This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Good evening and welcome to volume 36 of the erasable podcast. Lo. How did I weep for missing co hosts and absent rambles in ignorance of what pencils my comrades did grasp to their hearts while I sat in Merlin park on my balcony watching BMWs driven aggressively along the side of University Parkway, which becomes the bike lane. And now, together again, we tackle points made fresher by the excellent company and decent whiskey. And the smell of cedar wafted out of the pencil box of my love for Andy and Tim.
That was beautiful.
Oh,
I wasn't drunk when I wrote that, but I wasn't awake either.
We're back after a long absence.
Yeah, it's been way too long.
Yeah, I was in Portland for, like
a week and, yeah, my school year was starting. Just had, like, stuff piled up.
I don't have any good excuses.
You were busy getting ink, right?
Yeah.
Yes, Yes. I finally tattooed, but it's not a pencil tattoo, which.
Which I'm super disappointed.
I hurt like a son of a bitch. Everybody says that. He's like, are you ready? I'm like, why are you asking me if I'm ready? Is this gonna hurt?
Shaving part hurt.
The answer is yes.
I'm sort of built like Robin Williams. Approach me with one razor, I'm like, little man, you better get two of those.
But does that thing go beside. Yeah. Where'd my tattoo go?
Some special little guy. Yeah, he was a little guy. I didn't think he was going to be able to get the hair off of my arm. Okay.
Can, like, get his leg into it.
Brought the weed whacker.
He got help and called over this very large guy.
I missed you guys.
It's been too long.
Yeah,
I am recording this. I should let you know. I told Tim earlier while we were waiting for you to get on Johnny, I pulled an honor miner episode on Will on dot grid this week.
Oh, man.
Neither of us recorded the episode, so don't worry. I am recording this. Don't worry.
So. But you recorded Will's side, so you're just have to play Will's side and try to fill in what you said. Like, reenact the conversation as you go.
Wilbur's recording his side, and I thought Wilbur's recording both of our sides, so. Yeah, we can release an episode where it's just Will talking. So I could just fill in the blanks. Like, just pretend like.
No, it's mystery science theater 3000. You could just yell, hey, hey, can't you hear me?
Yeah. So what are we talking about this week?
So we're just doing fresh points, I believe.
Yay.
Since it's been so long, it's been like this summer. Erasable drought.
Yeah. Yeah.
But it was nice to get messages from folks wondering where we were. That was very awesome.
It's good to be missed.
It's nice to be missed. Yeah.
You don't know.
Just to bring a little bit of joy to people's lives. So shall we jump into our tools of the trade?
Yeah.
As I interrupt him. How about you, Mr. Andy? I want to hear you pronounce this.
Yeah. So this is actually kind of a long time coming for me. There is a Japanese microbrewery called. It's K, I, G, E, N, Kigen. Kaigen. Maybe it is a Japanese microbrewery. They have a beer called Kawaba, and there's two of them. There is a forest white beer, like a wheat ale, and there is a Sunrise Red ale, and it has this gorgeous, like, minimalist label. There are a couple Japanese places out here that serve it. And I got it once, and it's so good. It's really simple, I think, like a lot of Japanese stuff. It's very simple and just really good quality. So I've only been able to get it, like, at restaurants, and I finally found a little Oriental grocery where they had it for sale, like, buy the bottle and. So excited. So I bought a bunch. And that is what I'm drinking today. Kawaba is. Kuwaba is how I'm going to say it. And then kind of in the Japanese theme, I went to the San Francisco pen show, which I'll talk about a little bit, and bought a back pocket journal with Tomoe river paper. It's similar to what. To what Dr. Han sent us.
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
Is the Back Pocket the one that has, like, the. It's like a wallet?
No, that's the one.
What's that one called?
Oh, that one is. Oh, crap. I can't think of what it's called. Yeah, no, you're right. I talked about it. We talked about it in an earlier episode. But Back Pocket's the one that's. That has kind of like a cool, funky font on it, and it's made by Kernow Bookbinding and Leatherworks. Yeah, Steve Kernow, who makes it, was at the pen show. So I got to meet him, and he was interesting, and he managed to. He's trying to find a more reliable supplier, but he has a bunch of the river paper, and he put it into a pocket notebook, kind of like what Dr. Hans got so, yeah, it's really nice. I. That was my only purchase from the pen show, but it's really nice.
So I saw those in D.C. i meant to pick some up and they just slipped my mind.
It's just. I mean, I feel like if you're
just way too drunk, you know. Just kidding. It was wild pen show.
I laughed.
Pen shows get crazy.
You know how they go? So, you know, river paper, Tomoe. River paper, I feel like, is a pretty, like, unremarkable experience with a pen. Whereas, like, really it's. It's for a fountain pen. But it's still. It's still fun to use and try out. So I'm. I'm definitely excited to do it.
So the pencils just kind of seems.
Yeah.
Like, unnecessary.
Yeah. And I am using. Yeah. I'm. I'm. I have a golden bear that is down almost to the nibs. So it's almost past to the, like the place between my index finger, my thumb, you know, where the pencil is. We need a name for that. Like the event horizon for pencils or something like that.
Something to do with Steinbeck. He always said that when the feral touched there, he didn't want it anymore.
The Steinbeck point.
Yeah. We should come up with a nickname for each stage of the pencil.
Yeah. Once it's reached the Steinbeck point, or like the Steinbeck. What do we say? Like, Steinbeck degree. Steinbeck point. Steinbeck event.
Steinbeck stage.
Steinbeck stage.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So this has almost reached the Steinbeck stage, and I'm about ready to get rid of it. So I've been using it extra hard lately. We're nerds.
Oh, man.
Yeah. So that's me. How about you, Tim?
