This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
I just opened up Snapchat to try to figure out what my account name was called, and it was just Bernie Sanders yelling at me.
Hello, and welcome to episode 56 of the erasable Podcast. Today is a short episode. We're just. Just taking the fresh points, talking about a few new things. Here with me, as always, is Tim Wasem. Hey, Tim.
Hey. How's it going?
I'm good. And we have a special guest host today. Johnny is not with us, for he has a very, very good reason, unlike all those reasons that Tim gives.
He's multiplying.
He is. He's having a baby. She was born this morning. So we think that you will. You will appreciate his sub. Today we have Caitlin Elgin from cwpencils. Hey, Caitlin.
Hello.
Yay.
Yay.
So
it's good to get a different voice on every now and then. I think so. Yeah. Let's go right into it. So we're going to hit up the tools of the trade. What we're kind of doing now just trying it out is what are you watching? Reading, listening to. If you want to say what you're drinking, that's cool. And if you want to say what you're writing with, that's cool too. How about you, Caitlin?
Oh, man. I didn't realize that we were starting it a different way this time, because I actually prepared two really, really good things for writing with and drinking.
Oh, just. That's perfect.
But I can talk about what I'm reading as well.
Yeah.
So in honor of the newest addition to the Gamber family, I am drinking for baby Rose. Not for baby Rose, but, you know, like cheers.
I guessed earlier. Wild Irish rose, which, you know, is a little bit different than rose, I guess. A little classier.
Get some Four Roses, maybe.
Yeah, Four Roses.
So many options. And I had to go with the girliest. I am writing with the coolest thing I've ever found. It is called the Ronson pencil lighter. It was first released in 1948. I did a whole bunch of Googling on this because I'm so obsessed with it. It's a mechanical pencil with this really beautiful blue, like, very dark blue enamel coating. And I don't know if you can hear this. It has a lighter on top of it.
Oh, whoa. That's awesome.
That is amazing.
So I'm, like, Googling it, and I'm looking up all these fantastic ads from 1950 on eBay, and it's like, to light with and to write with.
Hey, friends, let me tell you, you know, when you're writing and you gotta relight your cigarette, but you can't stop writing. Well, now we have a solution.
It's so cool. It's so cool. And like, the. All the advertisements I'm finding for it are like, it's the perfect Father's Day gift.
And like,
it's just like, classic from another era.
Man.
Man, it's a really service.
We joke about edc, right? It's like some original EDC stuff there
that's like, up there, like.
Yeah, for sure.
I don't know. What do you think you could put on the top of a pencil that would still be functional, that you could just, like, whip out while you're writing?
Like, toothbrush or a little knife or like a little, like, pistol or something that would really do the EDC thing.
A little knife, a Swiss army pencil.
I have an idea. What if we took a pencil and we put an eraser on the end
of it and a shotgun.
That's cool.
That shot erasers.
Yeah. So that's my new little toy. I'll have to show you guys a picture of it later if we're still sharing what we're reading. I'm reading Imagicka by Clive Barker right now. It's very detailed and. And long, but also very interesting.
I like Clive Barker.
Me too.
Yeah.
Cool.
Cool.
Tim, how about you?
I am. I'm drinking a Jack and ginger. It's kind of like keep myself cool over here. Super humid. But I am reading a crazy little book called the Universal Baseball Association Incorporated. J. Henry Way, proprietor.
Wow.
Yeah, it's a book from. Actually have to check the title page. It's great podcasting right here. 1968. It's from 1968 and it was. It's basically a novel about this guy who creates a dice baseball game, which, like, I played that growing up. Like, my sister made a dice baseball game board game that we played all the time. It was called Baseball Card Baseball. And this episode is apparently a thing. But this. This book I kept finding on lists of, you know, greatest sports books of all time and even novella lists because it's a short, shortish book. It's basically about this guy who creates his own world and his own league, this whole baseball world that he plays in his apartment at night in New York City. And then the sort of fantasy world of his baseball with his actual world starts to just kind of overlap and he just kind of starts to lose it. So it's super fascinating. It's really good, really enjoying it, even aside from just being a baseball nut. But it's by Robert Coover. That's really good.
Sounds like Tailor Made for you, Tim.
Yeah, for real. And this is like, this is like before fantasy baseball existed and all that too, which is pretty wild. So speaking of things, Tailor Made for me, I think we'll get to that.
Yeah.
In a little bit. But also we're rewatching Northern Exposure. Have you guys ever watched the show?
I watched it a little bit when it was on and I think I was too young to really appreciate it because my dad watched it. Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, I've never seen it.
Oh, gosh, it's amazing. My wife and I watched it maybe four years ago, something like that, and then now we're just starting to watch it for a second time. And it's the first, if you haven't heard of it. The premise is this doctor who's been training at Columbia in New York can't find funding to pay for his medical school. And the only reply he gets from all these scholarship programs is from Alaska. And so this inner city New York doctor flies to Alaska to work there for four or five years to pay off his student loans. He agrees to be a physician in their district, or he thinks he's going to be in Anchorage, but he ends up in this tiny town called Sicily that's just like super quirky. And it's run by this ex astronaut named Maurice. And yeah, it's just weird. Little town, tiny town. It's just a wonderful show. You know, they. It works in a lot of literature and music in this just kind of podunk little place. So it's really great. I'd recommend it. And it's, it's definitely a 90s show just to prepare you for that when you watch it.
But is it on Netflix?
It's not, no.
How are you?
Fortunately, we have the first two seasons on dvd and then once we get to the season three, we'll figure out what to do from there.
Dvd? What's that?
Yeah, for real. Actually, the first season DVD comes, it's like a normal DVD case, but it has a bright like super bright orange parka that you zip around the DVD case.
Oh, yeah.
Oh my God.
Yeah. Yeah, for real. But it's an amazing show. Yeah. So that. Yeah. And I'm still writing with my Timber Twist. I actually just put a fresh Blackwing 602 stub in it. So I'm still, still loving that, using it a ton. And I've got a Chicago field notes that I'm nearing the end of in front of me.
Caitlin, do you have one of those timber twists.
I do not yet. I know Caroline has one. She's brought it and shown it off, but I haven't tried one yet.
Somebody in the group mentioned about how, you know, it's only just a little bit lighter on the scale than the aluminum ones.
