This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Like, if I. If I'm in a bra, in a bar, like, I have this friend who, when we go to a bar and hang out, like, if he talks to me like his normal voice, I can hear every word he says, but I have to, like, scream for him to, like, understand me because my voice is just so, like, buttery smooth that it just gets lost in the bar.
Your voice is like a 10B.
I'll have another bourbon, please. Tim Wassemit's 10B voice. Yeah.
Hello and welcome to episode 70 of the erasable podcast. I am Johnny Gambro on hosting duty tonight, and my Irish blood is lucky to have my two favorite podcasters in the world with me tonight on the intercasts. 10B smooth Tim Wasem and 2H sharp, Andy Welfle. How are you guys tonight?
Very good.
Hello. Hello.
Oh, yeah, Very white.
Thanks for working that in. I appreciate that. Maybe I need to work that into my tattoo plans. Get 10B tattooed somewhere, like, on my throat or something like that.
That would be a good neck tattoo.
I don't think there's such thing as a good neck tattoo.
I've seen a couple, but they're all stars.
You could get like a. Like a tramp stamp, except it's just the pill that says 10B. Just like you're a pencil.
You get the hex mark that says, like a hex with a big black circle in it.
Get it, like, across my knuckles or something like that.
Yeah, I think you just put my
hands together, would that work out? 10B smooth. Like, if I put my hands together and show my eight knuckles, that would be one too many letters. 10B. 10.
Well, if you put 10 on one knuckle and then B and then smooth, I think you can do it. Right. Okay, 10 B s, M o, O, T, H. Yeah, that's eight right there. Perfect. I think we got it.
Yes.
Well, now that we. Now that we've decided that.
So before we get started, we have something new that you can buy from to support our podcast and to advertise your love for our podcast. If you go to erasable us shop, you can get your new awesome 1 inch enamel hipster pin as a pre order. And when we get lots of them, we'll order them. They'll get made and you get one. Or five if you're cool and you order five.
Yes.
So, yeah, my mom wants one, so I'm like, you gotta go buy one, hon.
I've always thought your mom was kind of a hipster.
Yeah, but she lives in Hampden So it's pretty hipster. Yeah. So tonight we're going to take a look at the CW Pencil Enterprise Pencil box number one, the classic box, which, if you're listening to this podcast, you probably have seen or have right in front of you or have had stolen from you by a family member or housemate. So we'll. We'll talk more about what's in that box in a little bit, but why don't we jump into tools of the trade? You want to go first, Tim? Sure.
I'm so excited about this first time.
So we found out about this show. Have you ever heard Stranger Things, huh? Yeah. Yes. I just found out about it. I think it just came out the other day. I've been stalling on this forever because it's one of those shows that my wife's not really interested in that genre of suspense or horror or whatever you want to call it. And I'm generally not either, but I'm drawn to it because the whole 80s vibe that people have been talking about, and I was just like, that sounds.
And having grown up in a small town in Indiana.
Yes, absolutely. Which. The weird thing is that, okay, it's called Hawkins, right? Hawkins, Indiana. It's in Rowan County. The next town over is called Jonesboro. And there's one other thing. I forget what it was, but I live in Johnson City, which. The next county over is Hawkins County. The mountain that's closest to us is called Roan Mountain. And then the next town on the other side of us is Jonesboro. So I was like, did they get this from here? Or, like, the names. Did they. They spot us on the map and we're like, here's some names we're going to use. It was kind of strange, but so I found out about it. I watched the first four episodes in the last few days, just. Yeah, like, on my iPad in bed, which was a bad idea. Which. I've got a story for you. Oh, my gosh. Okay. So I was watching this is sound the spoiler horn if we have one, or the spoiler typewriter bell or whatever. But I was watching episode three, and Will Byers, you know, he's in the this other place, which I haven't finished it, so don't ruin it for me. But he's in this other place and he's communicating through the lights. And right when he spelled R U, N to his mom, I shit you not, my smoke alarm in the next room over went and then just shut off for the whole night, and I never heard it again. You're like, oh, my God. Yeah, Yeah. I sprung up off the couch, or I was like, on the couch washing. Actually. I sprung up and I was like, what the. I, like, looked and was, like, looking around the corners and, like, checking the smoke detectors and they all, like, the batteries were full and they were fine. It was freaky. So did I just. Something just happened. Like, I think I'm about to die. Is this how it ends? I don't know.