I'm drinking a Sierra Nevada Pale, Alex. Nothing fancy, just my old standby. And I'm writing with a very special pencil that I'm going to talk about later. Speaking of Steinbeck, actually I am writing with one of my new. My two new to me. Blaisdell Special Grade Calculator 600 pencil. The last sort of in my quest for the Steinbeck trio. But I will talk about that later. It's an amazing pencil. I see why he loved it so much. And I can also see why it's even more rare than the Black Wing, because, I mean, it's just. It's wonderful. I'll talk about it later. But it's really nice, really fragrant. Holds a point really nicely. Of course it's round. So it's just got all the box or check. All the boxes are checking off, but it's. Oh, it's round. It's pretty sweet pencil. So I. Really excited about that, which I'm going to talk about that in the. The amazing Stephen Watts.
That's awesome.
Later today.
That was an amazing find.
Yeah. I still can't believe it. When I. As soon as he. As soon as I saw that he got that, I, like, immediately sent him a dm and he was like, oh, Tim, there you are.
I was wondering.
He's like, I was expecting you to come call me. I was like, please, please, please, please, please, please, please tell me.
Hello, Mr. Bond, I've been expecting you.
Exactly. That's what it felt like. It's like he was just sitting there, like in front of Facebook messenger, like, just waiting for it. Then there I was. Please, sir. So it's a trap. It's a trap. I'll talk about that more later. But, Johnny, what about you?
Well, I am just drinking a bullet rye with lime because it's delicious. And it's Tuesday and I'm done and I can't have another one, so I don't want to talk about it anymore. I'm writing with. I'm writing with a caran d' ache natura, which is. It's not natural finish. I think it has a little bit of a lacquer, but it's stamped with fire. And it's become one of my favorite pencils in the world. So, yeah, no more details. So for our Pencil of the Week, we're sort of stuck between various very brightly colored Ticonderoga pencils. So they put out some at target in 2013 that now you can buy at Staples and apparently at Kroger that are neon and extremely ugly. And then last year at Target and this year at Target, they have a set where there are three pinks, a repeat of the neon yellow, which is the ugliest Ticonderoga I've ever seen, and a really cool blue. So we sort of mixed all these together because their quality is pretty similar. They remain in the same factory, and they have the same possibly disappointing core. So, yeah, what do you think of this, these various pencils, Andy?
Disappointing core is right. I like the colors, and whenever I use them, I. So I have to be honest, I really haven't used it much this week for our Pencil of the Week, just because I just. I just don't like it. Like, I. I hate to say it, I'm sort of just over Ticonderogas. And when I say that, I just mean, like, the very general ones. Like, I still love the ladies. I still. As terrible of a pencil as it is, I still like the triconderogas and I really. Well, I like it because just like, it's just so weird. Like, I think it's, I think the intent is very well designed for a triconderoga. Like it has a rubbery core, it's thicker, it's triangular. But it's just made badly. So. But like, yeah, it's, it's, it should, it should be better. But. But yeah, so it's so interesting. But yeah, these, these kind of like extra cheap Ticonderogas. Do you know, are these, are these sourced differently and they just have a Ticonderoga feral and name attached to it because they feel even more different and cheaper than like, you know, the yellows that you would buy in a pack in a store.
These are actually cedar, aren't they?
I was gonna say they feel a little nicer than the usual Mexican ones.
Oh yeah.
They brag about it finally, huh?
Mine definitely. I wonder if I.
That's what they changed the packaging this year to include the reference to American cedar.
Huh.
I need to check out my packaging because mine do not feel better or as nice as like just standard Ticonderogas. Like if it's definitely doesn't feel like cedar to me or smell like it.
Well, they feel, they feel similar to the, the link. The Taekondaros that are lingering around that actually have the cedar in them that are glossy, but the ones that are like more full hex and matte. Those pieces of crap which I'm going to talk about later. Yeah, those are like a totally different look, but I think it does. It's. They are sort of similar to the, the general Ticonderoga that seems to still have cedar in it, but the one that I think at least that I'm seeing on the whole around me like at Target and Walmart and places like that. I'm seeing the one where they put soft back on the. The barrel, which guys, I think I'm
using a different pencil.
Yeah, that's always wind up being crap.
Yeah.
So I, I was excited when I bumped into these things at Kroger because I was not expecting to see this combo because I, I saw the three pinks and yellow and a blue combo at Target. Again, it was just kind of disappointed and was like, crap, I don't want this again. I'm not even gonna buy it. Don't even care. Just ignored it. But when I was at Kroger and bumped into the. The other set, the different color scheme. And I very. A little overzealously, you know, grabbed a couple of them and brought them home. It was really excited. Then when I brought them home and I sharpened them up, it was just the same. I mean, they were the exact same pencil, so it ultimately was disappointing. But they were just too light. You know, the writing was too light. They sharpened okay to me. I mean, they sharpened fine. I guess that was the cedar in the classroom friendly. They did well. I actually felt like the. The core was. Was very similar to the renewal. I don't know if you guys felt the same way. It was kind of light, held together well, and didn't break a point or anything. But it just. As a whole, the pencil just looks more obnoxious. And so I think. I feel like it writes worse just because it looks so obnoxious. But, I mean, my. My grade, I guess I would give it a B minus, I think. I don't know. I could probably go C, but I think B minus.
Okay. I. I found. See, I found I must be using a different pencil. I need to track down the original packaging, but I found it to be splintery and kind of like you, Tim. It was also too light, but it def. It just didn't feel as smooth as. As the. As the renew did.
Was it colorful? Is yours colorful?
Yeah, mine is. The one that I have right here is like the. Like, the. See, I thought it was, like, the bright neon blue, but I wonder if it's a pastel blue. And I just don't. My frame of reference is not on. But I don't know. I need to. I opened this a while ago, and I need to go back and look at the packaging because. And I wonder also, like, if way out here I have a different supplier, which I didn't. I can't imagine.
But you never know, knowing Ticonderoga, it could be different in every town.
It could be. So. So, yeah, I found it when I sharpened it to be very splintery. Like when I ran it through, like, my. My masterpiece. And when I put it through a burr grinder, it was fine. Yeah, I like the color. I. I guess it is obnoxious.