Yeah.
But it feels just, like, so much lighter.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I can't imagine.
Yeah.
Just feels perfect. Yeah, it's. And you can imagine where it's. Where the weighting falls on it. You know, it's mostly at the tip now.
Yeah.
So. Which totally makes sense of why it would feel so comfortable compared to the old one's. Cool. I like it. But sometimes it's like if you have a full stub in there, the thing just kind of feels unwieldy. Yeah. Wagging around while you're writing.
Exactly.
That's all I got.
Yeah. So I'm drinking. So I was looking around for something to drink, and I had dinner at a carryout from a little taqueria near us last night, and I bought a lemon lime agua fresca, but I did not drink it. I've left it in the fridge, and so I pulled it out, and I'm like, what could I do with this? And I dropped a shot of tequila in it.
There you go.
As you do.
As you do. So now I'm drinking a agua fresco with tequila in it that makes sort of an impromptu margarita. And. Yeah, it's delicious. I am writing with a Nataraj pop pencil, which we'll talk about in my. Right. Notepads. Kindred spirit. The bright orange butcher orange notepad, which I'll also talk about probably in the same freshpoint. Two of my favorite things right now. And.
Man.
So Katie, my wife, is out of town for the week. We were both in Indiana over the weekend, and I had to come back early to go to work, and she's still there until the end of the week. And I'm taking this opportunity to just watch the things that she would not want to watch.
So I've been inching through Breaking Bad like that for, like, four and a half years.
Yeah. So I just watched the first two episodes of season two of Mr. Robot. I don't know if either of you have ever seen that.
I've not, but I've heard it's good.
Yeah, it won a bunch of awards.
It did. It's really interesting. So, like, first season is about this kid who's, like, a computer hacker, and he is approached by, like, a. Like a. By Mr. Robot, who's like a revolutionary and wants to start, like, a digital revolution. And I won't go into any spoilers because there's a lot of twists and turns, but the visual style is really amazing. Like, it's. It's kind of like a cross between, like, Fight Club and a Wes Anderson movie. Like, it's. Oh, my gosh.
Yeah, that sounds really interesting.
Sounds amazing.
It's very. Like, all the scenes are really, like, well set and symmetrical and not a lot of, like, moving camera shots, but at the same time, it's not all bright and cheerful and, like, twee, like Wes Anderson. It's more gritty and dark and, like, muted colors. And it's pretty quiet. Yeah, it's. It's really good.
Plus Christian Slater.
Plus Christian Slater. He's so great. So, yeah, I watched all of season one, like, pretty quickly, and season two, I'm taking it just as it. As it's being shown, so it's pretty good. And I should talk about what I'm reading. I started this on the plane on the way back from Indiana. It's so good. It's called all the Birds in the Sky.
Oh, I love that one.
Oh, did you read that?
Yeah.
I've always been aware of Charlie Jane Anders, who's the author, and she used to write for io9. She's really great.
And I've never heard of any of things you're talking about, and I want to. I want to know more.
So, Charlie, Jane Andrews is a sci fi writer. She was the, I think, former editor in chief of io9, which is the, like, the sci fi and fantasy website from Gawker. Oh, okay. Yeah. And so all the Birds in the sky is. It's a sci fi book, but it's kind of fantasy, kind of sci fi.
It's like the perfect combination of the two.
And actually, I think I know why you like it, Caitlin, because we've had this conversation about good omens before.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
In some ways it feels like that without necessarily the comedy in it.
Yeah, it felt like that, but a little less. Good Omens is very silly.
Yeah.
And all the Birds in the sky is not super silly. It's written really, really beautifully. And it was just like the world building. It feels so real.
Yeah.
And gets so intense. It's. I love that book. I really liked it.
Yeah. It's. It's interesting because I did not realize that it was going to be mostly set in San Francisco.
Oh, yeah.
And I've been reading a lot of books lately that just sort of like, happened to be set in San Francisco that I didn't intend for it to be. And this is all happening while I'm, like, considering moving up to San Francisco this fall, like, up to the city proper. And I think these books are helping convince me.
Have you finished it yet?
No, not yet. I'm, like, maybe 80% of the way through.
Okay, okay.
I'm buying it right now.
Yeah, it gets pretty. It gave me a lot of anxiety towards the end there, which I don't want to really spoil it, but I think you'll see why as you get there. And it's just funny that you bring up San Francisco because it's a pretty integral part of the story towards the end too. Yeah.
Cool. Because it ends in the Facebook office.
It does.
It ends in the Facebook office, and everything just blows up. Well, I just got done reading a book that I still haven't figured out what opinion I want to form on it. It's called I hate the Internet.
Mm.
It's. It's like. I don't even know. It's. It's a very, like, cynically written book, but a very, like, like, well written book. It's kind of a. Like a social justice progressive book, but in, like, set around a novel. It's really good, but definitely not. Definitely not.
Oh, you know what? Oh, I'm sorry. Do you listen to other people?
No.
Podcast. Really great podcast. It's kind of like WTF with Marc Maron, but it's strictly like, narrative arts, like, novelists, nonfiction writers, editors, things like that. And he had that guy or the person who wrote that on. I remember listening to the interview, and it sounded super interesting.
Yeah, it's really good. It's not particularly complimentary toward my industry, which is completely fine, and I agree with a lot of points, but it's. It's a really good book.
Yeah.
All right.
Yeah, let's. Let's launch into FreshPoints. This is the point in the show in which we were going to live call Johnny, and without really, like, having him prep for it, just to see how it's going with. With him and his wife, new baby. But he texted Tim and me maybe half an hour ago and said is like, guys, I'm too tired. I'm just like, what? Why are you tired? You didn't have to do any of that work.
Oh, so you haven't slept since Tuesday. Whatever. Big deal.
So, yeah, we won't do that. Yeah. Let's talk about fresh points. Caitlin, what's going on with you?