I definitely watched it all, like, in two nights by myself because Katie was out of town and she wasn't interested in watching it. Um, like, at. Yeah, just. Just, like, by myself in the dark, just watching that show. So, yes, I didn't have any, like, lights go off or anything, but definitely,
like, went to bed and just stared at the wall like. Yeah, yeah.
So you're not finished yet.
I'm. I'm on. Episode five is the next one I need to watch, so I've got four left. Uh, but I love it. It's fantastic. It's such a good show. And the soundtrack's amazing. I think I'm thinking about getting it on vinyl because I. I want to have it.
Oh, yeah, that whole. That whole thing with, like, all the kids just kind of, like, you know, gearing up and going out and exploring things in their bikes. Like, my friends and I used to do that.
Goonies, man.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um, so that's. That's really the main thing that I've been digging pretty bad that I wasn't digging before last time we recorded because not a whole lot has changed, but been really, really enjoying that. Writing with. I am. I'm writing with two things from the classic box that we're going to talk about later, actually. No, sorry. One thing, which is the semi hex numero uno, the general semi hex number one, which I absolutely love. I've been wanting to get one for a while, so it was cool that it was in there. And actually, I have to admit that when the box first came up, I didn't read very carefully and I was like, oh, thanks. Another general semi hex. I've got. I have. I have 40 of these and I don't need. But then, like, I looked at it and it looked a little different. I figured out it was a one, and then that was awesome because I really have been meaning to order some of those. I just haven't done it yet and really enjoyed that. I used it all day to school at school today, actually. I actually used it. I was. We have one of those document cameras, or I have one of those in my room that I bought a couple years ago and use it to go over lessons and things with the kids. And I used. Instead of doing, like, writing on the smart board or writing on the whiteboard, today, I just got a pad of paper and wrote with the semi hex number one on the pad of paper underneath the document camera, which was just really satisfying. But it was so, like, nice and dark, and it showed up great on the smart board, like, from the document camera, and just felt so right. And as far as notebooks go today, this is actually inspired by our last conversation when we were talking with Harry, and we were talking about what's wrong with the originals? Like, why do we always have to use the newest thing all the the time? And I was picking out a new notebook, and I found one of the original, or the. What would you call it? Like, the flagship pocket notebooks from Write Notepads. The red, the white, and the blue. Yeah, I had a mix pack, and so I grabbed the red from that mix pack. So that's what I've been using lately. The lined red pocket notebook from Write Notepads.
Nice. Very late Valentine's Day.
Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. I picked it up
like blood cells with no oxygen.
It's like stale chocolate and broken hearts because it's very dark red.
It's like Australia. Australian dirt.
That's what the collects come out of the catalog of the paper.
Australian dirt, housing dirt, and also the
name of this episode. Australia. Well, no, that sounds kind of. I feel like we get some hate
Tin B Tim in the Australian dirt.
Gonna sound like a president when we say that.
It's the color of his face. That's what it is.
And Chris is gonna discontinue that notebook now.
Moving on. Moving on. I actually forgot something from the digging section along with Stranger Things is. And I know I feel like probably a lot of people are rolling their eyes at me, but when I mention any country music, I need you to know that I have never been a. Never been a big country music guy. But just like certain things, I'm starting to find the good stuff, and there's a lot of really good stuff out there. And I was listening to Chris Shifflet's podcast, which. Chris Shiflett is the guitar player for the Foo Fighters, and he's started this whole kind of side career in Americana music. And so he has this podcast where he. Yeah, and he. So he started this podcast where he interviews people in the, like, Americana, outlaw country. Sort of like real. Real country genre. And I just listened to the episode where he interviews Lucinda Williams and. Lucinda Williams. Her album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road was also recommended by a good friend of mine. So it's really. I wouldn't even really call it country. It's. If you're listening to the Hold Steady,
that name sounds familiar.
It's like an indie band. Okay, well, then that's. I'll stop there then, with that comparison. But. But she's a fantastic songwriter, and it's all. It's definitely more on the rock and roll side, but I definitely recommend that album. It's worth a listen. It's called Car. Not Cartwheels, like little kids do cartwheels. It's Car Wheels, like on your car. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. It's an excellent album, so. But that's all I've got. What about you, Andy?