I like the blue. The other ones that just look. Yeah, they're just, like, ridiculous looking to me, but I like the blue the
most, so I would give it a really, like, middle of the road scene.
Oh, man.
Yeah, Johnny.
I'm gonna give him a B.
No, that's all right.
But I like.
I thought you wrote B minus minus on there.
Oh no, no, it's B slash slash. They smell good. I like the pinks, especially the light pink. It's sort of Wes Anderson Y. So it puts me in mind of the Grand Budapest Hotel.
Yeah.
Which is why I wrote a crappy poem for our intro. But I feel like this is another, like, I don't know, what's the word I can use on this podcast and not get us mature. Icon drone has so many factories and stampings and paint colors and you know how many are in a pack.
Yeah.
So now they have all these colors
to screw with their minds.
Yeah, but I like the colors, so that's why I gave it a P.
Yeah.
So I guess we, we all balance out to kind of a B minus. Yeah, I guess. Or a C plus. B minus somewhere in there.
That's low for us. We usually average a little higher. I know we got a little masochistic this week.
Yeah, give it an F minus. Minus.
Give an F. U, C. Never mind. Alrighty. So we, I think have a lot of fresh points.
We do.
We jump into that. Mr. This is Andy O. Did you do that on purpose?
I did not. I like it. Came like this.
I like it.
Andy O. Andy O. I just watched I saw Vertigo this weekend at the Castro in San Francisco and Jimmy Stewart's name is Johnny and Barbara Belgetti's kept calling him Johnny O. So I'll take Andy O and be like Jimmy Stewart.
There you go.
Well, these are my fresh points today. First thing I wanted to mention is there was a really great little blurb in New York magazine in the cut portion of it where they talk about the Baron Fig confidant. They talk about how it's an all purpose notebook for journaling, reporting or back to school work. Really great medium weight paper that's too thin up to grip. Wooden pencils, but thick enough to keep the ink from bleeding through. Yeah, great write up for them. Great photo of the, of the confidant. I'll put a link in, show notes. But what's, what's interesting about it is I actually talked to the reporter. She called me and interviewed me. Oh, cool. Yeah, it was, it was cool. I, I think the guys at Baron Fig gave him, gave her my name just because I've, you know, I've had Joey on dot grid before or. Yeah, dot grid before and they know that I've tried most of the different kinds and that we all three have like a, like kind of a consensus on, on their paper and yeah, so she called and I think mostly just to get like just some background on the different kinds of paper and what they're good for. So. So I definitely explained to her kind of like what tooth was and why it's good for pencils, but not really know too much tooth and kind of about the confidant. So that was fun. Congratulations to them. That's a really big thing. It's kind of their first foray into like, quote unquote, mainstream media. I think, you know, like, Carolyn Weaver has been like all over New York magazine and the mainstream media, so. Yeah. Awesome. Yay, Baron figure.
Yeah, that's awesome.
I did want to ask and see what you guys thought about the Brainstormer now that you've had a little time to play with it. I think we talked about it in the last episode and since then I sent it out and arrived in your inbox and we've all had a little time to play with the Brainstormer. And I know that Adana has been collecting feedback and she has kind of a good idea of what. What to change in the next production. But what are your, what are your thoughts of the. Of the Brainstormer?
I think. Sorry, go on, you go ahead.
I probably. My thoughts is. I really. I like the idea and the,
like
the direction she's going. I think that there's a lot of. And. And she's brand new at this, so I think the next round, kind of like, kind of like the Baron fig stuff, she's going to iterate and it's going to be better. But the idea was sort of to have something that had lines and dot grid and like isometric grid. Right? Definitely lines. I think she captured and a little bit of the dot grid. Like I could turn this on the side and write, but I don't think the diagonal isometric stuff was really captured at all.
Mm. Yeah. Yeah. I think the dot. The dot grid was a little light, I think, or something. And it's also. I know it's hard with. With the college rule. I like what she's going for because I. It's nice to see something new come out in the legal pad world because I feel like that's in all these new paper products that are coming out. It's always the kind of, you know, Moleskine style book, you know, like the hardcover book with the band or something like that. So it's nice to see a new legal pad style think about which I was excited about. And I like that it's, you know, college ruled, which is something that you don't usually see, but I think the dots could have been a little darker. I actually forgot that they were going to be there when we first. When I first got the notebook. And so I got it out, I started writing. I was real excited. I kept thinking that there were pencil shavings, and so I was trying to wipe them off the page and I was like, oh, yeah, there's the dots on there.
Clean, clean.
Yes. I got used to it then, but. But, yeah, I mean, I'm happy that it exists. I'm happy that it's a thing, and I'm looking forward to the new iteration. I mean, I. I don't know what I would suggest. I mean, I know it's. I used it with fountain pens and pencils and I think does fine with fountain pens. I think it does fine. Just great with pencils.
Yeah, I thought it was a little weird that it's only ruled on one side.
Yeah, yeah, I did. I did as well. You don't have the option of turning it out and flipping it over, but
the paper is nice and heavy. And like, when I. When I was packaging those up to send to you, I was like, man, there's some heft to this. Like this.
Yeah. Lots of sheets.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Johnny, what did. What did you think about it?
Well, to tell the truth, I don't have any intelligible opinions about the lines, except that I really like the color of the lines. I like that it's sort of like dusky periwinkle.
Yeah.
That a thing?
Yeah, no, that's the thing. It matches the kind of, like, darker purple binding at the top.
Yeah. I sort of screwed up a piece of paper and I didn't want to waste it, so I made a paper airplane because it was heavy paper and it was very good paper airplane. So if you're going to run on one side, you could still use it. I also have a balcony, so that was really fun.
Except for that person below whose eye you just poked out. I did think that the cardboard backing was a little thin, but it sounds like she's had that feedback a lot.
Yeah. Coming.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can get by that. It was a little floppy. I guess that just keeps you from being able to, like, set it on your lap. I mean, if you're sitting on a table, it doesn't really matter, but.