All right. I have a few fresh Points. And I'm actually glad that you reached out to me when you did, because normally I wouldn't really have anything to say. And right now, I have a lot of things to say. So the first is that this is just really exciting for us. Maybe not as exciting for pencil people. The floor in the shop is new. We just had it redone. They finished yesterday. And we got all the furniture and everything moved back in, and it looks freaking fantastic. And we were, like, really scared for a minute there, because at one point they told us they'd be done Tuesday night. And then Tuesday night, we discover the tiles are still in Illinois. And we're like, oh, crap, how are the tiles going to get here? And luckily, the company that was installing them for us took total control and responsibility of the situation and somehow got them on an airplane and over ignited them like the very last light of the evening. So they arrived, they were installed like, everything went incredibly well. And now, thankfully, we might never have to sit on the floor and magic eraser. The white tiles, that was why we had to replace them is they were so hard to clean.
Yeah.
So now we have a more different black and white tile.
They look amazing.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. So today, you know, while we're enjoying our lovely new floor and finally being back open after being, you know, in the midst of this craziness for a couple days, we got a very, very large motherlode delivery from Hindustan pencils, which is really exciting because it takes us. I think we place the order with them in, like, I want to say, like, April. It took a long time to get these pencils here. And so we finally have the Apsara Absolute back in stock, which is one of my favorites. We also finally have the marble pencils back in stock, which have been gone since, I think, like, Christmas. Like, those have been gone for a while.
Yeah.
And we've got one new thing. And I'm really sorry about this, Andy, because you mentioned you were writing with a pilot pop pencil. We were not able to get the pop pencils. Instead, we got joy. It's spelled Joi. They come in these kind of, like, kind of a similar concept, like color scheme wise to the pop. But they are green, blue, red, and purple, each with, like, a contrasting color on, like, the tip.
I think Caroline put a picture in the group somewhere about them. And they look amazing.
Yeah, yeah. And they have a similar. Right. They're a 2B, like the pop was. So they feel similar. They don't look the same, but they're still like, A really fun color palette. And they still have that, like, kind of nice. A little bit crumbly, 2B. Like the pop.
Yeah, that's one thing I really like about those. Those pop pencils is, you know, not that necessarily they're in all sorts of colors, but that their color palettes are really amazing. Like, there's a yellow and gray and a fuchsia and magenta. Yeah, yeah. And it looks like the joy really, like, carries. Carries that through. So.
Yeah, we're actually trying really hard to get two from another of hind. So Hindustan owns Natraj, Apsara, and Sivo under their Sivo line. We were trying to get these ones that were like, again, like, really brightly colored, but they had these, like, black patterns on them that really reminded me of. Yikes. But pencils.
Oh, yeah.
They especially have one that was like this lime green with, like, black zigzag. Oh, I need this. But we weren't able to get those. And we also weren't able to get the sparkly glitter ones. I'm so sorry.
Darn it.
It's. It's interesting because I feel like Apcera. And. And how did you. So I would say Nataraj. How would you say it?
We say Natraj.
Natraj. Okay.
Yeah.
Apsara. Natraj. It seems like there's some models that they share brand names through. Somebody has some Apsara on it too.
Yeah. And I'm not really sure because they also do that with the platinum and ruby lines. I'm sorry. It's the 621 and the Platinum line, I think, because within the 621 line, they have 621 Ruby and 61 Pearl and 621 like Amber. And so they're essentially like the same pencil just with different colors on the outside. But between those, they have. I think they have Apsara 61s and they have Nitrage 61s. So I'm not sure if that's like a distribution thing. It probably is, but yeah, quality wise, from what I've come across, they seem to be the same thing.
Cool. And are those in stock on the site yet, or is that the ones
that we already had in the past? The absolutes. And the marbles are in stock. Fun new thing. The marbles come in boxes now. It used to be that they just came in like this tube of 36 pencils, and now they come in a box with one of those really Erasers. I'm sorry, crappy erasers. They come in a box with those erasers with A little sharpener. And the box is kind of cute too. The other, the only other thing like this is like minor. We got the platinums, the platinum, two Bs without erasers on them. Because the erasers, again, are super, super terrible. But we, we like flip flop. We like totally screwed up. We meant to get the six, two ones without erasers and we got them with erasers. So we're just gonna like bypass the whole 621s and sell through what we have. And we'll end up getting another order of. We still have a lot of 61s. We'll end up getting another order from Hindustan probably in the next couple months. So.
Cool.
Yeah, there's plenty there to enjoy for in the meantime. I guess I'm still on my first points, aren't I?
Yep. Please.
I'm like talking a lot. It's kind of weird. So I have two, two more things in the vintage pencil discussion after I've already shared my Ronson pencil lighter. I'm on a bit of a kick right now. So. The first is that we made this really excellent friend in the pencil store a little while ago. His name is Stephen. And Steven and his nephew collect and repair a lot of vintage metal works. They particularly like vintage sharpeners if they have a Pinterest. The Pinterest is like Pinterest.com. always stay sharp. I wrote it down. Yay. So they repair vintage sharpeners and they sent us one called the U.S. automatic. And I did this whole little, like, photo spread of it and I took. Filmed a little video of me using it. And I'm gonna be posting that on our blog. But it's just like, it's really incredible to meet people that love pencils but like love like a completely different aspect of them that, yeah, I don't normally get into. And it was just like trolling through this guy's Pinterest who he's like dug up all. Even like the patent info for all these. Like, it's pretty incredible.
Yeah. And isn't it funny to think that he was out there and you haven't met him or heard about him until now?
Yeah, like he existed. You know, kind of like the group exists, you guys exist.
It's been like a super private thing for him or something for a long time maybe.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's just really fun.
It's cool.
Yeah.
I'm hoping that we'll be trading once I sent him back the US Automatic. Getting another one to play with. But that one is definitely cool. It has this Little three like a tri cornered blade that turns and sharpens the pencil with a blade. It's so cool.
Yeah, there's all sorts of amazing things like that Charles Berlzheimer, when I was working@pencils.com got I think he wanted at an ebay auction. But it was a combination pencil vending machine and pencil personalizer.
Interesting.
Like you put in 5 cents and it's like super old. You put in 5 cents and you like. It's almost like a, like I'm trying to say like a label maker. You like.
Yeah.
And you can type up to 15 characters and then just like it stamps it and spits it out. It's amazing.
That is so cool. Yeah, I would love to see that someday.
Yeah.
My last little fresh point. Nope, I'm sorry. I have two more, then I'm done. I swear. I have a pencil mystery for anybody that would love to tell me more about it. I found Elgin Pencils.