Oh, man. Almost everything is the same for me. We finished the Young Pope. We're watching. Do you remember a sitcom from the early 2010s called Happy Ending? Happy Endings?
Yes.
They were trying to be.
I didn't watch it, but I remember what it is.
Say again?
I didn't watch it, but I remember it like, I remember hearing. Seeing it around.
I think they were trying to be sort of like the next decade's Friends, and it didn't work. But it's also still very funny. So everybody kind of lives in, like, unrealistically big apartments in Chicago. They're, like, underemployed and over real estated. They just seem to have, like, a lot of time just to hang around to bars and their apartments.
Yeah, it's really actually had my. The last article I gave my students to read was. I think it was from the
npr.
I can't remember where it got from, but it was about how. How television used to be about, like, normal people, like, and now it's like, everyone is working in jobs that, like, we all wish we had, but we never will have, or high status. It's, like, rare that you see big shows that get famous that aren't about somebody who's living a totally other lifestyle than what we're used to. Sorry, I interrupted you.
No, it's all right. Yeah, that's. That's Happy Endings. So, yeah, we just started from the beginning. We watched it back in the day. I'm also. So I was writing in a Lyft, which.
If.
If your town doesn't have it, it's like Uber, but it's like alternate. It's Non Evil Uber. Less. Less Evil Uber. Maybe I should say that's a tagline.
Uber without the murder.
I mean, almost. They just like. It's exactly like Uber, except Lyft. So I was in one the other day, and the driver was just like. He was just like this chill dude. It smelled a little bit like pot in the car. He's just, like, playing some music. It was really nice.
Yeah.
And I asked him. I'm like, what is this music? This is really great. And he told me all about how he has this Spotify playlist called Blood army, and it's all bands that are a family, like, two sisters in the band or two, like a family or something. So, like, there was some cash, like, harder Cash family in there. There was some, like, Tegan and Sarah in there, their sisters. And there's this one band in there called First Aid Kit. Have either of you heard of this?
Yeah.
So, yeah, they're just sisters from Sweden. And it sounds exactly like. Like an Americana, like, country folk duo. Like, it's. It's really amazing. Yeah, they're really good. I'll have some links in the show notes, but, yeah.
So playlist.
Yeah, if I can figure out how to do that, I will. I don't really know how to use Spotify.
Yeah.
Yeah. Blood Army. If anybody is like, can you. Can you look like follow shared playlists if you don't have a premium account on Spotify?
I think so. Yeah.
Okay. I'll look for it and link it. So, yeah, he's just my Lyft driver. Chill guy. And then today I am writing with a technograph, the Caran d' Ache Technograph, which is included in the pencil box that we'll talk about. And I am writing into a reporter's notebook by Stationers, Inc. Which we will also talk about, because that's in there.
So. Yeah.
How about you, Johnny?
Awesome. So have you guys seen the trailer for this Netflix documentary series called Abstract?
Yes.
So we started watching that. It's a series where they sort of pick a designer for each episode, and then they talk about the intersection of real life and design.
It's like chef's table, but for design.
I don't know what that is.
Chef's table is, like, abstract but for food.
Okay. Yeah. It's really, really cool. And, you know, there are a lot of stationary cameos, although I've noticed that they turn them around so you can't see the brand on everything, which is kind of thoughtful and also kind of stupid because you can still tell what it is Ticonderoga is pretty identifiable. But also I finally have seen some cool movies I wanted to see, including Allied, which is a World War II movie, which was, I thought good. My wife didn't like it. And Manchester by the Sea, which is overrated and a depressing piece of crap because I can't.
How do you feel about that movie?
Johnny Casey Affleck is not a grown up yet, so he doesn't work. He's still a little kid who was complaining and Chasing Amy, moving on.
So that's funny.
My kids are really into that Scottish synth pop band called Churches.
Whether these.
Your kids are into churches?
Yeah, they like really like churches.
God, your mom wears lapel pins and your kid listens to churches.
That's one of my favorite sentences I've ever heard. My kids are really into that Scottish synth pop band. It made it sound like they found it on their own. Like they like the two of them went to a little record shop and bought a vinyl and they're like, well,
Charlotte heard it on Pandora a couple times and asked about it. So we listened to more of it and I asked her what she likes and she's like, well, her voice is pretty and I can understand what she's saying.