So I'm curious to know from both of you and maybe start with you, Johnny, where you see the Brainstormer, like, what a typical niche or use case for it might be. Can you think of anything, or is
it too early to Tell if it were me, I would use it at meetings, if I had meetings to go to, because I always liked a big format that I could just rip off and things like that. Or fit into a portfolio, if you had one. But I never actually had one. That's what I would think. Or even class notes.
Yeah. What do you think, Jim?
I think for me, it's kind of like in the same ballpark as Rhodia, where I think it's best use cases where you're using one sheet and just kind of focusing on the one sheet and then tearing it out, you know, because I'm a big fan of LegalPads, which I've talked about a lot, and I like to write stories on legal paths. And so I'll write a page and kind of flip it over, you know, and wrap it around and just kind of go on to the next page over and over again.
Yeah.
And this paper is almost too stiff to do that, so I think it's just kind of like Rhodia. And then I think it'll be most useful for writing letters, maybe, and then class notes, because it's college ruled and you have a huge amount of space to take notes. So I think class notes will be a really good use for it.
I think for me, it would be good to use it for when you have like, you know, words you need to write right next to maybe like a diagram or some drawing that you may need to make. Because if. If once the dot grid becomes a little bit more noticeable, it'll be a. I feel like it'll be a little easier to do, like, you know, up, down, vertical lines as well as horizontal. So, yeah, so, yeah, I looking forward to the next iterations of this and I hope it. I hope it's a thing. It looks. I think Adana's in the right place for it.
Yeah, I agree.
I also wanted to mention, and darn it, I closed the page. We actually got a, like a fun email just to follow up from somebody. We got an email from Cody from this mountain. Did you see that, Tim?
I did, yeah. That was really cool.
This mountain being, of course, our theme music at the beginning. And they're friends of Tim's.
Yeah.
So I'll read. I'll read this. This email here. Hello, Erasable podcast. This is Cody from this Mountain. I just, at first I read, it was like, wait, which mountain?
This one?
Yeah, this one. This is Cody from this mountain. I just saw on Twitter that we got a new listener slash fan that heard our tune on your show and I wanted to say thanks again for playing our stuff, which I want to respond and say, no, thank you for letting us use your stuff.
Yeah.
By the way, I've listened to a couple episodes of the show and I like it. But as Tim knows, I'm more of a fountain pen nerd myself, so I don't follow some of the more specific references. Mainly because I work at a bank, I'm not allowed to use pencil at work, which totally makes sense, at least on contracts, signatures, checks, et cetera. So I thought I would ask you guys a question and maybe you would want to answer on the show. I'm a huge fan of the TWSBI brand fountain pens. If you're not familiar with them, they are highly engineered and have a fascinating design. I noticed they also have a mechanical pencil. What do you guys think about that pencil? And do you ever use mechanicals? Sorry if that's offensive to serious pencil guys, but hey, I thought I'd ask. And then he puts a link to the pencil, which I'll put in show notes. And I have to just say I've never used that pencil, but it's. It looks cool.
It's very, very rotring esque.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I personally don't use mechanical pencils much, but I have on occasion because I. I love those little, like, zebra number two mechanical pencils that are, like, disposable, and I think those are fun. But as far as, like, fancy. Yeah, these are super rotring esque. I've never really used that. Have you, Tim?
No, I haven't. I. Yeah. Cody and I actually go pretty far back. I think I've known Cody since 2000, 2006 or 2007, because I would have jazz band practice and they would always have orchestra practice afterward because he plays cello. And so we'd all. We got to know each other there and through some mutual friends. And I remember somewhere along the line finding out that we both like fountain pens. And I mean, so I actually didn't know that he liked twsbi. I remember him using, like, lamis and stuff like that. But I'm actually TWISBI is my favorite brand when I dabble in fountain pens. I've tried everything of theirs except for the mechanical pencil, so I actually haven't tried it. But I love twsbi, so I love me a twsbi. I actually got three of them in dc.
Oh, wow.
Two is a gift. Actually, two were gifts and then one I bought, so I'm a big fan of those. But, yeah, that was excited to hear from. Hear from Cody and hear that they got some. Some listeners because I just love their music and I'm glad they're. We at least got them, you know, one listener.
The rest of you go buy their album.
Yeah, for sure. This mountainband.com.
johnny, how about you? Have you ever. Do you have any experience with twis bees?
I have no experience with fountain pens.
I figured that would be the answer at all.
Yeah.
How about. How about like good quality mechanical pens?
Like a trick question. I do have some of those. I mean, I don't have any of those.
Well, you sent me a pretty purdy pencil Revolution. What was that? Yeah, I remember that zebra.
That was. That was creepy.
A 701.
How the hell did you get my address? Yeah, yeah, those were. Those turned out well for whoever made them and sent them to me out of the blue. I think Brad got some too. Like what? Like how did you know where I live and what my daughter's name is? Because there are three people with my name in Baltimore. How did you know which one? That's another story, my creepo.
So I think my last point of follow up just real quick. I went to the San Francisco pen show, which I'm guessing is not at all as cool as the DC Pen show experience that I. That you had, which I'll hear about.
We weren't. We weren't there, so.
Yeah, exactly, exactly. I did meet Mike Schumacher, who's a listener of the show. Mike Shoe on Twitter. He lives in San Diego and he flew up for that. That was pretty awesome. And I met a sales representative for Statler. He was there mostly representing, you know, their pens, but he had a display of those. Oh, it's like the perfect. It's their version of the perfect pencil with like a black Wolpex.
What?
Yeah, the pencil.
The pencil.
The pencil.
Oh, yeah, the pencil. Yeah, I saw that in D.C. they
call it the pencil.
Yeah, creative. So he gave me his card and I'm going to contact him and see.
Yeah, the cap is plastic, which is kind of.
Yeah.
Disappointing.
So, yeah, he's going to get us some of his.
Send us some of those really cool yellow ones. They haven't.
