able to just talk for an hour and a half about this stuff and not feel any sort of reserve about that and enjoy it and want it to go for three hours, you know, and have to hold ourselves back. So, yeah, thank you, guys, because it's been a lot of fun. I can't imagine it not. Not having it around.
Yeah. I think when it's done, I'm done pencil blogging, too. Never happened to our podcast. That's it.
Oh, man, this is my favorite thing. I can't be held responsible for that. For the end of revolution.
Yeah, I don't really write that much on my blog anymore. It's. It's more fun.
It's true. My wood clinch has definitely suffered because of erasable, but at the same time, I don't feel like it's really suffered because, you know, we've been doing such cool stuff here. So.
Yeah, it's like writing arsenal. I never got off the ground anyway, so it was like, whatever. I posted, like, 15 times.
Hey, you have. You've been way more active lately than
I have, like, in the last four days.
Hey, man, you're letting the fire under the butts.
Yeah. No pressure. Yeah.
Yeah. If we have another year that's half as good as this one, then there'll be a third year.
Yeah.
I think speaking only for myself.
Yeah.
By that point, we will have literally talked about everything to do with pencils, and we'll run out of things.
No. New stuff keeps coming out.
Start talking about eyebrow pencils now.
There's a new pencil store. Bic is coming out with weird stuff.
Yeah. I can't wait to talk about that Bic stuff, because it's amazing to me. I showed Katie. She's like, what? But anyhow, spoilers. Should we talk about fresh points?
Amen.
Let's do it.
All right. I think the biggest fresh point that we. That we all have is something that we announced in the group, but we're. We actually had an opportunity to talk about the podcast now, and that is stickers. Yay. We have. We decided, unlike last time, when we did stickers and we ran out, we ordered 200 of them and we sold through them in. What was it. Was it 24 hours or was it like 36 hours?
I thought it was less than that.
Yeah, it was really quick. Like, we didn't even get a chance to like sell them on the podcast. Just the group members.
Just.
Yeah, everybody in Europe bought them.
This time around, we decided to do a pre order. So we're gathering orders and then I'm going to place an order with Sticker Mule and have these things made. And then in quantities that we can actually keep a little bit in stock after, we have two really amazing ones. Because we decided to do stickers last time that we were not going to replicate again. This time around, we changed it up a little bit. It is instead of a circle, it is in kind of a soft hex, kind of a semi hex, if you will. And it's in a blue, like a dark blue. And we changed up some of the pencils so it looks like a Blackwing pearl instead of the Blackwing mmx. There is a. I think we had a blue. A blue palomino before, and now we have a orange palomino. And then just the old standard field notes pencil and Ticonderon Rogo, which of course, none of these are actually branded with those. They're just. They're based on the pencil vector pack that my friend Tony Hedrick made. So we have those. We're selling those $2. It's a 2.5-inch vinyl sticker. It's about the same size as the last one. $2 each, or a three pack for $5. And we also have. I don't remember, did we talk about this sticker that TJ made last time or this design?
I don't think we did.
I don't think so.
Okay. Oh, wait.
Yes, yes, we mentioned it.
Okay, cool.
But it's worth mentioning again.
Heck, yeah. Yeah. So TJ Cosgrove, a new friend of the show, and I'm hoping to have him on really soon. Oh, yeah, if we can coordinate with his. His UK time zone. Stupid greenish mean time. No, if we can coordinate with him, we have. He has. He has made a kind of a banner for erasable alpha of the Eberhard Faber Blackwing boxes from, like the mid century, the blue and yellow striped ones. It's really, really cool. And we turned it into a bumper sticker. So it's gonna be two and a half boom. Two and a half inches tall and eight inches wide, which is really good. Yeah, it came up.
Interrupt you.
Yeah, no, you're completely right. We obviously haven't printed them yet, but in the size that it is, I think it'll look really good. Like either on a car bumper or on a computer or it's probably a little big to wrap around, like, a pencil box or something.
I'm gonna put mine on my base case.
Heck, yeah. Yeah, that's.
I was thinking the same thing. Guitar case.
Yeah, I've got some on there that are almost 20 years old. Dating myself.
What does your wife have to say about that?
We're sticking up. You're talking to me.
No, Johnny said he's dating. Dating himself.
Nice.
She's happy about it. She gets more free time.
Anyhow, I don't know what happened to the show. Luckily, nobody's listening.
Just got weird, man.
I'm just dating myself right now because I just need some time.
Just some me time. This is. Yeah. So this is going to be 8. 8 inches wide by 2 1/2 inches high. And it's about the size of an actual pencil box.
Ish.
And yeah, $5 for each because it's a nice big guy. Or $12 for a three pack. Save a few bucks. Three bucks. Yeah, so. And a little bit of that money will go back to tj. So you will be supporting awesome independent filmmakers if you purchase. So, yeah, that is at Erasable Us Shop. I think that we'll probably take orders for another, like, three, four, five days or so and then make a purchase. So, yeah, it'll be awesome. I can't wait. And Johnny, you said you'll help with distribution, right?
Absolutely. I live, like, a block from the post office. Very cool.
So, yeah, that's stickers. The second thing I wanted to talk about is really just kind of a shameless plug that. That I am kind of excited about on my other podcast, which, of course, I don't like as much as you guys.
It's a very good podcast.
Yeah, it is. Yeah. Our most recent episode, we talked about gifs. I don't know if any of you guys heard that.
I didn't get the list of that one yet.
Not yet.
I'm saving that for some good listening time.
If you just want to hear me just rant about, like, stupid gifts for 84 minutes, then it's perfect. It's. It was something I've been wanting to do for a long time to talk about that, and it just seemed like a good opportunity. But the episode before episode five, we talked to Aaron Draplin from Field Notes and from Draplin Design Company, which I can't even imagine. It was like, it Blows my mind still thinking about it. It was so much fun. Will. Will was talking with, helping him of crowdsource, a poster of Louisiana that Draplin made. And while he was talking to him, he asked for me to be on our podcast. He's like, sure. I was like, what? So Will has a pretty good hustle. And we. It just so happened. It just so worked out that we talked to him the day before the new Field Notes Two Rivers released. So we actually got a little bit of insight about 24 hours before the announcement was made, which just blew my mind. I just wanted. I just wanted to rub it in. Just everybody in field nuts faces, like,
so
I didn't laugh at that.
Yeah, I didn't. I did not. I did not do that. But, yeah, that was. That was a lot of. That was a big. That was a fun interview.
That was a really good episode.
Yeah.
I really enjoyed listening a lot. He's just. Which we had talked about this offline, but he's such an inspiring person because he just definitely knows who he is. He has a really strong sense of self and. And really convicted. And just the parts where he's talking about doing work for his friends and just saying, like, I'm just going to do that for him. I mean, why would I charge? I mean, just. He just seems like somebody who is unfiltered in the very, very best way that, like, makes you a better person, not just makes you an a hole. You know, he's. Some people are unfiltered, but it just makes them sound like, yeah, like, yeah, this is what I feel. You know, but like, with him, it's like he is that way. He's unfiltered. He's saying his mind, but it, for him, it makes him better. So I really, really, really appreciated that.
And especially in a world where, you know, there's a lot of designers and advertising companies and everything, everything where people are just like, just very fake and kind of too. They talk out of both sides of the mouth. Like, Aaron Draplin is a super, super, super authentic, like, just fresh guy. Like, he's so much fun to talk to.
Yeah.
So if and when Mr. Draplin ever has bullet pencils, he should come and talk to us. So now that we have that connection. So, yeah, we talked to him. I'll have a link in show notes here, which is erasable us 26 show notes. I'll have a link to that dot grid episode which leads into the next topic, field notes two rivers.
Oh, my God.
This is. This. It's really cool. It's just unlike just even remotely like anything they've done before.
They even smell better.
Yeah, they smell like old like print shops. Yeah.
Yeah. This is my first. Well I subscribed on ambition, so I got a set of ambition for my first one. So this is my first. Just kind of waiting to see what shows up.
Yeah.
One of my subscription and I was, I was pretty happy. I mean I feel like just to be honest, I love everything about the mission of it, what it's doing, but they're not my favorite. But I still just. That's totally eclipsed by the fact that they're doing something really cool for this like old analog style of printing, which I really, really appreciate, like way more and I do love it. But I feel like I'm putting my foot in my mouth right now. But I think they're great. But I wasn't like totally smitten with the look of them, just like in a pure aesthetic. But the mission of them I think is a plus. Like really awesome. And I will, I do like, I mean I'll use them and I love the variety and I love that there's not one that's the same as another.
So I'm gonna make enemies and say that I like that. This is another anti collector edition, especially following on some of Aaron's comments in the Deck Grid podcast. They're like just use them. They're notebooks.
Yeah.
Send your hate mail to me.
So I'll briefly describe the edition for people who have not seen it and I'm willing to bet that all of our listeners have. But just in case, so they, they. Where should I start? There's a company in Wisconsin in Two Rivers, Wisconsin called the Hamilton Type Wood Type Museum. And it's kind of a. It's preserving analog print letterpress, specifically like woodblock letterpress. And they, it's a non profit. They need some financial help and field notes and French Paper company teamed up and said, hey, we will
if we
can make these here, these, these letterpress notebooks. We will donate proceeds from every sale of notebooks to the Hamilton type companies or type museums. So they are. There's three different. Or maybe there's four different paper options. There's a white, a craft brown, a yellow and what's the other color?
Blue. Blue.
Blue, yeah.
Snow cone. Snow cone, yeah.