Those are good reasons.
That's a good reason I like it.
Scottish synth is so hot right now,
but, oh. I finally also got around to reading a book I was meaning to read by a local author, Catherine Noel, called Meantime, which is about a lot of things, including family. It's a very, very good book. There'll be a link to it in the show notes and I'm writing with a camel hb which has the gold clip blang that was in my Instagram feed and the back of the Wright notepads in the pines book that's almost finished so that they match very well. It's beautiful. Now let's get fresh with the points, starting with the darkest of the cores. Mr. Tim Ted B. I'm dark.
Dark to the core and smeary.
As smeary as
you're very waxy, Tim.
Yeah, yeah. You can't keep me sharp.
I'm just no grit up in that bit.
Usually dull. So I don't, I don't have a lot. This isn't going to take long, but the first one is my favorite thing from the Internet in a while in the pencil world, which is David Rees trolling Donald Trump and what.
How am I missing?
Yeah, there's a tweet. It was, it was actually from January 19th, so it's kind of old, but I found it today because I was looking at the Twitter account for the story of the pencil, and they had retweeted this, but Philip Crowther, which. Who. I don't know who that is. Some sort of reporter in dc. Oh, okay. He's a French reporter in dc and so he was at some sort of. I guess Mike Pence was speaking somewhere, and he was there. And the tweet says, Pence on Trump semicolon. Quote, he's a businessman who knows how to sharpen his pencil, period. End quote. And then David Rees retweeted it and said, I'll be the judge of that. That was. That made my, like, month. That made me so happy to see that. I'll be the judge of that is all it said because it's like, it doesn't talk about pencils that much anymore and now comes out with that. So that was. That really made me excited and I had to share that with people. So I. I'm glad I. I found it retroactively after the fact. But, yeah, so there's that. And then the. Really. The only other thing I was going to mention is that I met a fan of the show, or not met, but I met her again, which was actually the mom of one of my good friends, which he lives in Africa now, and so shout out to Tammy. But I met her and she just moved to the area and we were at this, like, potluck thing, and she looked up at me and said. And told me and said, tim, something like, you're basically like my rock star. I feel like I should ask for your autograph. And I was like, what's she talking about? She's like, I'm a big erasable podcast fan.
What?
That was super. That was super cool and, like, made me blush, but.
Hey, Tammy.
Hey, Tammy. Yeah, that was. That was fantastic. And she sent me. I've talked. I actually talked about her. It's been a while, but I remember. And I didn't know that she was listening that much, but she had sent me an article through Tyler, like, about pencils from magazine that she had seen during her travels, which was awesome. But, yeah, so that was really cool. Yeah. So apparently I'm a rock star.
You are. I think so. Can be rock star.
So she only had me sign, like, 2025 notebooks or something like that. So check ebay. Those will show up there pretty soon.
So if you're gonna be a rock star, you've got to get a couple tattoos.
And I've. Which that's we decided earlier what they're gonna be. Not pencil related. But I have been. Have been making some super concrete plans about the summer. I'm getting two tattoos this summer. Excited. So I'm getting the. The buffalo with the mountainscape, which I think I've showed you before. Yep. So I'm getting that one. And then on my left arm, I'm gonna get three lines of lyrics, probably from an over the Rind song. Yeah. So in, like, typewriter print going down my forearm. So.
Awesome. They're gonna shave you so much.
Pretty. Pretty. Yeah.
That's the worst part. Yay.
I doubt that's the worst part. That's
when they stab you repeatedly. That's the worst that goes away.
When they stab you for a few
hours for, like, two months, you're like, damn it. It gets stuck on your clothes. People will ask you, like, is that a new tattoo? Like, no, I just shaved my arm, you know, period.
I just can't grow hair there.
Thanks for making me feel weird about it.
But besides the fact that I want everybody to go on Twitter and search at Trump draws, that's the only fresh points I have, so I'll just leave it there. So, Andy, what about you?