Yeah, his samples. That'd be cool. So, yeah, that's. That's it for me. How about you, Tim?
Well, the first thing I was going to mention, which we've already talked about indirectly several times as the D.C. pen show, which was really awesome. It was a really good time. One of the best weekends I've had in a very long time. So went down with my uncle and we got to meet a lot of people. Got to hang out with Brad and Jeff from Knock, which was just really cool to see those guys meet in person. A lot of people from the pen addict community. We also met a lot of erasable listeners. I walking in the first day, saw two erasable shirts walking around, which was really co. And then Brad said that the day before he had seen a lot more. So that was kind of mind blowing. Serious. Yeah, yeah. He's like, I saw several yesterday.
Wow.
So pretty cool. But met several people. Got to finally meet Mr. Joe Lebo who sent me home very sneakily. Showed up with some blackwing lager, which I got to bring home. Which two things. One, it was delicious and tasted just like oatmeal porter, which is one of my favorite beers that I've talked about on this show to three of them. Totally exploded like all over me, like violently. Like, like shotgun blast, like just like went everywhere in my kitchen. So that was pretty. Like I was just trying to take up there. It's like there's one of the six packs that has the plastic six pack holder on the top, you know, And I had gotten back from the trip and I was like. Had them in the house for a while and I was like, oh, I'm gonna take those out. And I was trying to pull those off and I. I tried to pry it back and one of them just went like, blew up and sprayed all over. I was like, oh my gosh. I was like, wow, that was crazy. And I like tried again and went and did it again. I was like, oh my God, this is like, won't stop. So I just had to like set it aside and I had to use scissors to cut it off the rest of the time. And all of them were just like super carbonate. So I had to. I had to use scissors to cut the six pack holder off and then open them like very slowly over the sink. And then they were like super bubbly. So I would have to like pour them and let them sit for a while. But once they settled, they were really, really good. So that was very exciting.
They knew that they were.
It was like bang. I mean, it was loud, but so.
But we think the. That black thing on the top.
I'm sorry. No, go ahead. The black thing on the top.
Am I delaying again? It's an anti state line device, okay? It's got a GPS in it.
You're making up.
That's just some hipster ass.
I was like, wait, what?
It knew it Knew it wasn't in Maryland anymore. I'm surprised they didn't ablock.
The liquid just shot out the window and, like, went back east. So we came back.
I was walking home.
We also got to have. Johnny and I and my uncle had dinner with Joe Lebo and Joe from Gentleman Stationer and Cody.
I'm so jealous.
Which was really cool. Cody Williams there of Wallet Making fame, which is very exciting. We actually had lunch with Cody and then it was just Mary. Yeah. And Mary was with us at lunch. Yeah. We got to meet Mary Collis, which is really neat. Somebody. It's so weird to meet all these people that you've. You've interacted with so much online in kind of virtual contexts, and then all of a sudden, they're standing in front of you and they, like, give you a hug, and you're like, oh, my gosh, that was weird. You're here. You're right here. You're a real person. And you look just like I thought you did. Or you don't look anything like I thought you did. We also met. You are super tall. Cody was like, whoa. Hi. And Paul. Paul is it Joins. Paul joins.
Yeah.
From the group. And Thomas and Mandy, which. Johnny, you said from Pearl Bug. I didn't realize that.
Yeah, she just started doing pencil reviews recently.
Yeah. That's awesome. Cool. So, yeah, Mandy, Thomas, Mary, Cody, Joe. Joe, Paul. It's really good to meet everybody and get to hang out. Good to see, of course, Johnny as well. I need to add to that list. Just get to hang out with Johnny. We got to sit at the hotel bar and swap pencils and just kind of talk about stuff and just. It felt totally natural. I don't know. I mean, so speak for yourself, Johnny. But I just felt like it was, you know, part of. Pardon me. Going into. It was like, what's it going to be like seeing each other in person? But it was like, immediately it was just like two buddies sitting at the bar, just like, having a drink and hanging out.
It was like, so now, you know Tim when you meet him in person. Kind of a letdown.
Yeah.
I mean, good hugger, though.
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
It's. We were talking earlier, and, you know, Tim and I are now at, you know, level one because we, you know, we have both met one of our other cast members, podcast members, but Johnny is at level two. So now we all level up to three. Once we all three get to meet.
Yeah. See it together. So once. Once we all get together, we're all jump up to the same Level and Johnny won't have an advantage over us anymore. Yeah.
So if I like fly down to Tennessee and meet up with. Meet up with Tim without Johnny, we'll be able to. But no, it's weird.
Gotta do what we gotta do.
Yeah. No, it's definitely. Yeah. We need to find a time to do this because it's. Yeah. I'm jealous that you got to meet each other and have Blackwing lager.
Yeah. Well, we're working on stuff, so we'll see what we can figure out in the near future. So I think we've got some. Some cool plans in the works that we won't talk about now, but. Yeah, we'll talk about trying to figure
out how to get a keg of
that stuff on Amtrak without the GPS going wild. You could, you could disable that. It's really hard, but I can do it.
Imagine like the windows of your Amtrak car just like turning black all of a sudden and then like seeping down
like that old episode of the Simpsons. April.
Well, D.C. was great. It was really awesome to meet Johnny and get to meet a lot of people who listened and then people from the pen addict community. And everybody was so nice, so much fun. We closed down the bar the night I was there and I guess they had done it the two nights prior. So I mean, we were out. I was, you know, we were in the bar until about 1:00 clock that night. And I mean, Johnny was there from, I guess about. We met up around 10 or 11 or something like that. And then Johnny, you left a little bit after dinner. That was so. It was. It was a lot of fun. So it was a good time. Definitely gonna go again next year. Either to D.C. or Atlanta or both. We'll see.
Yeah.
Other.
All kind of next year I'm getting a hotel room.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, we'll just. We'll just team up on one. We'll create as many people in there as possible.
Yeah, close. Let us go home.