Yeah, that's true. So there's, there's those colors of paper which French Paper Company donated and then there are two different applications of ink. Each one can be four different colors. So there's somebody calculated. There's something like 4,500 different variations that it could be. And then on top of that, there's different rotations of the actual press. Like, it's not always right side up. And it just kind of ends up looking like some cool kind of chaotic. Just like. I think it's called a make good. Is that what you call it? Where if you're just running the paper through a letterpress to just try it out to make sure it's working right. Whoa. Somebody.
Johnny, are you okay?
That was me.
Johnny.
Dropped almost. I almost dropped my microphone.
So drop the mic.
So Tim's right. Yeah. It definitely doesn't have the same aesthetic as other field notes, which is a little bit more, like, clean and minimalist. This one is definitely messy and crazy. So. Yeah. But it's. It's really cool.
It's a really neat concept. I'm sorry. I interrupt you.
No, go on.
I missed the suggested uses in this one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did, too.
They had a thing about French paper companies and the. The whole project instead of suggested uses. So maybe we'll just have to.
They're interesting. Yeah.
Yeah.
It uses bragging about how many yellow ones you got.
So it seems like maybe the yellow. The lemon drops, as they call them in the field notes group. It seems like maybe they're a little bit more rare.
Yeah.
So, like, I ordered two packs.
Whatever, dude.
No, I got three packs, and I. I don't have any of them. And then Johnny got. You got three, right?
Well, in my subscription, I got two, and then my daughter got a pack, and she got another yellow one.
And you're using them as toilet paper, is that right?
Well, we're highly. Toilet paper. I have a cold, so one of them I've used to collect boogers. I'm keeping them as a museum. It's my spring 2015 seasonal change. Booger scrap. Like, I just crossed a line.
Turn the page, sneeze. Turn the page, sneeze.
Going on to booger jokes. This is what we've become after a year. Yeah.
Once I hit staple day, it's onto the neti pot. And then it just proves how durable those notebooks are.
So, yeah, they're. They're definitely really interesting. There's somebody in the group who posted a variation that was really neat where it just so happened that this one had the same. The same letter press in the same direction. Like, the same wood block in the same direction.
Oh, yeah.
That was slightly offset, so it looked like a shadowing. That was really Cool.
Yeah. Be really neat.
Yeah. And so. And I know somebody and I just can't remember the name. Somebody in the field notes group said that his. He has like a small reseller of field notes on his. Like on his online shop and he said that he got a yellow in every single one of them, so.
Oh, that was at Zeller, I think. Yeah.
That's rude. Yeah. So if you're a member of the field nuts group, check out that post and find out if you really want to let him drop.
I made a little chart and I figured that fieldnotes wouldn't be mean and put two of the same cover stocks in the same pack, which turns out not to be true. And then I figured, you know, to a subscriber, they wouldn't send you the same three pack. So by picking four color cover stacks, you would definitely get one of each four with every two pack if those conditions existed. But those conditions did not exist.
I think. I think it was truly random. Like a lot of people were trying to find a pattern in the distribution of these, but I think it was just truly random.
It was like an under the table middle finger that was enjoyable, even if they didn't mean it. Like. Yeah, a completist.
Yeah. Yeah. You literally cannot be a completist unless you just buy out the entire run.
There are probably three people that are really trying to collect them all.
Yeah.
I'm sorry if I offend you, but that's. Wow.
Yeah. So. So I guess you can try to like, you know, get one of every paper stock and get one of every, like, wood block and one of every ink color, something like that.
But yeah, when mine came, I didn't get a white and I had two yellows. So Gary and I were talking and Gary and I did a trade before I knew yellow was rare. Very cool. Should have tried to bribe him for some cool pencils. But we send each other cool pencils too. Anyway.
Yeah.
So it's all good.
Yeah.
I also want to talk about. So I've posted some pictures to Instagram lately that I'm Had a lot of fun with. I've talked about it before, but at Facebook they have a place called the Analog Research Lab. And essentially it's just like a little part where there's. We have some, like, screen printers and some letterpress. Some letterpress machines and we make posters and they do wayfinding signs. Like they serve an actual purpose in the company. They're not just like, you know, just a fun place where you can go, but they have classes and Screen printing and letterpress. So since our last recording I was able to use both of these and it was really fun. I actually got to use a. It's called a proof press. So like in a. In a book or a newspaper you would use a smaller pressure with your kind of like typeset in order to make. To print to make sure that everything was set correctly. You could make any edits if you needed to before you send it off to the like big automated presses. So yeah, we have a proof press at the Analog research lab and we got to make a letterpress. So we were all kind of assembling ours and so I decided to make one for erasable. So the two of you, I have. I have some stuff I need to send you in the mail. Going to send you a letterpress erasable. Just piece of paper. So.
That's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome.
It's. It was fun. It was. It's amazing how just sort of like mind blowingly analog. It really is because they have some like old woodblock type. And for example, the A on one of my erasable letters wasn't showing up very well. And Nick, the guy who was kind of leading the class was like, oh, that's because it's probably worn down a little bit. So we just have to kind of bring it up a little bit. So he tears off a piece of paper and he puts it between like the tray and the type so it sits up a little higher and then it was fine. And it just. It's like fixing a wobbly table with a sugar packet or something like that.
It's.
It's like so analog that I just. You just don't even think about needing to do that. But it works. It was a lot of fun. The last thing I want to mention before we move on to Tim and his fresh points. I have been getting into index cards lately. I am trying out a new kind of organizational system where I'm probably over complicating it. But I'm taking my kind of online things, which is an app, like a to do list app I use and then an index card for every day at work. And I just kind of write down the things I need to do that day. And I had some kind of crappy index cards. I bought some also crappy index cards. It's hard to find good index cards out there. So I finally found something at the Mito store, some Japanese company I can't remember the name of because they don't have that in front of me. They're actually really good. They have a soft gray lining graph on it, and it has one hole punch kind of in the middle of it on one side. So, yeah, it's really nice. I was Gonna get the dot the dot dash note index cards from NotCo. They're really nice, but I just kind of ran across this, so I bought these. So, yeah, these are pretty nice. I talked to the group about what their favorite index cards are, and there's some neat ones out there. There's an exacomta index card that costs. I want to say it's like $25 for 50 of them, which seems a little much.
What I know.
For Fernando's card, I'll have to check and make sure. I think Topher was showing it to me. Yeah, they look really cool, and I'm sure they're amazing quality, but, like. Yeah, I go through one of these a day.
Isn't he a fan of the Bristol? Is that the one that he uses? I feel like he's recommended one before because he uses them a lot.
Yeah, yeah, he has those. He has some dot dash ones, which are really nice cards. I've gotten things written on the dot dash cards, and they're great. I like them a lot. I just didn't happen to buy them. I think I'm gonna pick up a pack eventually, though. There's some. You can get them in blue and orange, like, with an orange, like. Like the line on it.
Oh, that's cool.
Yeah. And they're called that dash because they're at the intersection of where the graphs meet. It's a dot and then there's space, and then there's a dash, like horizontal and vertical. So it has kind of a cool. A cool pattern to it. So.
Yeah.
So I would be interested in hearing from any of you if you have any recommendations of index cards, because I just don't know much about them. I have not. I have not used them very much.
Yeah, I use them. I use them every day at school, and I just have the cheap ones. Like, I think they're even, like, up and up brand, target brand. But I use them with my students all the time. Yeah, I like, pass them out the door, and then I use them just for lists and things like that.
Yeah. How thick are they?
They're actually. So there's. I'm trying to remember what the other cheapo brand is, but there's one cheapo brand that I really don't like with pencils. But the up and up ones, I actually do. I do like, but they're If I had to guess what's, let's see, like Facebook or not Facebook field notes. Paper inside is what, 50 pound? Yeah, I'd say there's 70.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah.
So I think, I think I like like an 80 years or so pound them, but yeah, I'll pick some at Target. That sounds good.
Yeah.
So my last fresh point, and I thought that was my last, but apparently I have more. I went into San Francisco today and I went to this really cool comic shop called Two Cats Comics with my friend Jake. And this is a cool comic shop where one of my podcasting heroes, Merlin man, goes a lot. He talks about it a lot. And I picked up this really cool thing. They had a little shelf where they had pocket size field. Exactly. Field note size notebooks made out of comic book cover.
Oh, they're actually made out of comic book cover.
Yeah, I think what they.
Oh, that's really cool.
I'm not 100% sure of this, but I think that because that's pretty thin, they attach it to like a cardboard substrate somehow and then, then put it with some graph paper and cut it. So this thing is exactly the size of a field notes. And that's pretty awesome. Yeah, they had some there. Like they had one for Saga, which is one of the new. What am I trying to say? Well, like one of the new comics, like graphic novels there. It's a comic. I'm sorry, out there, but I picked up like an old vintage Batman one. I got one with Batman and, and Robin on the COVID saying just like talking to each other. And then there's some like boosh and blam. Kind of big sound effects on there too. On the back it has like these geese and they're going whack, whack, whack, whack. Oh, no, they're penguins. Oh, never mind. Obviously
for the penguins seems so obvious,
so I'll post a picture of this to the group. But yeah, they're super cool. I'm considering using this as my next field notes, but I'm not sure yet. So. Yeah, that's my, that's my cool ask point. Tim, how about you? What are your fresh points today?
The first one I was gonna mention was a Kickstarter that I backed kind of last second. It was, I think literally, I mean, it was within 30 minutes of it ending or something. But the 80 pages Kickstarter, did you see this?
Yeah, I did.