All right, well, I think my only main fresh point, I guess as a follow up from last time that we recorded, I was talking about this Waverly notebook that Gary Varner linked to. And it's cloth bound, it's tartan bound, and it has a really beautiful, like, accent color as the elastic band and as sort of as the, like, page. The edge. Edge of the pages have been. Have been colored. And I just got mine today, like, right before we started recording the podcast, I opened it, and, man, it is gorgeous. It's really well made. It is soft, but still very firm. Like the. The plaid. The plaid cover. And, yeah, it's just really well made. I think that the price that it's worth is definitely worth it, the price that it cost. So I'll have more of a review once I actually get to, like, dig into this and try it out. But first impressions. It's just gorgeous. So thanks, Gary, again, for, like, telling me about this. And thank you, Waverly in Scotland, for sending me one. Also, I wanted to mention I had another. I had another lunch with Bruce Eman. We talked about Bruce a few months ago on the show. He was born and raised in Japan. He might have been born in the US he was raised in Japan, and he has a lot of, like, business contacts and friends in Japan. He was on a Japanese stationary podcast yes, there is a Japanese stationary podcast. I don't know how to listen to it or I need to translate it or some. But something I'll try to find. If anybody here speaks Japanese, I'll try to find a link and post it in show notes so you can go listen to it. Anyhow, he's just started a business, ThinkOnPaper co. And he's basically trying to bring this sort of hidden world of Japanese stationery to the US he's trying to find people to, like, get interested in and buy it here. And he's also trying to work with Japanese stationery makers to. To like, understand the US Market a little. A little bit better. So we do have some Japanese things like, you know, Tombow and. And Mitsubishi and Life notebooks and what have you, but there's a lot of other ones that we don't get. And he. When we had lunch, he brought me just a few. A few samples of those, including a little goodie pack that I'll send to you two awesome. One of them is a. A pencil that is supposed to be 2B in like, in darkness, but is supposed to. The graphite is supposed to be so hard you can't break it. So challenge accepted.
I guess we'll see about that.
Yeah.
The other coolest thing to me, he had this series of note cards or index cards, I should say. And it just. It's just the width of a, like the thickness of an index card. But when you look at it, there's a little line on the graph side. And if you kind of like work your finger in there, you find out that it has an internal pocket. The paper is actually two sides kind of like, like attached together. And yeah, there's just like a little pocket that you can shove some receipts or something in I. And when it closes up, like, it just looks like a index card. Like, it doesn't seem like it has a pocket on it, which is insane. So I'm going to be. I think I got enough samples. If I. If I did, I'll send you guys out some too. But, you know. Yeah, he's awesome. I strongly think that we should have him on the show to talk a little bit about, like, you know, the Japanese philosophy of stationery and product making. Product design.
That sounds fantastic.
That would be awesome.
Yeah, it was. It would be a really good follow up to when June Thomas was on, where she told us a lot about, like, where to go in Japan to go buy cool stationery, cool pencils. And Bruce has a lot of really interesting, like, product Strategy that goes behind it. Like, what are, what are the values? Like what do Japanese people value in their stationery when they. That they make for themselves? How is that different than American stationary? You know, things like that. So, yeah, it was super fascinating to have lunch with him. So thank you, Bruce, for, for doing that.
Yeah.
I guess the only other thing Johnny covered at the beginning, lapel pins. We don't have them made yet. I have a Photoshop mock up like that. I just uploaded the logo and it made it look like a lapel pin, but it's going to be about an inch. I think we can go full colors. So I think we can do the red banner with the lettering and the yellow pencil and the pink eraser, all that stuff.
Oh, it's going to look so fantastic.
Do we have a minimum? We need our friends to help us hit to make the order.
I think that we've just about hit it. We are at maybe like 40 orders and I think that I need to be at 50 orders and I'll definitely make more than that. So we can like just have some on the site to sell. But if, if you want to help us meet that, please pre order. I think by the time this episode is released, you can still do that. So I'll definitely announce it more in the group as well and on Twitter. So check out the Facebook group or check out our Twitter account or Instagram. I don't know. There's a lot of things.
We're everywhere. Everywhere. I went to a skywriter near you.
Insta Twitter. Grand.
Just look for the smoke signals. Just turn west towards San Francisco. Yeah. Alright. So that's all the fresh points I have. How about you, Johnny?
So I found a pan that I really like and I don't really want to talk about it, but just do it. So have you guys ever tried the Uniba Air?
Yeah, man.