Yeah. Yeah, we should have thought of that because I had. We had two. Two beds in my room. Next time I want to see you
guys really find out what a good hugger I am.
Yeah, let's snuggle.
We need to have an episode where we just record like in a king size bed. It's like Bert N. Ernie and Ernie or something.
Yeah. All right. It's already happened
because I'm pretty sure that counts as a illegal.
Yeah. Yeah.
Someone told me three people in a bed with their shoes off in Virginia is illegal.
Shit. Well, let me I'll kind of race through my points. I'm kind of taking a long time, but it was D.C. pen show was a great time. But other stuff is I saw on Amazon, it was actually mentioned in our Facebook group, but realized that Amazon Basics is selling legal pads now, which I don't know if either of you have. Have you seen these?
I have not looked them up right now.
Yeah, they're. They come in a pack of 12 for 10 bucks and prime shipping. So it's. I mean, it's a really good deal for legal pads. And I just kind of started to look into them and I thought you would enjoy. I'm gonna read the description that they have on their website. I just think it's hilarious because it's basically this. Whoever's doing their marketing writing is explaining to you how to use a legal pad. It says, this 12 pack of Amazon Basics legal pads offers clean, convenient writing space. The pads are perfect for jotting down job interview questions, taking notes in the boardroom, or capturing flashes of inspiration for that next big marketing campaign. They also work well for home improvement projects, to do lists, and for classroom notes or university lectures. Whether you're at work, home, or school, keep an AmazonBasics legal pad within easy reach. From the kitchen, workshop or craft room to your desktop, backtop, a backpack or briefcase. The 12 pack of AmazonBasics legal pads allows for ample coverage with extra pads at the ready. Each pad in this 12 pack set features 50 sheets of 8.5 x 11.3.4 inch standard 16 pound paper. An ideal weight for everyday use. The white paper comes lined for neat, orderly note taking. And when you're finished, simply shred the sheets of paper in a paper shredder or drop the sheets or the entire legal pad right into a recycling bin.
Use it inside, outside, in the car. Not in the car, in a truck, in a plane.
Right side up, upside down. Underwater. Wait, not underwater? Yeah, so I just thought that was like, hilarious. Like they just basically explained to you, like, oh, you can use these anywhere. Are you serious? I had no idea.
Gotta get that SEO.
Gosh. Yeah, from the kitchen workshop, craft room, desktop, backpack, briefcase. So. But I'm gonna try them. So I was 12 and you can choose yellow or white, which is pretty cool. So yellow or white? The paper seems pretty thin, but I guess that doesn't matter as long as it's not like super gritty, which I doubt it will be. So I'm sure it's, you know, if white labeled from somewhere decent.
If you all use it, we have a link in show notes, which is our affiliate link. And we would, even though it'd be mere since we would appreciate if you made any purchases through the affiliate link because we get a little bit of a kickback. Yeah.
Black wing money.
Yeah.
Logger money. So that was that. So if anybody's tried these before, I'd love to hear from you. So tweet me or send me a message or something and tell me what you thought. The two more I'm going to mention today. Next one is that I talked about pencil itizing at school about how I was going to get pencils to give to students and I was looking for good pencils. Well, I kind of got cheap because I was using classroom money and our only options in the immediate were to go to Walmart or go to Office Depot. So I ended up just getting 2:40. I think it's like 48 packs of USA Golds which I feel good about. But I brought them back, put them in the cup, have them to give out to kids and they've come in handy. And this is how, which is kind of a surprising but a lot of kids have bought either kind of crappy up and up brand pencils, no name pencils, or those Ticonderogas that say soft on them and the classroom friendly sharpener devours crappy pencils. Like it just destroys them. So, so what's happened is that once or twice a day a student will go back, try to sharpen a pencil, will have tons of trouble, it'll eat like their whole pencil. And I'll say here, try this one. Hand them a USA Gold or a golden bear sharpens in one take, no problem. And they go sit down and they're fine. So I feel like it's definitely a teaching moment where I'm able to kind of make a point about like crappy pencils just not working at all in good sharpeners. So they, they chew it down to like a shred. They're like look what your sharpener did. And I'm like, well this here, try this. This is proof that it's not my sharpener, it's your pencil. And they sharpen it. And I'm like oh, okay. And they go back to their desk. Damn, those Taekonda rogues are just crap. They're awful. The they just every time you sharpen a nice point on them, it just cracks off in the sharpener and it keeps sharpening and it keeps going. And it keeps going, it keeps going. Piece of junk. So buy those ever USA Gold for life if you're gonna buy cheap pencils. So the last thing I want to mention today is that I came into a certain pencil that I've been on the hunt for for a long time, which I talked about earlier, but which. That is the Blaisdell, which I don't know how to pronounce it. Blaisdell Special Grade Calculator 600 with been looking for because it is part of the Steinbeck trio of pencils. And thanks to Steven in the group, he has a pretty amazing, which we talked about this before, a pretty amazing Blackwing collection. And then he is also a Steinbeck enthusiast. And so he found these on ebay because someone whoever had listed them had listed them as 660 instead of 600. And so it didn't have as many people going after it, I guess. So they were, they were basically mislisted. And so he was able to get a set which they were still, you know, a good price because these are even rarer, more rare than, than the original Black Wings. But, but yeah, like I said earlier, as soon as I saw his post and saw the picture, I just kind of lost it and sent him a message. And within like three minutes I got a response back where he's like, well, well, well, there you are. I'm actually trying to, to find the. His response. He said, why Tim, I was expecting you to come calling. That was the first, that was the first sentence from his. So he was totally right. So I like couldn't, couldn't stay away. So he very, very graciously offered to sell me a couple of them. One to use and one to. To put in my little shrine. So yeah, thank you, Steven. So I now have all three. I have a EF Blackwing, I have the Blythell 600 and I do have the EF Mongol, the 2 and 38 I think it's called. The only thing is that I have the hex one. I don't have the round one, which are super, really, really rare. So if those come around, eventually I'll get it. If not, I am just fine with this collection. I've basically got all three of them, which is really cool. So I have. And I've been just received help in getting both of those. So the Blackwing is the only one I was able to track down on my own. But I have one to use and one to hoard of all three of them. So I'm very excited about that.