Yeah. So it's, I mean it was really simple and it was a really low buy in. I think it was eight bucks. Or something like that. And it's a group New York City. It kind of has like a. As far as the, the what they're trying to do. It's kind of a Baron fig sort of feel to it in that it's like, you know, just like super hip kind of designer type. People putting together a notebook that is supposed to be, you know, best possible notebook. And it's. And I got mine not too long ago. Yeah. So I backed it and it was a single single notebook. Single like pocket size notebook. And I'm just comparing it. It is exactly field note size.
Huh.
And it is, it's got like a forest green cover and like a yellow stitch along the binding. And I was just gonna ask and see if, if like you all had looked into it. Do you know anything about these?
I think I saw it, but it kind of. I feel like it started among like a. Like a wave of them. So. Yeah, I don't know much about it. What do you. I'm interested in why you backed it.
Well, there's not much to say. I really backed it because it was cheap. I was just like, whatever, it's cheap. I mean, the idea was that it's 80 pages. So it's a little bit bigger than a field notes.
Yeah.
Because I guess a field notes comes out to 48 pages. So it's like almost twice the size,
but it's not so big. Like one of the like say the Moleskine. The Moleskine notebooks that are like a couple hundred pages.
Right. The Moleskine ones, are they, Are they that big? I don't know.
Maybe not. I think they're the same sizes. The callers are 64 and the regular ones are 192.
Yeah.
Okay.
Catalog.
Yeah.
So it's somewhere in between.
Yeah.
It's a really good looking notebook. It's, it's, it's a little. The problem with me is that I can't put it in my wallet because it's. It'd be too fat to. Because I have that. Cody. Cody Williams wallet.
Yeah.
But it's a good looking notebook and I, it's. It just says 80 pages made in New York City on the back letter pressed in. And then inside the back cover it says 011113. So it's like the number notebook that you got of the first pressing. They're really simple, really nice. I'll definitely use it. I'm looking forward to it. But it's. I mean, the one thing I did notice is that the. I haven't Tried it with anything other than pencil, but the papers sort of rough, so it's got a lot of tooth to it, which I. The only thing I'd ever written with was a ladee and it kind of disintegrated as I was writing, so.
So it's not a great toothier than like scout books.
I've never tried a scout book actually, so. But I mean it's. If this says anything, it's visibly toothy.
Oh my.
Like I'm just looking at the paper and I can like see the texture to it. So it's pretty heavy paper.
Is that the company that had the. The tiny little pencils printed that went with the notebooks? I can sell them on Instagram.
The shittiest. Oops. They are the crappiest pencils I've ever used. Yes. That look cool. Yeah, they look great, but they're all
baby pencils are cute. Mm.
Yeah, it came with. It came with one pencil, so. But anyways, I was just checking it. They're really cool looking, kind of like Notre Dame colors and I'll definitely use it at some point, but it's not super pencil friendly.
Can't get with that.
Yeah, sorry. The second thing I was going to bring up was that pencils.com for their, I guess anniversary is doing a haiku contest. Did you see this?
I did.
No.
Yeah, they're doing like pencil haikus. So you submit pencil a haiku that is pencil themed and you're in the running to win is some weird number, like 52 anniversary T shirts or something like that. Which.
Yeah, that's a lot of T shirts.
Yeah, yeah. Which. And I don't think that I'm hoping they're not relying solely on haiku submissions, but I submitted one, so I think I'm gonna get a t shirt.
Like 10 years ago I wrote about a dozen haikus about the Murado pencil. Yeah. When it was still made in America. Because I lived somewhere very boring and I did that one time. Like, seriously, I've like 10 of them.
I find them sort of like lined up really nicely when this happened because I haven't like written a haiku in. In forever, but I had just gotten into them.
Didn't Baron Fig have a haiku project?
They do, yeah.
Project, yeah.
Is this still going on?
Oh yeah, yeah. It's like a branch of their website. It's like a cool stuff. Yeah, yeah. Because I actually was inspired to delete some games from my phone and just do that. So like I'll just pull my phone out if I'm like killing time somewhere and I'll just pull that up and like do some haiku, like group haiku things. But I had gotten actually into haiku recently, like, re. You know, gotten reinterested in it or whatever because of. I got a book of baseball haiku, which I think I told you guys about. But yeah. Which is an amazing book and like, really smart book. This huge introduction about, like, why baseball and haiku fit together so well, which I could talk about for an hour, but I'm not going to talk about it right now for your sake.
That's for your haiku podcast.
Yes. Right. So I wrote them a haiku that is a blend of baseball and pencils. And it goes like this. Fresh spiral scorebook. Warm winds sweeps, cedar shavings, ump throws, strike to mound.
Huh.
I like that for a while. Let that sink in. I'm just kidding. That was my haiku for baseball starting. I love pencils and, you know, spring training. So that's. I think everybody should go and try to write one. I'd like to see more. So I'd like to read some pencil haikus. This is a quick one. I was just gonna mention that I have officially been writing in my first Baron Fig confidant. And it's the Maker. The Maker confidant. And it is amazing notebook. There's something so perfect about it like that I'm just experiencing for the first time.
I've got the perfect word for it, but I'll watch it later. Ah, spoiler.
Well, you can. We can wait. We can wait. Just. We'll make people wait.
Put a pin in that.
There's. There's something. There's something really perfect about the size. The paper is amazing. I've used it with fountain pens and pencils and I love it. And the size, the dimensions of it are really amazing for a just kind of everyday jot stuff down kind of notebook.
So what paper format did you get again?
I got blank. Okay. So. And I think it's. It's just wonderful. So I've loved everything about it so far. Well, besides the one thing, if it did have a band to keep it shut, I would be thrilled. But it doesn't. It's not totally necessary, but I've really, really, really enjoyed it. So thank you to Baron Fig for making that notebook. The maker is a really nice variation too, with like the darker, almost graphite, like on the side of like a graphite gray.
Yeah.
Cover. I was also going to mention that I, thanks to Johnny, came into a Very large collection of vintage laddies recently. Yeah.
From the vintage Laddie himself, Johnny Very.
I'm the middleman.
Yeah. You sent me a very tempting email, like a, a link on ebay of somebody selling a lot of 45 vintage ladies. And I kind of got into it thinking I'm definitely not gonna win this. I was just like, surely someone's gonna sweep in and pay more than I'm willing to, because I really wasn't willing to pay much. And I, I made the minimum bid and sure enough, I won. So I got 45 vintage laddies and I spent with shipping. It was like $21 and you could
sell half of them and make that back.
Yeah.
And I got a. Speaking of index cards, it came with a note and it's, it was interesting looking through the lot because they're all like different, like different printing and the line, like where the like words line up. And some have a silver print and some have a gold print. So like I'd love to just. I wish I could know the history of how these all came together. Yeah.
You just dig it up and write
a post about it or even just a picture of all the different variations and point them out.
Dixon surprisingly answers emails. Yeah, like detail. They'll go look stuff up for you.
That's cool.
So the person who sent me sent a note on a super old index card inside the note, which is nice to order something on ebay and get like a personal note from somebody.
Yeah.
It said, God bless you, your family, friends, health, work, our military, Israel and USA. Enclosed please find your quote, huge lot of 45 vintage Dixon Ladee 304 lead pencils. Thank you. S. And I was very excited about that note.
There's a lot of things being blessed there.
Yeah. There's a whole bunch of blessing going on. Yeah. And I was very excited about that. So I'm going to be sharing the love with those for sure. So you guys can expect to see some, see some, some vintage laddies in your mailbox.
Oh, man.
So can I, can I, can I admit something to you? Please. I almost didn't send it to you. I was looking at him like, man, that is some B I T C H I N G man.
Well, I offered to split them with you. You should have taking me up.
You're a big fan.
Well, but I'm not gonna, I'm never gonna work through that many of them. I mean, because actually I should now that I've, I've got them and I've told you about how I have them. I should talk about them in particular. And so one thing that's really interesting is being, like, a laddie obsessive. They are probably twice as hard as the new Laddies.
Interesting.
Like, yeah, like, for sure. I mean, do they have a number
two or HP or anything on them?
It just says, Dixon Ladee, 304, school supply. They write. You might even be able to hear it right now. But I'm writing with them side by side. And, I mean, I'll have to send you a picture or something because it's. If I write with the same amount of pressure. With the new Laddie and the old Laddie, the darkness of the new Laddie is twice. At least twice as dark. So are they right?
The regular Laddie's a little.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's less smeary, but it's harder. I mean, it's almost like Ladee, I would argue, like, doesn't really seem like a true hb. It seems a little lighter, but a little softer. And the original lady almost feels like an F or something like that, which, you know, it holds a point forever, which is really awesome. So I'll use them, but I'm not going to use 45 of them.
You never know. They'd be good noveling pencils.
They are. Well, actually, the thought I had when I was playing with them is, you know, we had that conversation a long time ago. Like, what would John Steinbeck be using today? Like, really the modern equivalent. And with his. There's that list of the pencils that he used, and I feel like this one would be right up his alley because it's round, it's a little bit bigger, so it's, like, very comfortable to hold. It's going to hold a point forever. I mean, it's. It holds a point forever.
I mean, seriously, Dixon should jump on that and be like, the official future alternative future pencil of John Steinbeck.
When they clone John Steinbeck, he will be cloned with a laddie in his hand.
With a vintage laddie in his hand that we don't make anymore.
Didn't I read somewhere that he would give his kids the black wings when the ferals touched his hand? Is that right?
You told me that.
I don't know if he had a. No, no, feral pencil. He could use more of it.
If you had a bullet pencil, he could just stick it in the bottom like a pencil roach clip.