So yeah, there. The problem with it is that it puts down too much ink. But in Japan you can get the micro tip.
So. Yeah, even the, even the other one though, that was a. That was a good NaNoWriMo pen for me. I didn't finish NaNoWriMo, but it's a really forgiving pen. You can like write from any angle, you know, kind of like you can with a pencil.
Yeah. So you're supposed to write upside down.
If you write something inflammatory, it's like, oh, it's okay.
Yeah, Those are nice though.
Instead of the ball being in metal, it's in plastic.
So.
So it moves a little bit. So you can sort of vary your line with like, one of those silly fountain pens. But the ink is super black, so it doesn't really bleed. It just kind of shows through the page. It's so dark. But yeah, so if you get the micro version from Japan. I'm not sharing my source. I'll share my source. I think I paid like 10 bucks for three, which is not that bad. I think the normal ones are like nine bucks at Target if you get the bold ones. But it's more like the line width of maybe like a 0.7 G2. But super, super, super nice. Plus, the things last forever. I finally killed one today that I've been using for like a year on and off. So, yeah, also, if you're not in our Mole Skinners Facebook group, you should join it because it's awesome and you get all this.
I tell you, it should be Moleskinheads.
No comment. So moving on, you can get the skinny on what's on sale at Target from Moleskin, including their pens. I got one for like seven bucks.
I experienced that the other day. It's a whole bunch of stuff. It's like it's all. Anything that's not the. It seems like it's anything that's not. The flagship line, like the basic ones is on sale.
The Star wars ones were on sale.
Not at mine.
Cloth cover ones. Yeah, they weren't on sale for that much because they were kind of expensive. Okay.
I was gonna say. I'm going there now. See you guys. Get me a BB8 moleskin.
Button this mic drop BB8 for 10
BT getting the F out of here.
So, yeah, I only have one more. One more fresh point, but it might be an interesting one. The Field Notes Utility edition we didn't get to talk about yet. That came out, like, the day after we recorded last time.
It sure did. And boy, did it come come in with a bang.
Yeah. So the Utility edition is bright yellow with black trim. And they didn't say this, but the inside trim is red. So the entire book is actually Maryland colors, which I dig. But it's 70 pound paper and the COVID is only 80 pounds. So, you know, when they cut them, they didn't cut very well. So, you know, some were cut worse than others. Mine were pretty bad. So they sent me replacements, which is nice because Field Notes does. But yeah, if you want a better,
just fuller explanation of what it seemed like happened to it, I thought that Brad Dowdy had a really good one on the latest pen addiction. I guess by the time this comes out, the last penatic from before so he explained a little bit about how, like, it's so thick when you, like, staple it and then push it down, like crease just sort of like busted out of the back of the notebook a little bit. So the spine. So, yeah, I thought that was a really good, just like, simple way to put it.
Yeah, I mean, all of their, their thick paper ones look, you know, where they cut the. The spines, it's all a little ragged, which is, you know, I don't care. It's a notebook. But mine were ripped and when I opened them, they started ripping more, which was not good.
But I was trying to get a good feeling for how. What percentage of notebooks were busted like that. And it seemed, it seems like maybe just a little over half. Just kind of based on the Instagram pictures that I was going through.
Yeah, I mean, the corners are not perfect, but I don't care. It's gonna go in my pocket. But, you know, them falling apart, not so cool. But I emailed Brian. Brian sent me replacements right away, and I twisted his arm into telling us where we could order some of those, you know, bottle uppers if we wanted to for next time. But, yeah, I mean, they're a really toothy paper. So I'm trying to figure out the best pencil. I think it's the Viking element one so far.
How do you feel about the. The fold out ruler and the fact that there's an eighth of an inch
of the back page expense? The fold out ruler situation works out wherein the back ruler folds out, but it's not as big as the pages. So the back cover doesn't actually cover the back of the notebook. And a lot of people are really upset about that.
And I understand, like, why they had to do that because they have to, like, they have to slice the paper after they already bind it.
But it's kind of weird at the
same time, just thinking about people being really upset about that just kind of like, tickled me for a second. I was like, whoa, you poor things. You pour things.
You haven't spent much time on Facebook lately, have you?
No, I haven't.
No.
People get very upset about a lot of things.
Do you understand what's going on in the world today?