Now you say you founded Elgin Pencils Found.
Yeah, I stumbled across it at a really great little dusty stationery store in the financial district of New York City. It's called the Elgin 7803 thin line. It says it's made in the USA. It looks to be about, I'd say like based on this like metal cap on the end of it, probably like 1940s, 1950s depending. And I can't find anything about it. Nothing? Nothing. Closest I've come is Aldgen School Supply that was founded in 1968, but this doesn't look quite 1968ish to me.
You know, on ebay right now there is a lot of 72 vintage pencils with a bunch of Elgin 720s in it.
We thought that it might be the same company, but I also can't really see the pencil in those terrible photos.
Yeah.
So anyway, that's my little pencil mystery is I want to know more about the Elgin Pencil Company.
Wouldn't it be amazing if you were related to the founder of it somehow?
It would be, but I find it to be. Well on the. Do you notice on the box of 72 vintage pencils on ebay that company's in California.
California, yeah, I see that. And you?
I have and I might be like totally making this up in my head, but I. I haven't read the entire Petroski book, but I do feel like there's mention at some point of Elgin, so that'd be maybe worth checking into. Have you read that before?
No, I haven't actually.
Yeah, I Just kind of chipped through it and jumped around. But I do it really now it's starting to ring a bell. There is some mention of that in, in his book, so it'd be worth checking.
Yeah, totally. I mean mostly when you talk about Elgin and vintage ephemera, you're talking about watches.
Yeah.
And like brass working or other like metalworks. But I've never seen pencils before.
So you'll be happy to know, and you probably know this already, that you are the third result on when you Google Elgin pencils.
I saw that.
It's the first. It's this place in Elgin in the UK called a shop called Pencil Me In.
I looked at their website, it's pretty cute.
Yeah.
There's a town, isn't there a town in like around Chicago? Yeah, Elgin.
Yeah, there's.
I don't know if they have a pencil shop.
Maybe this is where that pencil is from. Okay. This is my last fresh point, I swear. We are gearing up pretty spectacularly for back to school season.
Yeah.
So we will be doing in July, I'm sorry, the very end of July and throughout August we'll be doing some special promotions, probably a couple giveaways and we'll have a lot of new stuff including some fun sharpeners and we found a sharpener for lefties that we really like. So we're going to be stocking that. Yeah. Yeah. Back to school Leftorium.
Yeah, I have a cum. That is it. That one.
That's it.
I got it a long time ago when pencil things was still around and I like tried it out and I was just like, man, I didn't know it could be like this. Like this is so much easier to turn back toward you instead of turning away from you.
I just honestly like never thought about it. And then I was like trying one today and I'm like, oh, this makes sense. I'm not even a left handed person and I'm just like, oh, I get like why this would suck if you were doing it with the right. Yeah. So I'm really glad that we discovered those and are able to stock them among many other fun new things.
Yeah.
So stay tuned.
Can I ask and maybe, maybe you don't have an answer to this yet or maybe it's a no comment. But any word on those highly coveted Pollux Sharpeners?
Oh yeah.
All right. So I'm actually really, really glad that you asked me that because I would really love to shed some light on the situation.
Yeah.
So we, we ordered them a long time ago, like Pretty much right when we. Yeah, we ordered them pretty much right when we got back from Paper World in Frankfurt, where we discovered them. Now, M and R Mobius and Rupert, their distributor in the US is the same one that, that we work with for other brands. So we already had a relationship with them and we're like, sweet, this is going to be super easy because we already know these people. We don't have to like, set up a new company account with somebody else. And at first they tell us, okay, they're coming from Germany, it's just going to take a while. And then it was like, okay, well what's a while? And like, they have to make more. And then it was like, oh, we hear there's a brass. A brass shortage. We heard that from the competitor Brass Sharpeners in Germany, Ducks. We heard that they're having a brass shortage. So we think that there might be some kind of connection there because it
takes up so much brass to make those things.
Yanking or chewing, I don't know. So the honest to God truth is that the latest from our distributor, we talked about this about maybe a week ago, maybe two weeks ago, we asked what's going on with this and they said they're having trouble with Mobius and Rupert. I think Mobius and Rupert caught on to the fact that these are probably going to be pretty coveted. The Pollux in particular. That's the curved blade one. Yeah, there's Pollux and Castor, and I get them a little confused. So they are in a negotiation with the distributor where originally they said it was going to be one set price and now they're coming saying it's going to be another set price. So between that and I think some manufacturing complications, we just don't know. That was a really long story to tell you. I'm sorry. We don't know. It sounds at least like the negotiation portion of it where they're trying to figure out pricing and like, costs and all that. I feel it sounds like that's going to probably wrap up hopefully soon.
Soon.
Eleventy million dollars is how much they're going to cost and we're going to pay it.
To me, it's sounding like these are going to cost probably a bit more than the bullet ones. But it sounds like there is an end in sight. I just really. I'm really crossing my fingers that our distributor just comes back and is like, we're not working with movies and Rupert anymore. I don't want that to be the case. But we are working and we will hopefully get them you know, the same time everybody else gets them.
Cool.
Yeah. Sorry, everybody.
No, no, it's not your fault.
You're doing everything you can. That's why we appreciate you.
Aw, thank you.
Better CW Pencils do it than everybody who tries to negotiate some awful website and they can't get through or they can't get samples somehow.
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if some people have like, pencil people. Pencil fans have been emailing Morbius and Rupert directly and asking. I could just like imagine that happening a little bit.
They're buying plane tickets.
Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna go there and I'm gonna get it.
I'm gonna get that $10 jarpenter. Whatever it takes.
Go on, pencil people. Slow your roll. So CV Pencil has a better time. And then we can all have nice sharpeners.
You want to know what's really funny, though? Not this is related to, but unrelated. It's just like, funny the way that word spreads. Because we've been dealing with the question about this since Paper World. I think somebody posted that blog post in the. God, what's the German one called? Oh, he had the thing on it.
Yeah. Was that Lexihilicker?
Yeah. Looks calico.
Yes, yes, that one. That's hard to pronounce. So we've been getting questions about that almost daily since then. But you know, the black wings. I know this is. Somebody's going to be talking about these. The 56s were announced literally what, like yesterday at like noon. I don't remember what time it was. And we've received non stop questions like, when are you gonna get these?