Pencil roach clip. That's perfect. I love that.
Oh, man, that is perfect. I have to contact you for the 420 edition so I.
I've really enjoyed using those. I've been using them this week and it definitely is a good journaling pencil because it just holds a point really nicely. And I can say with strong confidence that in the giveaway that we're going to be talking about in a little bit, they will be involved in my part of the giveaway. So which this segues into my last fresh point, which is I got my hands on a classroom friendly large hole sharpener.
Boom.
Which is of course the perfect match for the ladee. New or old. It's sort of changed, like my pencil usage as soon as I got it because I started using the tri rights all the time now. And I use ladies more because I can get a really satisfying point on it because even some certain ladies will fit in the classroom friendly like I've talked about last time. But that, that point is too long. Like sometimes it just cracks off because it's too long. But this long hole or large hole sharpener puts just a perfect point on it. So I've been using it every day with the tri Right. And the ladee. So it's sort of brought me back into using laddies all the time. Laddies, laddies, laddies, but all about the laddies.
You are the laddies, man.
I am the ladies, man. That's disgusting.
Yeah, that's disgusting.
Yeah, he got a good lot on ebay.
But this sharpener is awesome. So I would highly recommend it. It works so well with ladies and any jumbo pencil.
And no bite marks. Did I say that?
Yeah. Yeah. It has rubber teeth on it instead of the. The metal teeth.
Such a good idea.
Yeah. It's really a great product. I love it.
Did you put a regular pencil in there yet?
I have and I don't like it.
But yeah, it's disappointing, which.
Well, I mean, it's because of the larger hole. The best I can explain it is that if you use a regular pencil in it, the sharp. The point you get is very similar to if you use like just a basic, small, cheap wedge sharpener.
Yeah. Plus when I put a regular one in there, I have trouble getting it to stay centered. So it comes out short and also kind of wonky.
I could see that. I don't even try. I mean, I have the other. The other one right next to it. So I don't even. I tried just for the. Just for S's and giggles, you know,
Sugar and giggles.
Sugar. Two cups of sugar and giggles.
Two cups of sugar. Light brown sugar.
But this thing is awesome. And I noticed In Caroline Weaver's. On her website, there's a picture of her setup, and I noticed one of these there, so she's already on top of it, which is, yeah, really awesome. So, yeah, they're very photogenic.
I love it. The black and white plastic.
So any. Any I know there? I've noticed in our group that I am well supported in my love of the laddies. So you other lady lovers out there need to get one like you need to right now. It's perfect. They're a match made in heaven. So that's all I got. Awesome.
Johnny, what are your fresh points today?
Well, my first fresh point is I was at Target, and I don't know if folks follow the UB Instagram feed, but a couple weeks or maybe in a month or two ago, they announced that they have triangular pencils.
Yeah, I got a bunch of.
Yep, you do.
I think so.
I haven't found them in the wild yet.
Yeah.
So every time I go to Target now I'm running try to find them, and I never find them. And a few other folks in our Facebook group have tried the regular UB pencils, and they're. They're actually pretty nice pencils. I like them a lot. But while they didn't have that, they had two new items at the Target that I went to which were very interesting. 11 is the Ticonderoga Renew, which is no longer that crappy recycled tire monstrosity that doesn't write. It's a bare wood pencil made of recycled cedar.
What did it used to be called? Was that. Was that the Enviro stick or was that something else?
Well, the Enviro stick was not cedar, and they had a pencil called Renew that was, like recycled, Literally recycled tires.
Yeah.
It's disgusting. Look like a turd.
Yeah, that's disgusting.
That's disgusting.
Felt like you're trying to draw with plastic poop, but they're like 2.79 for a 10 pack in a box. It's like, what? So I left some for the next guy and only bought one pack. But what was even more interesting was a new pencil I never heard of. I think some people have tried the BIC Criterion, which is a recycled plastic composite type thing, sort of like a. Like a Wopex, but it's bendy. Like those things we'd get in the 80s here and, you know, write that. Well, they're all right. So I have a dozen that I bought from Israel a year or two ago, and they have, like a beautiful, feral, beautiful eraser. The Print is beautiful, but they don't write that nicely. But I still use them because I really like them and they're made in France. So on Caroline Williams website I noticed that she has some that look like that. They came from the South American market and they have. What did I say?
William Williams. Crap.
We're going to tell.
It's, it's 11:00 Eastern Time, folks. So I mean when I, when I mentioned losing sleep over going to the pencil store, that was one of the pencils I was thinking of. So it has a plastic feral, if that makes any sense. But not like the World War II era ferals. It's this kind of weird space looking thing on there. So at Target they had a pencil called the Bic Extra Fun. That's not a typo. So it's an 18 pack of pencils. So far as I can tell there are eight colors so you get two of everything, but two of them you get three of. And sort of like Andy's favorite yikes pencils. They've dyed the fake wood. So like the one I have in my hand is sort of this yellow ochre and the wood is green. And they're like the coolest pencils I found in person recently. And they don't say extra fun on them because I suspect that Bic is going to realize this is a really stupid name for a pencil. So, you know, they just say Bic number two HB France. But they have the plastic ferrule that's sort of like an indigo blue and a white eraser and man, they're cool.
So how do they write? Like, do they write like yikes and they're kind of crappy or.
I think they write a little darker. Yeah, they're not as dark as a Wolfex and they do bend a little bit, but you know, on a rough paper they write pretty well. And I suspect that, you know, a lot of the really crappy paper you're probably going to encounter at school they'll probably write really nicely on.
But that's really cool because I know there's a. I think it's a Walmart, Walmart house brand that has a pack of dyed wood pencils that they. My mom just swore to me that they re released Yikes. And I was like, no they didn't. No they didn't.
But they're.
And so they're. They're not. There's some house brand thing, but they're kind of super crappy. So I'm definitely interested in picking up these Bics to See if they're.
Yeah, they're not crappy. The problem is that they're 629 for an 18 pack, which I'm like 629 for a dozen and a half pencils that are made in France. Score. But I doubt your average person going to buy pencils for school is going to view that as a.
Well.
And. And Bic is such a, they're such a reliable brand. Like they, they sell like stuff that's cheap but like good quality cheap. Like bit clicks are so great. I think we share a love of bit clicks.
Yeah. They have, they get no respect, the crystals.
Yeah.
Hand blogger community. No offense, but I like big stuff.
Yeah.
A lot.
Yeah. Lighters, pencils. They're like, they're pretty solidly reliable.
Yeah.
These pencils are really cool looking.
Yeah. Yeah. I need to pick some up.
They're kind of one of those things you're like, I don't know how well this writes, but man, it's cool. So I'm going to use the hell out of this pencil. And they're pretty well made. You know, the ferals are on pretty straight. The eraser is pretty decent.
Yeah.
So you know the worst case scenario, nobody buys them and they wind up on the end cap for $2 at
Staples the next year.
Yeah, I buy all of them. So, you know, Targets done some weird stuff with a lot of layoffs lately and I know one of our community members recently was no longer employed at Target, but they do sell some cool pencils. I feel like of all of the, you know, big box type stores in the US they probably do the best job.
Yeah.
The last two years they did their own custom Ticonderoga pack and they were selling those woodless Staedtler pencils for a while. I didn't see them last time.
Yeah.
What were they called? They were called the All X.
Right.
And they were called Full hb.
Yeah. Full hp.
Yeah, I like that. That's pretty cool.
I think we talked about those one of our first episodes.
Yeah. They're really neat looking. They write like crap, but they're cool.
Yeah.
So if you're near a Target, you know, you could spend almost well with tax, nine bucks and get two packs of cool pencils you might not already have. The Taekondo Ocarina is really, really good pencil. It's one of their made in China, much better than the made in Mexico ones and frankly better than some of their last American runs. But yeah, you're a target. Go hit those up. And if you find the. The triangular UB's. And you're in the Baltimore area. Let me know which Target that was, please.
Speaking of Target, just today when I was in, I went up to the city to meet some friends. Oh, we talked about that earlier. I found a Target Express. Have you ever heard of this?
I have no idea what that is.
It's just a small Target with like essentials in it. Like a corner store.
Target. See, we're. We're a second tier shopping city in Baltimore, so we don't get stuff like that.
Well, this. Yeah, this was just on the street corner in the financial district. We didn't go in because I don't think it's open yet.
That's pretty awesome though.
Yeah, no, but I saw it and I. My wife is out of town and I sent her a picture of it. I go, what? Because we're big Target fans at our house.
Yeah, I'm really hoping they do another pack this summer or for the back to school. They come out like July.
Yeah.
What was that?
Oh, that was a motorcycle on my end.
Cool.
Awesome. So we were talking earlier about Tim having a new review out and another one in the queue, so he sort of lit a fire under our butts. So I've got two drafts coming.
Stop being so good at your job.
Yeah, you know, I've been very lazy on the revolution with drafts lately. I've even resorted to this, you know, Instagram stuff, put something up there. But I am finishing up a review of Baron Figs and they sent one of the. Some of the makers out to Baltimore and they're so pretty. So I figured out what I like about them so much. They're cuddly, they're very tactile and they.
Is that what you were gonna say to him?
No, no, the cuddle notebook. So, you know, lately I have a. This is blowing my entire review post. But I have a Pandora station that's called Pencils and Flannel in small letters. It's largely. Yeah, it's stuff like Mumford and Sons and the Lumineers and Iron and Wine and I can listen to that in the evening and write in my journal and, you know, cuddle up on my graphite colored couch in my three Legged Juggler edition. I'm like, this is like the cuddliest notebook I've ever used.