People got upset. People got upset that people got upset. People got upset that people weren't upset enough. Like, I kind of felt bad because I started a.
If you aren't outraged, you're not paying attention.
There's our next T shirt. Yeah, yeah.
You weren't a rage about stationery.
Yeah.
You're not paying attention.
You're not paying attention.
If you think your corners are fine, you're not looking closely enough. Yeah, the, the books are nice. They're. The design is just like killer. I love it with the beautiful yellow and the black and this, the secret red trim. And the paper is very thick and beautiful.
I don't have one in my hands. I didn't get one. But I have a question, Andy. Do you have some?
Not in front of me, but I do have some.
You do have some. Okay, but we'll get one in my hand.
Yeah.
Just the question I was gonna ask is that I. I don't have any.
There it is.
Nice, nice sound effects.
Thanks for the sound effect.
Like Lucasfilm over there. Yeah. The question I have is that, and this is kind of a throwback to our last conversation with Harry and we're talking about the, like, what sort of gets lost in the creation of more and more new, new, new. Like it's always gotta be something different. Something different. Like do you think that this just happens to be. In addition, that's a good example of like trying to do something different because you feel like you have to. And then therefore it like sort of not fails like big time, but just like has these unfortunate hiccups that are pretty much only a result of innovation for the sake of entertaining people who like always want something new.
I do think aesthetically, like if they just made a really beautiful like yellow and black notebook that's very field notes feeling kind of like workshop companion only, you know, not in the little box. I feel like they achieve that they, they accomplish their aesthetic. Looks great. But I really, I really do think the fold out ruler is not worth not having the back cover be completely covered. So in sort of executing this theme, I do think it does lay more on like the gimmickry side than it does on sort of like a innovation side. Yeah, but do you agree with that, Johnny?
Sorry. When talking to Brian, he said that the thick paper was why the quality control was a little. Yeah, not to their usual standard. I feel like they could have just made this notebook with 16 paper. It would have been just as good.
Well, and I was, I was just even ignoring the quality control. Like, just keep staying away from like the, the busted corners and the bad corner rounders, the bad, the busted spine and the bad corners. Just even outside of that, like that fold out ruler, I think kind of like made it fall a little short as far as accomplishing its goal.
Right. I don't know.
I don't really care that's just my personal ruler.
It's just kind of there.
That's the thing. If you really cared about the ruler and if it did a job, you wouldn't matter. You wouldn't mind that it didn't cover the back cover all the way. So I just, I just don't think the, like not covering the back cover was worth the fold out ruler.
Yeah, I don't understand why it had to fold out. There's always a ruler there.
Well, there's, I guess, I guess it's centimeters on the other side.
They could have just printed the back of the notebook.
Well, that's, that's true.
They're like smacking their heads like, damn it. They could have printed it in the front. That would have been cool.
That. Making a video just made me cringe, by the way.
It was like a dream. Replace all of the other stuff with toddlers and toys.
It's just like, it's very. It's like a lot of workplace accidents. Like somebody throws something, it hits them in the head and they like accidentally hammer their thumb. And somebody in the group is like, I feel like they would fail their OSHA inspection.
And they showed a making of picture and it was Brian with a helmet with a camera on it.
I saw that with the camera attached to something. But that's super cool.
I didn't think somebody.
I should have had a lot of fun making it dab. So yeah, it's really hard for me to measure. Kind of like find the line. And that's why I kept saying it to Harry. Tim, is that like, what's the line between gimmickry and like innovation? Like where, where is that? And I don't honestly think that there's like an objective one that you can measure. But I think that what I try to do is just kind of what, what's his name, the movie critic? Gene Siskel? No, Roger Ebert. Roger Ebert always used to try to judge a movie by what it was trying to be. And did it accomplish that? Like, so therefore, like Tropical Thunder was a great movie and like trying to think of some classic movie that didn't really pan out wasn't so anyhow, I think that it was trying to be this really useful, sturdy like extra ruler flip out utility as the name would imply. But I just don't necessarily think it got. It got there.
Yeah, I think this would have worked well with just like you said, a notebook with colors. Maybe even they could have done the weird paper formats, the ledger, and the. What do they call the engineer graph
Yeah, I did like. I do like the Ledger, their regular paper.
The 60 pound they use for the regular notebooks now is very nice. I like that paper.