Oh, because your connection.
Yeah, we're like, they came out yesterday. We don't get them the second that they are announced. Like, they're funny. So it's just, it's like, funny the way that the reputation of these things is spreading.
They think you're like. You're like Best Buy or something. Where you know, they have all of the, like the new video game in stock in the back, but they just,
oh, my God, put it on shelves
until the instant that it goes live.
Can you imagine if we did like a midnight release party?
I would come and stand in line.
I will get my sleeping bag.
I don't know if you want to do that in our neighborhood. Oh, my gosh.
Tim and I will hang out downstairs and eat fried chicken and champagne.
That's a good idea.
That would make me feel invincible. So let's just do that now. We'll be fine.
We'll make that a plan for the next Launch of something CW Pencils.
The best buy of pencils.
I don't like that.
No, I don't either.
Oh, my gosh.
Cool.
Yeah.
Well, Tim, do you want to let the cat out of the bag?
No, it's fine in the bag. I don't like cats. Are you talking about black wings?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah. So the Blackwing 56 was announced. It was kind of hinted little by little. You had mentioned something like it could be baseball related. And we were trying to figure out what the date and there are a few possibilities that were popping up date wise because the day they released or the day we thought they would release was wasn't it 7 11?
It was the week of 7 11. Yeah, it was.
Well, yeah, it was the week of 7 11. And then did some digging and ends up that July 11th was the day that Babe Ruth played his first major league game. And so I was like totally convinced that that's what it was going to be.
I thought that was National Slurpee Day.
Sorry.
A Slurpee pencil would be incredible next year. Blackwing, I think we have.
It's like you could lick it and it tastes like cherry limeade or something like that.
Oh, my God. Or it's like a mush of colors for when you mix them all together.
Yeah. Or do like the special, the paint, like the, what do you call it? Like the mood ring paint where you like touch it and she just goes.
Yeah.
But they ended up coming out with Blackwing 56, which is 56 dedicated to Joe DiMaggio, New York Yankees outfielder who hit safely, reach base safely via a hit in 56 straight games, which is the all time record which will probably never be broken. The closest anyone's got is 44. And so it's. It's a big time record. It's one that it's not as sexy as, you know, hitting 80, 80 something home runs, whatever Barry Bonds did.
Yeah.
So but it makes sense why they picked it because it's like one of those totally untouchable records. Maybe someone in the next 50 years could get close, but you never know. And so the pencil came out as. When we found out that it was the 56, I mean, clicked immediately. It's going to be a DiMaggio edition and it's going to be pinstriped. Like, obviously. I think I. In a text message conversation, I said that like immediately. It's like, well, yeah, okay, pinstripes.
So between. Between you. I mean, just the collective problem solving skills of our pencil Group is incredible. I think that the group has cracked maybe, like, four of the five editions so far. Maybe. Oh, man. Maybe like, two. I don't know. They've cracked a bunch of them.
211 was my favorite. Somebody, like, matched up.
That was, like, some Sherlock Holmes stuff right there.
Yeah.
For real.
Like, they, like, just had the outline of the John Muir trail, and somebody figured it out.
211.
How long have you been on Google Maps, dude? Like, that's a little intense, but I've
sort of been expecting a baseball edition for just for months now, just because there's a pretty strong, like, baseball fandom that runs under the people@pencils.com.
they're in our fantasy baseball, our stationary fantasy baseball league, the AL Star baseball.
Oh, wow.
Yeah. With. With Brad Dowdy. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's. Yeah, it's got. We got office supply geek and.
Yeah.
Brad Dowdy.
And is it, like, the official, like, Blackwing Office 1, or is it, like, Charles, isn't it?
And it's like a Office one, I think.
What is it?
Or something like that. You know, that's a good. Good question. I already stole the Blackwing socks, so they couldn't have that.
But I wait till they put a trademark on it, and just to see some.
I forget. He'd be hearing from our lawyers, but yeah. And even in the original video for the volumes, they hinted at a 42. Like, a Jackie Robinson edition, which I would have probably preferred. That would have been amazing. Like, think of, like, a bright blue Blackwing would have been awesome. I think. Like a bright wing. A bright blue black wing with a white feral would have been super cool. But. But anyways. Yeah, they came out with Blackpink 56. It says firm graphite, which we generally associate with the 602 core and the blue eraser.
So I don't know.
It looks like it's a navy blue eraser, not, like the refill blue.
Well, so tell you what. I don't know if you can hear this. That is my unopened box right now. So I will tear into it, do it, and see what. Try not to drop this on the computer and shut it all down.
Gonna shut this thing down.
Cool.
I'm super excited about this edition. I mean, I actually got a text message from Topher who said, like, this edition's made for you or something, and I was like, well, I hate the Yankees, but, yeah, it's baseball. Yeah. No, but it is. I mean, at least it's a good
aesthetically pleasing, because I don't know anything about baseball. And I think it's a really nice looking pencil.
Yeah, well, and Johnny also said something to me like, yeah, it's the Yankees, or I hate the Yankees, but, like, I do hate the Yankees, but I love Joe DiMaggio. So I'm super excited about this. My dad and I are actually reading a book called Summer of 49 about DiMaggio and Ted Williams this summer together. Talking about it. But he's just a fascinating guy. Yeah.
He's from San Francisco, isn't he?
Yeah, yeah. His dad was a fisherman in San Francisco.
Is.
Did I hear.
Somewhere he was like, just figured and figured he would just play at the Giants or he really, really wanted to play for the Giants or what was. I can't remember the story there.
I don't know that for sure, but I would. I would assume. I would assume. So. You know, he ended up with the Yankees and then, you know, married Marilyn Monroe. That's right. So pretty big. So he's a pretty big pop culture icon, but.
So this eraser is. I would actually say it's somewhere between, like, a royal blue and a navy. It's. It's sort of like. It's a dark blue for sure, but it's very, like, vibrant of a dark blue.
Yeah.
Yeah. Oh, this is cool, too. The. You know, the little tubed edition that comes with it, the end caps, the little rubber end caps for this rather than black, like the last four have been. This one is that same blue color. So that's a nice little, like, flourish.
It's not painted like a baseball.
No, it should be like a bat.