I feel you. I feel you can follow that.
Is it possible to share a Pandora station?
Yeah, it's got to be.
I could share it to you by your. Whatever email address you use for your Pandora account.
Can you generate, like a public link?
I don't know.
If not, figure out how to do that. Put that in show notes and we'll. We'll share it with. With everybody.
Yeah. And if not, email me@editorenslerevolution.com and I'll share it with you.
That's awesome.
Yeah, it's. You know, I had to take off some of the Sufjan Stevens because I really like Sufjan Stevens, but it's playing in every five minutes.
Yeah. His new album is awesome.
You know, I know it's not cool to like Bumper and Sons, but they're awesome.
Yeah.
And my kids really like them.
Yeah.
Hey, the kids are crazy. Put on Mumford Sons.
I haven't listened to the new album yet, Tim, but yeah, it's.
Yeah, it's on npr. First listen right now. It's really good. So it's. He's kind of gone away from his electronica stuff, kind of back to what he had been doing before. Yeah, super tangent. But listen to Sufian's new album.
But I didn't know he had a new album.
Yeah, it's coming out soon.
Yeah, we heard Chicago over and over again on the way to IKEA before our son was born two years ago. So it's sort of like, hey, it's baby on the way. Good, good time music.
Nice. It's a good song.
Plus, it's pretty cool that he wrote an album about Illinois.
I agree.
He should write one about Indiana.
Well, there was a joke that he was gonna do one about all the states, and I think people both for a while.
Oh, that was a joke. I thought he was actually gonna try to do it.
That would be awesome because the Maryland one would be like, schizophrenic crazy. I'm sorry, I don't mean to make fun of people with mental illness, but. Oh, I did my next fresh point. So I had to go to the art shop because I had a couple packages waiting to go to folks, but I needed some specific items from the art store that I had to put in there. And east coast winter, it took me a little while to get out to the art store. So I went to buy some general stuff and I sat in line for 10 minutes, check chatting with the guy because they don't put barcodes on anything. So I can't decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I guess I don't work in art shops, so he might not like it. But I was wondering what you guys thought about generals and their refusal to Put a barcode on anything.
I bet it's not as much a refusal as an inability to.
What's really weird is I bought a dozen of layouts once in a box, and they all had a barcode on them. But it's in a box.
But those are wrapped, right?
No, it was printed. But it was printed near the business end, so you would sharpen it off pretty quickly. But I've never seen them with barcode in the store.
So does the. Do the art store. Do they then put like a barcode sticker on the pencil? No.
My favorite art supply shop, they have. For the Kimberly, they have a code up. But for all the other ones, they just have to look it up. They never seem mad about it. Yeah, it's like, hey, it's gonna take a minute. I don't care. It's fine. I'm gonna coffee after this.
Yeah, no, I'm. I'm perfectly happy with, like, not having, like. I actually don't like when the barcodes are printed right on the pencil. I understand why they do it. It makes a lot of sense. But I think it just kind of ruins the look. Like, oh, is it crap? Who is it? Who has the big one?
The really big barcode?
Yeah, Just takes up like half of the bottom barrel. Is it helix? Is it the oxford? I'll have to look through my pencils. I can't remember off the top of my head, but, yeah, it just kind of ruins the look for me.
I feel like Staedtler does a pretty good job of blending them in.
Yeah. Stapler's pretty good.
The regular information.
Yeah.
Faber Castell. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
Yes. Yeah. I'm just not a fan of the barcode when it's printed right on the barrel. So I guess I prefer either somebody to put like a sticker on it or like, if I'm. I guess if I'm buying it, like in a dozen, the barcode would be on the box.
But yeah. And there's an area of midtown in Baltimore where the art college is, and there are, I think, four art supply stores. So at one, they have a set of clerks that are so mad that there are no barcodes and everything. But I've seen you here for four years, so I know you know there are no barcodes. I don't know why Eric is so upset about this or surprised. There's another one. We're like, man, they don't care. Like, hey, it'll be a second. I'll give you a coupon. Took me a couple minutes okay, that's awesome. That's cool.
Yeah.
Owe you a coffee. Yeah, it was. It was very weird. Then we had this took 10 minutes. Then we had a 10 minute chat about barcodes and generals. And I was kind of like, what? And he had such an opinion about it. I almost asked if you listen to our podcast, but then Henry started screaming and we had to leave.
Happens.
Henry being the baby.
Yeah. Not the guy you're talking to at the store.
Yeah.
Henry heard the word coffee shop. He was like, he knows that coffee shop equals salted chocolate chip cookies.
Yeah. Oh, man. Sugar and salt all in one.
Oh, man. There's a local brand here that sells a pack of salted chocolate chip cookies. And the chips aren't really chips. They just look like a double thick nickel full of chocolate. And they're stacked. It really is just a nickel.
There's our band name. Double thick nickel.
Double thick nickel.
You know, the whole time you're eating it, you're like, this isn't a chocolate chip cookie. This is just a hunk of chocolate with a little bit of dough for carrier man.
They.
Oh, God, they're delicious. Explains my waistline. So I only have one more fresh point, and that is to brag that I'm going to be in New York on Wednesday in the afternoon for a little while. So I get to go to Caroline Williams Pencil. Oh, my God. Okay, now it's almost 11:30 now I get to go to the Caroline Weaver Pencil Store and Dr. Heinz Noodleman and I are going to have lunch, which
is going to be awesome.
Oh, yeah. Heck, yeah.
So if any of our other listeners are listening, I don't know. I don't think I have any free time. But come to the pencil shop. Yeah. Like, meet and commiserate about awesome pencils. And then I have to meet my wife for dinner.
How. How long of a get to meet
your wife for dinner?
Yeah, my wife's up there all week and I got the kids. I get out of house for a night.
How long of a commute is it up to New York City from Baltimore on Amtrak?
It's only 2 and a half hours. Pretty quick. Just enough time to fall asleep and realize that Amtrak coffee is not very good. But then it's better than nothing. Yeah. Used to be a lot worse. At least it's fresh. It's fresh.
Crap.
Terrible. I love Amtrak. Yeah, Those are all of my fresh points. So we have a mass of giveaways from very generous folks who have pledged up some awesome stuff to give away. So should we talk about that a little bit.
Heck yeah.
Let's do it.
So we have from pencils.com, you have a pack of Blackwing 602s in the new packaging.
Oh, sorry, you were gonna say that. Just.
That's awesome. And a black wing slate, which is, as we could probably all attest, really, really nice book.
Yeah.
So that's prize number one. Prize number two, we have a pencil lovers kit from Gary including some vintage pencils, new pencils, pencil caps, a 3 in 1 sharpener from Generals, and a Koh I Normagic eraser. That's really sweet.
Yeah.
Prize number three is a dozen pencils from me and a Baron fake notebook. Prize number four is a dozen packs a dozen pencils from and from. Oh my God, Tim and a Baron.
Tim Weaver.
Tim Weaver. And number five is a pack of. From Andy and Baron Fig notebook. And then we're going to give away a deuce of classroom friendly pencil sharpeners.
Awesome.
And usually Troy does a thing where you can pick your color, which is super awesome. And he's got some really cool colors. And if you like pink, I have to vouch for the pink because my daughter has a pink one and it's not glossy like the other ones. It's a matte finish and it's really, really nice. Yeah, it's a good pink. It's good for this time of year, I think. Cherry blossoms?
Heck yeah.
So we haven't actually decided how to
do this giveaway yet.
Let's just, let's just make it up right here. So, yeah, so we, we usually do just some like straight up commenting in the, in, like on the website. So if you go to erasable US 26, what should they, what should they say in the comment?
I don't know, spell anniversary.
You know what, you know what you should say in the comment is tell us your favorite episode of Erasable over the last year.
Yeah, that's a good one.
Yeah. And why. So yeah, Erasable Us, it's going to be this one, obviously. Erasable us 26. And then we'll give you until. Should we give them until next. Well, two weeks from today. Recording on the 29th
so we can announce the winners while we record on the Monday or whatever that is.
Yeah, so we'll record next Monday the
13th of like the Friday before.
Yeah. So Friday the 10th.
Friday the 10th.
Friday April 10th.
A lot of folks will be on spring break.
Yeah. So plenty of time to think of your favorite episode of Erasable. So yeah, we'll give you until then. And Then we'll close comments and then pick seven random winners and announce them on the air the next day. That is.
Sounds great.
I want to win a couple of these.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know which one I want to win the most.
Yeah, well, you're not eligible.
That's what.
That's what you think you're. You're eligible for the Johnny's Pick. Well, plus a Cuddle book.
Just so happens there might be Johnny. Johnny Diggler, who lives in Towson, Maryland.
Johnny Diggler. Is he related to Dirk Diggler?
No.
He spells it with one G. Okay, I gotcha. So people also pronounce it Diegler.
Johnny Daigler.
That is incorrect. It's Diggler.
Maybe Charlotte will enter. She would to teach her how to spell or type first.
Yeah, she doesn't really like the 602, so I think she prefers the Pearl.
It fills me with so much joy that your daughter has pencil opinions.
She has very strong opinions.
Like, I'm so glad she's not some rebel. And she's like, I hate you, Daddy. I only like fountain pens.
Yeah, sometimes, you know, I'll get a dozen of pencils in to the house. I'll take one and I'll offer her one before I put it in the archive. And sometimes she'll say, you know, oh, I really like that one. And I won't say which one came in recently. She's like, nah, nah, I don't like that. Really. And then I waited till the next day. It comes in pink. No.
Okay, whatever. Can you start a blog for her? A pencil blog? Charlotte's pencil blog.