So. So I'm interested to know the Blythell is. Is it like dark and smooth like The Blackwing or what?
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah, it feels. It feels very similar to the. The Palomino hp, but just nicer. It's not as. It's not as dark as the original Blackwing. And I think that's why Steinbeck leaned. He liked the Blackwing, but he leaned towards the Bly's Dell and the Mongol because they were a little harder and less. And kept a point longer.
Yeah.
But they have a really, like, dense cedar core. You know, it's like one of those where you. You sharpen it and almost like flakes off because it's like packed in there. The feral is really pretty. It's black. I should say. It's black and round. And the feral is gold with a white band around the middle.
Yeah.
And a pink eraser. So it's really attractive pencil.
You know, I mentioned this, but it's interesting to me that, you know, all three of these pencils have a painted stripe on the ferrule.
Mm. Yeah.
Yeah, that's. I wish that sort of those little details would come back because that would just be cool to see those sorts of awesome little. Yeah.
I think some of the Palominos are the only ones who really do it now. I guess the Mongol still does it.
The USA gold.
Yeah, you're right. You're right.
Well, they're stopping that. I think they used to do.
The school ones didn't. Well, but I noticed gold.
Well, I noticed when I bought the. The 48 packs, they had blue stripes on them, but now the box has just gold, so. So really, they're switching. Yeah, the picture on the box was just gold, so I think they're. They're in the process of switching to just having the gold feral instead of with the blue stripe.
I kind of like the gold feral.
I like the blue stripe simple myself, but I think it's good because I like that kind of like throwback look of the blue stripe. But. So. But thank you, Steven. That was just a really awesome surprise. I was not expecting to find that anytime soon. I had asked Caroline. I'd ask lots of people about keeping an eye out for him, and nobody was really coming up with anything. So I thank him for his ninja, like, ebay skills.
Mad ebay skills.
Yeah, that's all I got. My Steinbeck collection is complete triumvirate. I just read the Pearl for the first time as a 28 year old. I feel like I should have read that in middle school or something. Such an awesome book. Oh, my gosh. So good. Anyways, that's all I'M gonna say Johnny O.
So I echo everything Tim said about the pen show, except that I still really don't get it at all. There were just like, so many gold clips and shiny things, and I kept smelling all these chemicals and no cedars. Like, what the hell?
Were there any. Were there any pencil displays or booths
or anything at all not dedicated to pencils?
Yeah, no, they had. Somebody was selling the green Faber Castell perfect pencil, and they had the. The pencil by Staehler. That's it.
Okay.
And we. We stumbled across several bullet pencils. I know Cody bought a sweet one that had, like, the foot X ray ad on it. It was, like, from this, like, old shoe shop that had an advertisement about how they'll X ray your foot before they give you a shoe.
What?
Yeah, that's pretty sweet.
Yeah, I have a pencil about it.
He's got a good eye for him.
Yeah, he does. So that was it, though.
The only thing I bought was a pack of field notes cherry woods. And I bought the last pack and felt bad because then you bought me
some for my birthday, which was really nice.
Oh, these are so nice. Like crap. Oh, man, I feel like a jerk. I meant to give them to you that night. And I forgot my rush to get my train, which I missed.
Anyway, I have to say about the pen show that I guess I didn't mention before that my big takeaway from the pen show is that I have zero interest in vintage fountain pens. I like fountain pens. I have zero interest in vintage. I was like, why would I want an old fountain pen that I'm not going to be able to fix someday or that has already been rebuilt? I was just like, this doesn't make any sense to me. Why don't I just buy a twsbi? And so I just bought a twsbi.
And so, see, I have very little interest in new fountain pens. Like, to me, the most fascinating thing was the vintage fountain pens.
They were interesting. I was kind of fascinated by them, but I wasn't interested in buying them. It was, like, really cool to touch them and, you know, see them. But I was just. I don't think I want to spend $200 on this thing.
I got to do a little research on Estherbrooks, which I like. Old vintage Esterbrooks are just so beautiful to me. And I have, like, an old one that was my grandmother's, so I. I didn't buy any, but I was able to, like, look them up. And it was. It was pretty cool. But, yeah, sorry we hijacked your fresh points, John?
No, no, it was. It was like I. I not only don't own a car, I actually kind of hate cars. And I'll go to the international car show with my dad. Kind of walking around like, yeah, that's neat. I don't get it.
Throw eggs at the windshields.
No, I did sabotage a couple items there. I filled up some pens with powdered graphite.
What is wrong with this pen?
This might come out. Although I suspect some of those pens never get used. Like a lot of people's field notes collections.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Send your hate mail to Tim.
Bring it on.
Yeah. For some reason I thought, well, you know, it's only Baltimore. It's a two hour train ride. I won't get a hotel. And that was stupid. I kind of missed everything. And I fell asleep on the train and almost missed Baltimore. Oh, man.
Welcome to Atlanta.
That would have been bad. How am I in New York, sugar? But, yeah, it was. It was fun. I hope we can all get together at a pen show in the not that distant future because I still want to picket it out front. I did bring my picket signs, but the hotel security guard took it from me. Called me a lot of really mean names that I can't repeat on here because he was.
That security guard was really into the pen show.
But he was definitely paid off by, you know, I don't know what's a famous pen manufacturer.
Big Ink Mont Blanc paid him off.
Yes, Big Inc. Paid him off.