I was really hoping that's what you were gonna say.
So should I wood paneling? Should I spoil the. Should I spoil the gift for year one subscribers to the World?
You know, I think it's already been spoiled.
I saw it.
Yeah.
On the Facebook group.
Andy, you listen to the incomparable. Right?
Yeah. Yep.
Yeah. So, like, we. We talked about this for, like, the spoiler horn.
Yeah.
Which if you. This is totally off topic. This is because I've had two drinks, but since we started recording. But have you guys seen Finding Dory?
Not yet.
Not yet.
Okay. So I may have seen it twice, but my son. My son loves it. And there's this beluga whale. They're in this. This habitat for recovering animals. And there's a beluga whale character that, like, fakes. He pretends that he doesn't know how to use his echolocation. And finally he figures it out and, like, starts using it And I feel like that would be our perfect spoiler horn. And so Henry and Henry and I keep doing it together, where the little blue whale puts his, like, fins up by its head and goes and likes this like.
Okay, okay, Tim, sound the spoiler. Echoloche.
Okay, are you ready?
And then.
Okay, here we go. Here comes. There you go. We were at the water park today, and my son and I did that, like, a hundred times, so I've got that. So the.
So the Year one membership thing for people who have renewed their subscription is a Blackwing Volumes challenge coin, which is pretty cool if we're not all familiar with what a challenge coin is. It's a military concept in which a unit or a division or something like that would have a big, heavy coin with their logo and information on it. And if you're out at a bar with your buddies and somebody from maybe like, a competing branch of the military, well, they don't compete, but like a different branch of the military or a different division or someone. If he pulls out his challenge coin and taps it on the bar, you have a certain amount of time to pull out your challenge coin as well. And whoever is caught without their challenge coin buys drinks for everybody.
So it's not a pog.
It's not a. You could use it as a big slammer if you wanted to.
Okay.
The second 90s ephemera.
Yes. Yikes. Pencils and blackwing pogs.
Northern Exposure.
Yes, Northern Exposure. So, not to mention. So I've had. I posted about this on Facebook, but I have had that song by Weedus, that Teenage Dirtbag song. I've had that stuck in my head all day. I don't know why, like, so bad.
You know that's on Spotify when it comes up. And it comes up often in the pencil shop.
Yes.
It comes up as being part of the Dawson's Creek soundtrack.
Yes.
Yes, indeed. I found that on itunes. Do you know what song that is? Tim?
Tim, I'm sorry. I was on mute for a second because I was taking it. I was taking a drink and ice clinking. Sorry. So you have to.
You were just singing I'm Just a Teenage Dirt back there.
Yeah. And I accidentally kicked over the dresser next to me.
Huge mess. Just pull yourself together.
Okay, so I'll enter in right after you ask me if I've heard of it.
Okay. No, I think we should leave this in.
I know.
That's more hilarious. So, Tim, have you heard of Teenage Dirtbag
again?
What is happening?
Come on. I haven't had a good Response. You asked me if I've heard of Teenage Durst Bag. I was like, well, I was one at one point, but I'm fine. But I hit mute, so ask me one more goddamn time.
Tim, at this point, I think we just need to insert song here.
Tim, have you heard Teenage Dirtbag?
No, I've never heard of this damn song, so. But Dawson's Creek, there's our fourth 90s reference of the day.
All the 90s references. So who needs Johnny? We can have plenty of fun with Caitlin here.
Sorry, Johnny, you can't come back.
He'll be on paternity leave for a while anyway.
Forever?
No, forever. It's a four month paid paternity leave. So we have a very generous package here. Awesome. Cool. So, yeah, I will sharpen one of these up. And I know that people have been getting these black wings. I think it's pretty fantastic that we are in episode 56 of the erasable podcast.
Whoa. Mind Blown Magic.
Yeah. And Johnny has. This is going to be baby Rosie's fancy, like, birth pencil because it arrived the day she was born to Johnny.
Yeah. So it'll be Blackwing 56 and bylines because he also stores away the field notes edition.
Yeah, he does.
So he talked about. Because wasn't Henry. Henry was Night sky or something like that. So he's got some stored away for him.
That's super cool.
I actually had a customer once who wrote us this really beautiful story about how her favorite pencil is a Blackfeet Indian pencil. She has one that she took her, I think her SATs, her college, like, LSATs, signed her or filled out paperwork for her marriage license and like filled out something for the birth of both of her children with the same pencil.
Wow.
It's like a. The life pencil.
You probably should be filling out legal documents with a pencil, though.
No, that's what I said.
Just spoil the whole magic of the story.
The concept of it is really nice.
That is really.
And now I'm being audited. I did my taxes in pencil. All right.
But Rose gets to have the DiMaggio pencil.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
Cool. Well, probably also. Do we. Do we last time cover? I know we talked about the. The announcement of the Bright Pads Kindred Spirit notepad, but did we actually talk about how it is and how it feels?
I don't think so.
Okay.
No, I don't. It's all kind of swirling around my head because I was in the middle of a move during that.
But yeah. Caitlin, do you have one of these?
We actually Just got them as we were unpacking all of our furniture back into the store yesterday.
Are you selling these?
Yeah, yeah, we only. We sell the limited edition. Right. Pads in store only.
Wow.
So we've had the Lenore ones for a while.
Yeah.
And we now have the Kindred Spirit ones.
Oh, that's fantastic.
Yeah. And we sell the. Just the regular free pack that he does on our website, but the other ones we keep in store only.
Cool.
So if you're in New York. If you're in the New York area, head down.
Yeah.
So, yeah, this is, this is. I can't express enough how much I like this. This edition, it's, you know, has that just really bright, cheerful butcher orange cover and it's. It's not super thick. I guess they only make butcher orange in like two weights and this one is an 80 pound, so I'm guessing that the Lenore and then their regular edition is a little bit heavier. Maybe like a hundred pound. That's just a guess, but I am loving the insides of this. It has like a bright orange lining on it. This was your fresh point. Do you mind me talking or do you want to.
No, go for it. Whatever. It's all going to the same place.
That's true. It's all going to the Internet. So, yeah, it has a bright orange lining on it. It's like a standard lined notebook, except that on the left side, maybe like half an inch in, there's a double line, almost like a ledger. And it is perfect for. To do lists.