She tries to type.
She might do it. I think Tumblr would be a good place for that.
Very, very strong opinion. It's kind of alarming. I don't want her to turn out to be some sort of fundamentalist pencil fundamentalist. Cedar or nothing. Basalt. Infidels.
The cedar way is the only way.
Oh, man, that got offensive real quick.
All right, should we go on to our main topic?
We just wanted to take a second before we get into our main topic to make everybody aware, if you're not already aware of this, of an issue in our community that our buddy Jay from Huckleberry Woodchuck and co creator of the twist Bullet Pencil, lost his home and shop in a fire. A. I guess it was about a week ago. A little over a week ago. And so there's been some efforts led by his partner John, to raise some funds to support him. So we just wanted to tell you about this opportunity to support Somebody in our community who has done a lot for us who's going through some really hard times right now. So John has organized a giveaway. It's set up like a raffle.
And.
And the people offering things for this giveaway have been extremely generous. It's just a $5 buy in through PayPal and the rewards are amazing. People have offered erasers. There's a few twist bullet pencils or, sorry, one twist bullet pencil prototype that is being offered up for this, one of the original prototypes. There are also things from Dudek Modern goods and Keras Customs as well as some erasable stickers. And even Cliffja is it. I guess it would be Gillies is offering a northerly edition single of field notes. So people are really getting behind this and trying to support Jay in this really awful time. I can't even imagine what it must be like to have to go through that, but should tell everybody that everybody, everyone's okay, but he has lost his home in his shop.
We, I think feel like we talked about Huckleberry Woodchuck episode one or two even so he's. Yeah, he's been around for a while
and he said one of the things he lost was his journals about his daughter, which makes me super sad because I would hate to lose those.
Yeah. Well, if anybody wants to join the raffle to support Jay in this awful time, you can send $5 over PayPal as a. There's an option where you can choose friend or family. So it's not. You're not paying for a service. Just choose friend or family and you won't have to pay a service fee. But send it to John J O n at gossamracer G O S I M R a C E r dot com. So that's j dash o dash N at g dash O S I M as in Michael R a C E r dot com. So the deadline is just really soon. So it's set for March 31, but it may be extended a little bit to raise more for Jay. But please go and enter this raffle to support our buddy Jay. And Jay, if you're listening, we're thinking about you and you're in our thoughts and prayers and hope you're doing well and hope this eases the stress just a little bit. So thanks, John, for organizing this awesome, awesome fundraiser.
We're lucky enough to be joined tonight by Caroline Weaver of the CW Pencil Enterprise. Hello, Caroline.
Hello.
We were hoping you could tell us a little bit about your store. We'll dive into some. Hopefully not Too nosy questions about the only real life pencil store in. In the United States. I think maybe the world.
Is that true.
From my research, it's definitely the only one in the United States and possibly the world. I haven't. Haven't heard of any other ones. Crazy.
Yeah. Ding, ding, ding.
It's really. Yeah, it's really strange. People ask me that every day, and I wish I had a real answer, but I just kind of say, well, yeah, maybe that's about all I can say.
How did you get into pencils, Caroline?
That's another question I get every day. And I always wish I had a really poignant answer for that, but I.
It all went back to that one day.
Yeah, I wish I had one of those. But I really think it has a lot to do with my mother. She's a designer and she's a real pencil snob. And growing up in that household, I didn't really have a choice but to love pencils. And I think there was a trip she took to Italy and, gosh, it was in the 90s sometime, I don't remember when I was really young. And she brought me back a set of caran d' ache colored pencils that came in this beautiful tin with wildflowers on the COVID of it. And I remember really worshiping those pencils. And I still have them even they're really short now, and I use them rarely. But I think that was. That was kind of my first real memory of loving a pencil. And I guess it just kind of went on from there. And now it's a really kind of scary obsession.
You know, the feeling.
What kind of pencils did you. Did your mom. Was she mostly like a colored pencil person or did she. Did she like, you know, soft graphite and charcoal pencils, too? She was a designer, you said?
Yeah, well, she. She's the one who kind of. Kind of turned me on to the black Ticonderogas when they. When they were good. When they used to be made in the U.S. we bought them. They used to sell them at our. At our Walmart, and we'd go there and just like buy their. Buy their entire stock. And everybody in the house used black Ticonderogas for many years.
That's awesome. I really, really love your tattoo.
Thank you.
I think we talked about this when we first discovered your online store. But if you go to your. If you go to the cwpencil.com blog, there's a manifesto and there's a picture of. I'm assuming that's Your left hand?
Yeah, it is.
Yeah. With a pencil tattoo?
Yeah, my mom actually drew that for me. I called her and asked her to sharpen a black Ticonderoga three times and then draw it to scale, and she did. And that's the tattoo I actually. For National Pencil Day tomorrow, I had temporary tattoos made of pencils and sharpeners, and I couldn't get them that long, but they're about 4 inches long. And so on a child, it kind of fits on their forearm like it does on mine, and it looks really cute.
I will put that on my toddler if you send me one.
Oh, I will definitely send you some.
Johnny, can you buy us some when you go there?
If there are some, I'll buy them all. I have hundreds that I can't go tomorrow or today. For people listening,
I'll definitely make sure all of you get some. And anybody else who wants them, send me an email. I have hundreds of them.
Wow.
Well, even just the idea of you having a pencil shop in real life is sort of like everyone in our group and our community's fantasy coming true, which is sort of, like, amazing. And we just wanted you to talk a little bit about what made you want to open an actual physical brick and mortar pencil shop.
Yeah, well, it was. It was always, of course, kind of the ultimate dream, and it wasn't really something I thought would be possible. But then when I. When I made my website and there was this enormous interest and the things I was selling, I was. I was really, initially really surprised. And I live in New York City, and my apartment's not huge, and it got to the point where my apartment was just full of pencils. And I was a little bit embarrassed to have people over because there were just pencils everywhere and all the closets were full of pencils. And so I sort of thought, well, this might be the time, because I either have to get an office or I can get a store. And getting a store is a lot more fun. And it's just the thing about it, too, is that pencils are. I mean, most people are into pencils. You buy them online because you can't. That's the only place that you can really get that sort of selection. But they're such a tactile thing. I think it makes a huge difference to be able to go into a store and feel it and sharpen it and test it and just kind of see them all. And it's just something that I really wanted people to experience. So I'm really happy that I could make it happen. And it's been really wonderful. And I kind of just want to live in my pencil shop forever now.
It's sort of like a. When I think of, like, a fancy cheese store and you go into a fancy cheese store and you. They'll like, you know, open a, like, cut into a $400, like, wheel of Parmesan and let you, like, try it before you buy. Kind of reminds me of that. Like, you get a can sharpen up like a really fancy pencil and try it before you buy it. I assume you have that for a while.
Exactly. I have a really great pencil testing station and it's a little desk with a chair. And I keep a Baron Fig notebook on there, too. And in the drawers, it has by brand every pencil that I sell sharpened and ready to go. So anybody who comes in can just sit there and write with all of them before they decide what they want to buy.
I just want to come and work in your store, like, as a pilgrimage or something. You know, they have people who, like, go to work on, like, an organic farm is just sort of a. Like, they use it for meditation. I just want to work at a pencil store for.
Yeah, well, you're always welcome if you. If you want to take a week off from normal life.
I think I'm going to be in New York City in, I'm hoping in middle April. So, Johnny, I was going to tell you when that happens. I will be there when and if I can book that, so. And Tim, too. But yeah, I'll definitely be in touch with everybody here if and when I can go to New York in April.
Yeah.
Awesome.
So I'm thinking a lot about my trip up Wednesday and, you know, how big of a bag I should bring and how I'm staying if you need
to get a second mortgage in your house.
I'm staying in Columbus Circle. And I'm like, am I going to be able to get these things in the subway or should I bring, like, a cart? So I'm running, wondering, when people come to your store, do they buy stacks of pencils or are they sort of like they buy two a day and they come back the next day kind of twitching like, I need two more.
That happens. But for the most part, people come in and they are usually a little bit confused. Half of my customers are people who have known about this for a while and they've planned the trip and they've come specifically to come to the pencil shop and they spend some time. But a lot of the customers are people who walk by and they see my little shop and they just really don't believe that it's actually a pencil shop. And they come in and ask me if it's a pencil shop, and I confirm that. And then they usually want to try everything and end up buying, like, a dozen or so of just one of each of whatever pencils they like. And they always want recommendations. So I ask a lot of questions, and then we kind of go from there. But, yeah, most people just buy, like, little sampler packs, and then they'll come back, like, a week later and be really obsessed with one pencil and want to buy, like, four dozen of it. But I need them all. Yeah. Or I also have a lot of customers who come in and recognize a pencil that they saw when they were traveling or that they had when they were growing up, and they get really excited and buy, like, a lifetime supply, which is really great.
Yeah, that's awesome.
I've really been just. At least on your online store, really been loving your. Just your stocks, your selection. You have, like, old Eberhard Faber Microtomics. You have, like, old Mongols. You have untipped Mongols, which is really cool. You have, like, Eagle pencils and plenty of, like, new pencils, too. How do you come across your selection? Like, does it. And I don't want to, you know, tell you to, you know, get you to tell us the secret ingredient and, like, what you're doing, but, like, do you just spend, like, your entire. Just your whole life sourcing these things?
I spend a lot of time doing it. But it's funny now for the vintage pencils especially, they kind of come to me, which is really wonderful. I used to buy them all in, like, the huge, huge lots on ebay that nobody wants to buy because nobody really wants that many pencils. They just want one of each. And so I'm the person who buys those, and then I pick out the good ones and sell them.