Yeah. So Tim was talking about the crappy Ticonderogas. So for my daughter started kindergarten and on the very, very, very specific school supply list, which was freakishly huge, and it said three quality pencils plus some to share. What the hell does that mean? So she took some of those Target Ticonderogas and also a pack of those colorful Bic pencils because she's really obsessed with them. And then we got another list for art where the art teacher asked for Ticonderoga pencils. So I find that the back. The ones they sell for back to school aren't very good. They were splintery and not cedar. Whereas the identical pack I bought at the same Staples a couple months ago was cedar and really nice, the same price and same box. So I don't know, maybe if you buy them in February, you get better ones, not get them for three bucks. It's pure speculation. It could just be that they've gone completely to crap, which is maybe not unlikely pencils these days. Yeah, that's what's ruining the Kids now. So in other cool news, Charlotte's actually stole most of them. But the. It's been a long time since we recorded. They have this really cool new notebooks from Word called the Mountain, the Black Mountain, and the Blue Mountain. She actually stole all of them except
the one I used.
But they're really pretty.
They're just like made out of different like vectors and like various polygons.
Right.
Yeah. I did save a blue one for the winter. It's the most wintry looking notebook I've ever seen.
Yeah.
That has not crappy paper in it, but yeah, the last one they came out with was not my favorite, that sort of geographic looking thing, a geometric looking thing.
Sorry.
Yeah, I'm keeping it short tonight. Also, I am in the lookout for pencil tattoo ideas.
Yay.
So I have one. I was wondering what you guys think of it. And if anybody steals it, you have to get my name under it. That's G A M B E R. You can call me J.F. gamber, Ph.D. because it sounds really sweet. So other folks have a pencil. So I'm always sort of obsessed with the cross section of an unsharpened pencil. So I was thinking of getting a line of a hex pencil, a round pencil, and a triangular pencil. But I'm afraid it won't look like pencils. I don't have to do too much explaining. So I was even thinking, yeah, like two lines of six, like a dozen at least. Then like I could scoff at people like they're pencils, idiot. Before it would be like, well, yeah.
You mean that to explain it?
Yeah, I mean the tattoo I got is pretty obvious. I've had to explain it. But yeah, I think we should have like a vote. We should all go get this tattoo when we get together.
Oh, guys, you should get one.
That's, that's. It's a pencil stabbing into your. The inside of your forearm and then coming out the other side.
I'm too hairy to get it on the other side?
Yeah, that would be ridiculous. I'm not.
I could get it coming out of. Well, I can't get out of my hand either. It's really hairy.
So I, I got a blood panel done today. So like a big blood test and I could like barely handle that. I just don't. I just don't know about tattoos.
I just don't know. I mean, they hurt. Yeah, but it's a good pain. It's a good pain. My, my guy was very, very good, but not so good at distracting me. I was kind of watching him like, God, that hurts. But I couldn't stop him. It probably hurts a lot less than just breaking off a lot of pencil points and, you know, waiting for the scar over something.
I certainly hope so.
Now what really hurts is, like, the sun. You walk out in the sun, you're like, ow. Oh, my God. Your arm is shaved, and you've got a bunch of black ink stuck under your skin.
It's ironic that it's. That it's ink.
Yeah.
I haven't made my peace with that yet.
Oh, yeah, that's true.
So it sounds like Big Inc. Did not pay you off. It sounds like you paid bit for
Big Inc. Yeah, I kind of paid a lot for how small it is.
I still. I'm kind of married to the idea of doing just our original sticker. Like the skull and crossbones. Like the three pencils actually get a skull over it. Yeah, I'm not that badass, but I'm. I mean, I'm pretty bad, but not. Yeah, push me over the edge.
Yeah. If I can work over the nerve, I'd be down for that.
We can't drink ahead of time. No tattoo parlor that's any good.
Let you drink while you're there.
Yeah, have a cup. We'll take the edge off.
Yeah, I would drink. I would drink after I consent to the tattoo in order to, like, take the edge off.
And they make you sign a paper saying you haven't been drinking, at least in the place I went to. And also that you're not pregnant or you don't think you are.
Are you pregnant, Johnny?
I'm like, do I have to check this? Like, yes. Okay.
Johnny, do you have an announcement to make here on the show?
I do, but I'm waiting for gender.
I gotcha.
So 20 weeks.
Oh, man.
Yeah. That's all I've got for fresh points. Talked about body, hair and grossness.
So, yeah, we'll. We'll have a main topic next time. I think this time we just wanted. Rather than try to, like, arrange, we just wanted to, like, get back on the air and talk to each other. And we thought we filled up a decent hours worth of show.
Yeah. It's been a weird summer. We only recorded, what, two or three full episodes?
Yeah.
And it's not really summer anymore. Yeah, we'll get back on the stick.
Yeah, good. For sure. If anybody has any suggestions for topics for upcoming shows, things you want to hear us talk about, we'd love to hear those. So you can put those in the. In the Facebook group.
So where can folks find you gentlemen online?
I am at. This is Andy. I am on Twitter Wealthley A W E L F L E or oodclinched. Or you can find me@woodclinched.com how about you, Tim?
You can find me on Twitter imwassum. I am on Instagram timothywassom and you can find me here on Erasable Johnny.
Excellent. You can find this gentleman on pat pencilrevolution.com on Instagram ensolution and on Twitter en solution. And as always, you can find us at erasable us. This episode will be erasable us 36, because just like me, we're pushing 40. You can check out our Facebook group, which is possibly the coolest thing on Facebook. No offense, Andy. @facebook.com yeah, it's facebook.com groups erasable. And we also have a page@facebook.com erasablepodcast which is sort of our official mouthpiece, which sounds actually cooler in my head. We would really appreciate if you would rate us on itunes and recommend us on Overcast. I still don't know what that is.
And,
you know, recommend us to all your friends and wear your T shirt to pen shows. That's pretty gutsy. It's pretty awesome.
Being very subversive.
A lot of sharp points around.
Yeah.
All right.
I'm having an off night.
I understand.
And we're done. And that's the show, folks. The intro music for the Erasable podcast is graciously provided by this Mountain, a collaborative folk rock band from Johnson City, Tennessee. You can check out their music@www.vismountainaind.com. If I could just count the times
this has happened before.