Yeah.
Yeah. I've been using it all week for this and yeah, it's so great. It looks really good. And even if. If it gets to the point where it just sort of starts falling apart, I think it will fit in my field notes stuff sheath. So. Yeah.
Yeah. And another little thing about this edition is, I don't know if you notice with the. The original ones, the red, white and blue ones, they're a little. They're like too wide, at least for, like, for me to put in a pocket, like a shirt pocket, like on a. On my. The shirts I typically wear. And this one is a little bit narrower, which is nice. I don't know if that's just a coincidence or if that was a conscious decision, but it seems just a little bit narrower. Just. Just a touch. Just enough to be a little more carryable.
Yeah.
But yeah, I love the, the weight of the COVID Nice and flexible.
I guess if I had one criticism for this, it would be that the, the smooth paper, it feels really nice and it writes really well, but it ghosts really bad on the back. So. Okay. I think it's.
Yeah, I haven't noticed that yet.
It's kind of a vellum ish cover. Obviously not made a real, real vellum as we have learned from reading paper paging through history, which I'll talk about in a second. More about. But it's. Yeah, it's. Besides that it's so great. I'm looking forward to. I was feeling a little trepidatious about moving away from like the saddle stitched notebooks just because they like field notes and word notebooks have fewer pages in them. And I go through them so slowly that often they start to fall apart or I start to get tired of it before I'm done using it. So I think just because these feel so nice to use and just look so great, I'll be incentivized to go through it faster.
Oh, I say. Or use it until next June.
Yeah, right. Use it more. I use it more and I'll go through it faster. So.
Yeah.
So, Chris, this is bravo to you. This is so great.
Very well done.
Yeah, I wrote a blog post on Woodclinched. I'm trying to update that more because I just should. Just about two little things that have been kind of bringing me joy lately. And one of them is the Natraj Pop pencils and one of them is these notepads and using them together is really great. So yeah, I should. Oh, Tim, do you have any more fresh points now that I stole that one from you?
No, no. You also gifted me the Blackwing 56, so. No, I'm good. I was gonna do like rant about how I don't understand understand Snapchat, but I'm just. I'm just not going to do that.
That's for the After Dark episode when we just go on a time.
Makes me feel like an elderly person. Like when I try to use it, I'm like, wait, so it's just pictures of me all the time? Like, that doesn't seem right. It's got to be something else.
Well, I'll then launch into my like social media professional like thing about how what it will, like what geniuses the Snapchat people are. So we can save that.
Okay, that sounds good. And then maybe we can have some sort of like giveaway where if somebody, you know, have a bunch of people comment and then I guess that wouldn't work. But like the winner. The winner gets to see my amazing face swap today that I sent to you.
Yes.
Yeah. It's a face swap involving me after being at the pool for like, five hours with hat head and an old photograph of John Steinbeck. So it's out there somewhere.
Use Snapchat or face swap.
Yeah, face swap. Freaked out. My son, by the way.
Did it.
Yeah, he sort of loved it, but, like, he had a beard and he was like, what is going on?
Well, the fact that you can then sort of like move your. Move your, like, masked face around is pretty great.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. So I'm not gonna do that though.
I have to say, speaking of Snapchat, you know. You know who kills it at Snapchat is the pencil.
Pencils.
Yeah. Caitlin, is that you or is that Alex?
It's team effort. Sometimes it's me, sometimes it's Alex, sometimes it's Caroline. But we've been trying to use it a lot more because we all have, like 17 phones and we're all Snapchatting each other all day long. Anyway, we're like, we should probably, like, document what we do for a living.
Gosh, I need some tutoring.
It's pretty fun once you kind of get the hang of it. It does take a minute to understand. I still can't figure out how you do time lapse video, but the rest of it we've kind of figured out.
Yeah. Cool.
You a tutorial.
That sounds good. I need it.
You should just do like a Facebook live stream. Giving people a tutorial of Snapchat.
Actually been talking about doing that. A Facebook Live. Talking about stuff like pencils and.
Totally.
I'd watch and Snapchat.
You'll just get every live video thing going at once. Like, get Periscope, get Facebook Live and just like, blast the Internet.
Is meerkat still a thing?
I think it is.
I never knew what happened with those ones.
So.
Yeah.
So quick, quick follow up, Tim, who is it? Who won the right notepads giveaway?
It was Brody McDonald.
Yeah. That's awesome.
Thank you.
That's pretty fantastic. So, yeah, Congratulations, Brody. Thanks, Chris, for doing that,
man.
I had something and I completely lost my train of thought about what that was, and I did not write it down fast enough. So I'm gonna wait to see if that comes to me and talk about my vintage finds, which are not. Not quite as cool as Caitlin's. But my mother actually found this for me. An old bullet pencil that's in really good shape. It just needs to be polished up a little bit. But it's of my favorite genre. That's kind of like a tourism bullet Pencil. They're all done in this particular style, like, illustration style. It has a pretty heavy half tone on it, and they just, like, looks so beautiful. Like, everything from, like, Niagara Falls to the Golden Gate Bridge to, like, like, the Florida Keys. Like, everything is in this style. Every, like, tourism one that I can find. And this one is. It's from Ideal Beach Resort on Shaffer Lake in Monticello, Indiana. It's not Monticello. It's Monticello because. Indiana.
Yeah.
My. I know somebody who comes from the town of Versailles, Indiana, which is spelled. Like, one might spell Versailles, but it's not.
Thanks.
Indiana isn't there. Illinois has New Madrid.
Yeah. New Madrid in Cairo instead of Cairo. Both Ohio and Indiana have Peru. And my great uncle was born in Milan, Ohio.
Oh, my gosh.
Not Milan. Milan.
Wow.
Maryland.
Myelin. So, yeah, fantastic bullet pencil. I'm gonna, like, either try to clean it up myself or send it off to Randy or Huckleberry Woodchuck to get done. Yeah, it looks really good. Also, where's my cat people at? I think you'd appreciate this. I have this old pencil from Lowe's brand kitty litter.
What?
It's like, some sort of a old promotional pencil. Lowe's brand kitty litter premium cat box filler. And it has, like, this. This old, maybe Lowe's logo with a little, like, paw print on it. And I'm just like. I just love that. Somebody out there was like, okay, we got this kitty litter. We got to figure out how to, like, promote it. Let's make pencils.