But now, did you buy that listing for a million pencils that was up a few months ago?
Oh, yeah, definitely not. But if there'd been good. There'd been good pencils in it, maybe I would have to say now I get emails from collectors all the time who email me, and they'll be like, oh, I have six extra dozen of this pencil. Do you want it? And it's really great because then I don't really have to do the work. They just kind of come to me.
You have some that I've just never heard of. Like, the. I can't even say it. Wortley and company, the Blue Jumbo that you.
Yeah, that's a Swiss pencil. And they. I don't know anything about them either. I have one customer who used to be an online customer. Now he comes to the shop and he must have a collection of tens of thousands of pencils because he's very serious about collecting them. And he and I talked about it the other day and he doesn't even know. I've been able to dig up no information on that brand. But it's a beautiful pencil and the, the box that comes in is really, really lovely. Also, I wish I knew more, but there's only so much on the Internet unless I one of these days, I don't. My mom jokes that I should get a PhD in pencil history, but I don't know about that. Maybe someday I'll uncover that and when I do, I'll let everyone know.
Ph.D. i would. Dr. Pencil.
That'd be great.
And even some, like, you know, you have a general's pencil, you have a. What's. You have a goddess pencil, which I don't know anything about. Like, I just spend a lot of time just like looking through your site. It's kind of like a sub of brand name Pencils dot com. Yeah, you just. Yeah, it's. It's really, really fascinating. Like I. And you're sort of a, I guess, kind of like a dark horse to this. Like, I have never heard of your website or like, like heard of you until you started selling pencils online. That was super cool.
Yeah, I just. I just kind of did it. It was just one of those things I woke up one day and decided like, this is actually what I'm going to do instead of just talking about all the time.
May I ask, what kind of background did you come from? Were you. Did you work on like an office job or something before you opened your own pencil shop? Or did you.
Yeah, I'd had an office job and I did a degree in art and kind of. I've done a lot of things and none of. And they were all things that I loved, not something I wanted to do forever. And I'd run other businesses before and so that was something that felt quite natural and I just kind of hit a rut and didn't really want to do anything but sell pencils. So I gave it a try and it just worked out.
Yeah, that's really cool.
How big is your actual physical store? Just to give people a little feel of what it's like inside. Because the pictures on your website are really cool and looks Like, a really nice space. Space. But, like, what's. Can you kind of give us the layout of the store? Explain what it's like.
It's actually quite a small store. I guess I sell small things, so I don't need a lot of space. But It's. It's about 250 square feet, and I have a really nice area dedicated to pencil testing. And then I've got shelves that house most of the currently manufactured pencils and little displays of all the accessories and all of, like, the fun packaging and that sort of stuff. And I have this. One of those cases like they have in schools. One of those bulletin board cases that locks that. I have all the vintage pencils in there and a little case for the fancy sharpeners. I just actually ordered another table because I'm running out of space already. I keep ordering new things, and there's just nowhere to put them. So who knows? Maybe in a couple years I'll have to expand. But it's a very intimate store, which was really important to me. I looked at bigger spaces, but it just didn't feel right. It's me there every day. So I don't need space for a lot of employees or people because I like that a customer can come in and sit down with me, and we can just sit there and talk about it in this tiny little space.
Do you have any special clients? People who come in and will buy, like, $600 pencil sets?
Oh, yeah, I have some customers who come in and just. No, it's normally people who don't know about it, and they're just walking down the street and they come in and they have a friend who is obsessed with pencils, and they'll buy a really fancy pencil sharpener, or they'll buy all of the caran d', ache, the rare wood pencils, little sets. Or they just get really excited and kind of go a bit overboard, which is what I used to do before I did this. So I understand the feeling.
But you have an El Casco, don't you, at your. At your store?
Yeah, I have a few of them.
Yeah.
If. Yeah, I have. I have them in a display case if you guys ever come by or if anybody comes by and wants to try one. I do bring them out of the case to try every now and then. They're so beautiful. I just. I get a little nervous using them even. They're just so nice to look at. I don't want to mess it up.
Wow. I'm a little bit just kind of fawning over These pictures of your store and the website websites. So.
Oh. So what's the story with the, the foil stamper?
Oh, that, that's a really wonderful thing. It's a, it's a Kingsley machine which hasn't been made for decades. It's a really old hot foil stamping machine that I, I found one on ebay that was in perfect condition. And yeah, it's, it's really great. There's like a, I bought a little like pencil holder attachment that goes on it and it comes with like a, it has like a little typeset and I have to like set all the type in these tiny trays and stick it in and it has to get really hot. And then, yeah, it has a little lever. I just pull it and stamp the pencils. It's a lot of fun and people are very amused by it because it's a very old kind of like cool looking machine.
So is this something you could do? Say you were visiting the store Wednesday and you had a daughter whose birthday
was just for example?
Yeah. And she's got a very cute name and it looks very cute on a pencil.
I can absolutely do that. And I even wrap them up in a cute little yellow box.
Oh my goodness.
I use Musgrave pencils too. And I have like a selection of I think 10 colors right now. There are more that I want. I kind of want all of them. But yeah, it's been a really popular thing. If I have it out, people are always like, oh, what's that? And then I demonstrate it and I have kids come in and they want to try to use it. So I let them stamp their own pencils. It's a lot, it's a lot of fun.
Awesome. Does it smell like a good. In a good way?
Not really.
It just kind of pencil nerd question. What does it smell like?
Bird? Cedar?
It just kind of smells like, like hot machinery kind of.
Yeah.
Nothing more than that.
It's pretty good, I guess, right?
I'll take it. Fountain pens don't do this. There's no smell. Sorry.
Brad, do you do any advertising for your store? Do you think that word of mouth kind of gets you customers in the door?
I haven't done anything and I kind of thought that I would eventually once I got settled. I mean, I'm a one woman business. There's only so much I can do in a day. And I thought kind of that'll happen maybe a couple weeks or a month after I'm open. But so far I just, I haven't really had to. Because people talk about it. I think it also helps that it's a really photogenic shop, so people are always taking pictures and Instagramming it and tagging it, and then customers come in because they saw it on Instagram. Yeah. I haven't really had to do much, and I don't really want to, because I kind of like that it's a place that you kind of just have to discover. And it's on a street that's in a really residential neighborhood, kind of between the Lower east side and Chinatown. And so it's kind of an odd block, and it's not the type of street that you would maybe just happen to walk down unless you were going somewhere in particular. And so it's. It kind of. Yeah, is a nice little place to discover. And there aren't a lot of shops on the street either. There are some new businesses opening up soon, which is really exciting. But we have a really great reggae specialty record store a couple doors down.
Oh, wow.
Which attracts an interesting crowd who come to the pencil shop and buy all my pencils, which is wonderful. Yeah, yeah, it's. I kind of just. Yeah, I'll keep it that way for now.
When are you going to open the San Francisco branch?
I actually, I was. I was talking to somebody about if I were to open more stores in the US where would they be? And I think maybe Portland and San Francisco would be at the top of the list.
I'll. I'll help you with the San Francisco one.
Yeah, great. You can. You can run it for me.
Yeah.
Page very well. I promise.
Baltimore has black wing lagers.
That's true.
Yeah.
Yeah. CW Pencil Enterprise. Not just, like, storefronts. So you gotta
take over the world. So.
Sorry, go on.
I was just gonna say. Well, Pencil Day is coming up, obviously, which we, like, kind of made reference to.
So, actually, if you're hearing this now, it is Pencil Day, because we are releasing on Pencil Day.
Happy Pencil Day. So do you have any plans for today for Pencil Day, like, at the store? Are you doing anything special?
Yeah, we're doing a few things. We're running a promo, actually, on Pencil Day, which, if you're shopping online, just enter the. Well, the word Pencil Day, all in caps, into the promo code field. We're doing 20% off everything for one day only, which is pretty exciting. And, yeah, I told you. I ordered temporary tattoos, which are awesome. And I use the Kingsley machine to stamp some pencils, like, commemorative National Pencil Day 2015 pencils, which I'll have. And I'm doing one of those things also where I filled this big container with a whole bunch of Koh I Noor pebble erasers and we're doing one of those like guess how many erasers is in the straw. Yeah, $100 gift card.
The magic erasers of Koh I Noor.
Like the rainbow ones, they're a little different. I'm not even sure that they make those magic erasers anymore. I haven't been able to get a hold of them. They're like proper rubber erasers and they're a bit smaller than the magic erasers. But yeah, they're really cool and they look really, really great when they're in a huge container together.
Oh I bet.
Yeah, they're great. And we're having a little party also which will start at 6. We'll be there until 9ish. Maybe. I don't know. It depends on how much fun we're having. So if you're in New York City, definitely stop by and say hi.
Have you had any kind of a. Unrelated, but just another question about your, your pencil stock. I was looking through just now at your site and saw that you have some original black wings. Have you had any people show up specifically hunting for those? Just curious, like looking for the Eberhard Faber Original 602s?
I haven't, but I've had people come in and buy them because they had always kind of wanted one and they'd never seen it in real life. And then I take it out of the case and show it to them and they get really excited and buy them. Yeah, that's more of a thing that's popular online because most people come into the shop and they're like, oh, why is this pencil $60? And I tell them the whole story and then maybe they're, they're a little bit intrigued.
But has anybody come in and this is a completely self serving question because they heard about you on our podcast.
Oh yeah. So.
Really?
Yeah.
Seriously?
Yeah.
That's so awesome.
No, you guys are very popular. I've had a lot of customers from your podcast.
Wow, that's super weird.
Yeah. But also I just have to say I did wear my erasable T shirt today when I was out and about in San Francisco. And I was hoping like that one time I did it, somebody recognized me from the podcast from the T shirt. But that did not happen this time.
It might happen in New York.
Really?
Yeah, maybe.
Oh man, I'm totally packing it when I go to New York because I'm not too. I'M not too modest to just walk around trying to get recognized for my podcast, Andy.
I'll wear mine, too.
It'll be really weird. Yeah. People be like, what's wrong? What's wrong with them?
We'll all walk together.
We'll walk in a row like Reservoir Dogs or something.
Are you guys on a field trip?
Yes. Let us out for the day.
Yeah. Carolyn, we have to send you a. When we make our version 2T shirt, we'll have to send. Send one to you to wear.
Oh, yes, please. I definitely. I definitely will.
Oh, maybe you can stock them. Stock a T shirt.
I think people would buy them, too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, man. Sorry. I'm just geeking out that this store, like, exists because it seems. It seems so improbable that, I mean, not. It seems like such an amazing place that only, like, the three of us would want to go to.
Well, yeah. I'm so happy all of our dreams come true that it exists.
So I'm so happy that there's actually more than that who go to the store.
Oh, but there are so many closet pencil nerds. I've really learned that through doing all of this that people who. I tell them, they ask what I do, and I tell them, oh, I. I run a pencil store, and I kind of expect people to think I'm crazy when I say that, but most of the time they're like, oh, my God, I love pencils. And they have a lot to talk about, and I think they just don't talk about it normally because they don't want people to think they're crazy also. But, yeah, at least now there's a place for them.
Yeah. So what's next for the Caroline Weaver Pencil Enterprise? If we haven't already answered that.
Oh, there are a lot of things I have planned. I have up to phase five planned, which some of the ideas are a little out there, but I have a special notebook for those things. But I think short term, I am definitely going to be starting a Pencil of the month club.
Yes.
Which will be really fun. And I'll wrap everything up beautifully and include little cards with stories about the pencils. I really want to do that.
Did you subscribe when Pencil Things did it back in, like, 2006, 2007?
No, I didn't. And I really regret not doing it. I'll have to. Yeah. I don't know. Well, I don't know nearly as much, but I'll try. I'll try to. To do as good of a job with that. We'll See? We'll see about that. It's lots of love, too, but I'm hoping on doing that. And I really want to blog more about pencils because people are really interested in that, and I get emails about that all the time, but I just haven't honestly had the time lately. I also am interested in starting some sort of, like, pencil trading club, because there are a lot of collectors who I've met in the shop are just people who like pencils. And I have a lot of international customers online as well, tons of international customers who I'm pretty sure would be up for that. But the big thing that I really want to do is design and manufacture a line of pencil cases because they're. I don't sell any, really, because there aren't any that I love, and that's something that I really want to do in the next year or two.
We should hook you up with Brad Dowdy and not co. Yeah.
Yeah. That would be really wonderful. Yeah. His pen cases are really lovely. I really need to get on that because people ask me all the time why I have no pen cases, and I just tell them, like, the honest truth is that I don't like any of them.
There's no good ones out there. Yeah, Muji has a few that are really pretty, but they don't.
I don't know.
I mean, the big trouble is, is nothing is long enough to hold a freshly sharpened blackwing exactly.
Like.
And that's. I mean, I. I can't even put in a case until. I mean. And just the other day, I wanted something that would fit well in my messenger bag, so I just, like, sharpened it twice more after the first initial sharpening, just to, like, you know, get it down to a size when I could. I could stick it in there. And I just. I feel like I just wasted an inch of pencil.
Yeah, it's. It's there. Yeah, exactly. There's so many great pen cases. Why can't there be really great pencil cases?
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. They need to be longer. I'll work on that. I'll solve that problem eventually.
That's very cool. So you may not be at liberty to say, but what are some of the crazy phase five, phase ten ideas that you have? Or if you want to hold those close to your chest, that's fine.
No, it's okay. I want to open a store in Japan someday, especially because I have lots of Japanese customers who are really interested in the American pencils, and they just can't get them over there. And so I think that'd be good because there are a lot of Japanese pencils that I can't get here, so that would be really wonderful. And I have some friends in Japan who I'm pretty sure would be willing to run my shop for me, so I would really love to do that. I'd love to kind of maybe do my own range of pencils someday, but that's. That's kind of far out there. I have some ideas for that, but I'm not really sure. I guess, yeah. Part of phase two, I also want to do, like, pencil field trips, which I think we would start, of course, with, like, a local trip to the General's factory in Jersey City. Yeah.
Yeah.
I've had a lot of customers show interest in going there, and they're always. They're always disappointed to hear that I've never been there. But we'll work on that. I. Yeah, I don't know. There. There are a lot of really crazy things, but I never thought this would happen. So who knows what will happen next?
Well, when you do your second trip down to Shelbyville, Tim will come up and meet you.
Yeah, for sure.
Great.
Yeah. It's not too far.
That's cool. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm just so pleased that we were able to, you know, you were willing to come and take a little time out of your busy schedule planning for pencil day tomorrow. I mean, today, and, you know, talk to us about what you're doing.
That's.
That's really neat.
Yeah, of course. Anytime. I'm honored and pleased to talk to you guys about all of these wonderful things.
Yeah.
Ever since it was actually Mike Dudek sent me a Twitter message and said, hey, have you seen this website? And he sent me a link to your site. It just blew my mind. It's like, how did I miss that this was out there. This is amazing. I just sent him like a huge thank you. And I. And it's. Yeah, it's really. It's really incredible. So
thank you. I really appreciate that. I've had so much support from kind of the analog tools and stationary community. It's such a. Such an amazing group of people, especially on social media. I love it. I'm so excited to be a part of it now.
It really is amazing, like, with this community, how supportive it is. I mean, I remember listening to J. Robert Lennon when he was. He has a podcast called the Lunchbox Podcast, and he was on the Pen Addict once. And here he said something about this community. He said he was telling his co host, it's just it's crazy. They just send each other stuff and they don't just for free. They just send each other things.
And they're.
They're so supportive and it's. It's true. But we're just. We're really thrilled to find out that your store is out there. And now we all have a kind of physical Mecca to go to, so
we all must make our pilgrimage.
I just want to brag again that I'm going first. I don't know how I'm going to sleep between now and Wednesday. I'm alone with the kids all week, so that'll do it.
Is there like a pencil VIP room that, like, the original pencil blogger can go and serve? Password?
Oh, I wish.
Actually, this is what you need to do, Johnny. You need to go first, print off some of your blog posts and then do autographs.
I don't have a printer.
2015.
Handwrite some of your blog posts.
Yeah, I just emailed my dad, like, I gotta return some to Amazon. Can you print this for me?
So, okay, so all day on March 30th, I may actually put this out, like tonight, the 29th night, so people have time to download it on their way to work. Tomorrow, March 30, all day. You are doing a 20% off code on your website, Is that correct?
That is correct.
Okay.
Starting at midnight. Well, midnight until midnight and in the store as well, in case you're in New York.
Okay. How do you enter the coupon code? In the store? Yeah, Running a sale. That's cool. So if you are in New York and you're in the. You said Midtown and Chinatown.
Ish.
It's. Yeah, in the Lower east side, Chinatown area.
Okay. I think that's. Oh, I think that's close to where I am going to be. How far are you from. Well, no, I guess I'm thinking of the East Village. That's lower, right?
Yeah, it's not that far from the East Village.
Okay, that's cool.
10 minute walk.
Okay. Nice. Okay, so, yeah, Pencil day. All one word in caps on Caroline's website to get 20% off of your pencil purchase. Is that everything or does that not include, like, Palomino or Eberhard Faber or something like that?
It's everything.
Cool.
Yep.
Anything before we wrap up the show that you want to tell all of our pencil listeners?
Oh, I don't know. I think we covered a lot of really great things.
Yeah.
Yeah. I just. Yeah. Thank you to all of you who I've met already, and I'm really looking forward to meeting more pencil people in the coming month. Days, months and years. I'll be there for a while, so you know where to find me.
That's awesome.
Can you tell us where to find you on the Internet and social media?
Yes. I am on Twitter wpencils on Instagram wpencilenterprise and my website is cwpencils.com Mr.
Andy, can you tell us where to find you on the interwebs and on social media?
Absolutely. I am welfly a W e l F l e on Twitter and oodclinched. Also on Twitter. If you just want pencilish tweets. If you don't want a bunch of stupid gifs, just follow woodclinched.
I love your gifs. How about you, Mr. Timothy?
You can follow me on Twitter writingarcenal or imwassum. You can read my posts@www.thewritingarsenal.com and I'm on Instagram thereriting Arsenal.
How about you, Johnny?
I am Johnny Gamber. I am@pencilrevolution.com I'm on Twitter ensolution and now I'm on Instagram ensolution because the whole first and last name thing was kind of weird.
You did it nice.
Yeah. Plus people think I'm younger than I am little Johnny thing anyway. But you can find us at Erasable Us. This episode will be@ erasable US26, which you probably already know since you're listening to it. You can join our fantastic Facebook group@facebook.com groups erasable. And we also have a Facebook page which is facebook.com erasablepodcast and we're on Twitter raceablepodcast. Thank you super, super duper much for listening to our one year anniversary episode. And check us out on itunes and overcast. And always please leave us good ratings and stars and views and accolades like us, please. Even graffiti on the subway. That's totally awesome. As long as it's a city we don't live in so we don't get blamed. Thank you.