Pencils. Yeah. Lately we've been, what do the cats want these days?
Does it have a slogan?
It does not. It should.
Lately we've been finding a lot of advertising pencils for advertising pencils.
Wow. It's real weird.
Inception pencilception.
So now you guys will have to come by and, like, dig through our box. We have about 3,000 that we got from just this lady who collected them, like, throughout her life, or her daughter collected them, and she was just like, let's get rid of these. And it's just, like, amazing what you find in there.
Oh, I bet. I would love to just, like, sift through that stuff.
Just, like, read the slogans out loud. It's too funny.
Yeah. Cool. Oh, I figured out last thing I was going to mention. This is my last fresh point, so you can talk about something else if you want after this. But since we recorded, I believe this episode has been released. Our friend of the show, Harry Marks, who has been on before, he is a writer. He also Has a podcast called Covered in which he talks to authors and people about the books they've written once a season. He does his podcast in seasons because he's lazy. You heard it for me, Marx.
Lazy.
Anyhow, sorry. If we were live streaming right now, I'm sure I would be hearing about this in the chat because he has it. Anyhow, at the end of every season, he has like a book club episode in which he has somebody on. So season one ended with the life changing magic of tidying up. Somebody. He and somebody had talked about that, which is really great and ties into my Woodclinch blog post. But season two ended with a book club discussion about this book by Mark Kurlansky called Paging Through History. And Mark Kurlansky is like a, like a historian book writer. He wrote a book about the history of salt, which I actually have on Kindle, but I have not read yet. And this one is about the history of paper and sort of about the history of like, writing as well and a cultural history that goes around it. So, yeah, we. We all read it. Tim was in the middle of like, Moving Frenzy when we recorded, so he
did not join us.
Yeah. But Johnny and I went on and talked about it with. With Harry. It's really good. I definitely recommend it. I'll put a link in, show notes. It's long and there are parts that are kind of dry, but it's really fascinating about the history of paper. Yeah, Definitely recommend that. I will admit right now. So I did buy a paper copy and I did read most of that paper copy, but I also traveled on vacation on an airplane while I was in the middle of reading it. And I just didn't want to deal with a big paper book traveling with me. So I did get it for Kindle. I feel a little bad about that. But hey, I did buy the paper book too, right?
Yeah.
I would really love it if books would catch on to what the record industry has been doing for a while, where when you buy the hard copy, you get a coupon for the digital Download.
Totally.
And DVDs are doing that too.
Yeah.
Yeah. It's like, come on. Books.
Yeah. Well, books are known for their, like, rapid innovation.
300 years. Yeah.
It always heartens me a little bit to hear people, like, feeling bad or being like, shamed for using Kindles. I'm like, I love books, but you don't want to carry one on the subway. It's heavy.
Yeah. And. And I really have found an appreciation and sort of like a no shame approach. To it about. About that. Just. Because when I moved to the area that I'm in, I just really reduced my spit, like my physical space, and I got rid of a bunch of my books.
Yeah.
So I definitely. I think just in this particular case, since this is a book about the history, somebody raised a good point, which I did mention on that. That episode. I was talking to somebody who works at a publisher of, like, coffee table books. She was telling me that. That people are taking better care about choosing a cover and choosing paper stock because they want something that's very tactile because that's the biggest selling point right now is paper that feels really nice on your book. Something you want to touch and run your hands over. So I definitely see the point. That definitely was the case in this Kurlansky book. Just feels really nice. It's heavy as heck, but it feels great to just kind of run your hands over. It's a textured laid paper or something. It's pretty good.
It sounds nice.
Yeah.
So this is one of three books about paper that has sort of been out lately. Johnny on the show earlier. Johnny read that on paper. Book on paper. And then there's this other one. I think it's like a Japanese history of paper that I have to look up. That came out not too long ago. So I don't know what the. Like, why this resurgence?
But it's awesome.
Yeah.
Cool. Yeah.
Well, I think we're out of fresh points. Does anybody else have anything we should talk about? Should we wrap it up?
I think we're good to go.
Cool.
Button this thing up.
Yeah. Caitlin get back to her life. And since I just, like, messaged you this afternoon, it's like, caitlin,
do you have two hours to spare? Cool.
Well, we're good. It's only an hour 15.
Yeah. So, Katelyn, thank you so much for subbing and hosting and being not Johnny on the spot. Caitlin on the spot. Where can people find you on the Internet?
Johnny on the block. Johnny from the block.
Don't be fooled by the pencils that I got.
I don't even know if I could talk now. Thank you for having me. You can find me on Instagram at Kate Elgin or on Twitter, which I have but rarely use as Caitlinelgen. Or you can always find me with any of the pencil shop stuff since we talked about Snapchat. Our Snapchat is the pencil, ladies, and our Instagram is cwpencilenterprise.
Cool. And, Tim, where can people find you on the Internet?
You can find me on Twitter imwassum and I'm on Instagram timothywassum and how about Snapchat? I don't know that's a real answer. I'm pretty sure it's Tim Wasem
so I am awelfully a W e L F as in frank L e on Twitter and you can find pencil tweetsclinched and on my blog@woodclinched.com and if you want to find out more about my general writing, this is the last time. I'm just super proud of this domain name, so bear with me. You can find my writing at Andy Coffee. I'm so pleased with myself it's not even funny. So this is the Erasable Podcast. This is episode 56. You can find the audio file and show notes at erasable us56. Find out more Discussion Just see what we've been saying besides what we've been saying on this podcast at our amazing Facebook group. We're 1200 and some members strong. It is facebook.com if you just want to follow the Facebook page for random updates, that is@facebook.com erasablepodcast same thing on Twitter and Instagram. We are raceablepodcast. We'll have little goodies for you every now and then. Find us and rate us on itunes on the Google Play Store. Recommend us an overcast or whatever podcatcher you use. If it has that feature. It just allows us to be the same, discovered and seen a bit more. So thanks once again to Caitlin for being with us and thank you as always, Tim and we will catch you all next time.
Thank you.
Happy Birthday, Rosie Gamber.
Yes. Yay. 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 at www.thismountainband.com. If I could just count the times this has happened before.