Yeah.
It stays, you know, manageably supple, but it's thick enough. The tooth is really nice on that one.
Yeah. So I'm a. Yeah, I'm a big. I'm a big ledger fan. Like, most of my field notes or pocket notebooks are to do lists and Ledger for me works really well that way. But I don't know about engineering graphics.
It's weird.
It's very small, but you skip a line. That's regular graph. And it's all good.
Yeah. And that's one thing I wasn't a big fan of with the Lenore, the white retinopads. Like, I love the look, it looks amazing. But that tiny graph that he had just didn't work for me.
Yeah. If you skip a line, it's the same as their line spacing. But skipping a line seem weird. Like I'm wasting paper.
Yeah. And suddenly you have to count.
Plus, the Lenore's getting kind of rare, you know. Can't waste paper in that one.
It's true.
Yeah.
Thing full graphite shaking out every time you open the book. Like fairy dust.
So, Tim, without having any of that utility notebook, what do you. What do you think of it? At least in the way it looks in the feature, I think.
I mean. Which just feels weird to give my opinion on that, just having never touched it. But it looks great. I mean, it's beautiful. Yeah. I love the color. I like that. It's simple.
You were. You were a big Workshop Companion fan, right?
Yeah. Yeah, I loved Workshop Companion.
Yeah.
And this one is, like the Bumblebee Transformers model, I feel like. So. Yeah, my son would be thrilled if I got it, if I gave it to him, because he's obsessed with Bumblebee. But, yeah, I. I don't feel like I can go too far.
How does he feel about Scottish synth music?
He hates it. Oh, gosh. Yeah,
it's like. It's so over.
Yeah, it's. He listens to the Cheryl Crow song from Cars, the Pixar movie, like, 40 times a day. So that's what he wants to listen to all the time. So that's what I get to listen to in the car over and over. That and Jingle Bells back and forth. But. Oh, God, our friends recorded. Or musicians, they recorded this, like, great version of it, Jingle Bells. But here we are in March, and I am still listening to it. But, yeah, it Looks great. It's a, it's a good looking notebook. I think I'd be interested in. This is one first one in a little while. Right. I think I'd be interested in picking some up at some point just to get my hands on them because I like the look of them. I like the idea of them being a little thicker. So we'll see. Maybe I'll see.
They made a lot of these probably around for a while. Although I think they're sending a lot of as replacements. So maybe not.
Oh hey, speaking of field notes, I was playing around with a piece of software called airtable which is basically lets you make your own little like databases. And I was trying to learn it for a work thing and I decided to do that. I just might as well just document all of the field notes, colors, additions. And so I did that. And so now you can sort by like ruling type and release date and all sorts of things. And there's pictures. So I'll have a link to that in show notes. If anybody wants like a good like database of field notes and of black wings volumes and.
Right.
Notepads. Oh and Baron Fig. I'll link to that.
Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, totally gonna go geek out on that.
Yes. Cool.
So move on to our. Sorry, our main topic. Yeah, so this is.
So we should probably. Yeah, we should probably introduce like what it even is because I think when they announced it is our lost episode.
Oh yeah, yeah, that's true. The disappeared one.
Yeah.
So CW pencils, I guess in January or so they announced something called the Pencil Box, which will be, they call it lightly themed to include at least three pencils, at least one pencil accessory, a wildcard item, exclusive ephemera or whatever else they're excited about. So you subscribe for the year for $120. Each one is 30 and you're billed like five days before they ship, something like that. But you can cancel them, you can check out details on their website so that I don't say the wrong thing. So each one is 30 bucks and that includes shipping and it's a box.
Also at the moment you can't pay for a whole year. You can only do the $30 per quarter, which I think that, I think they just don't have the recurring billing system set up yet for it.
And so you just have to manually order each one.
No, you can, it'll automatically bill you, but you can only do it in $30 increments. You can't just like every quarter. You can't say Hey, I want to pay $120 right now and just have you send it to me for free. Okay, Gotcha for now.
Yeah, yeah. So the first one is called the classic box. So inside there is a general semi hex number one papermate Mongol 480 caran d' ache technograph in HB a Koh I Noor original Magic FX. Those are the pencils. And I should note the last two run three bucks a piece. So they're not cheap pencils. There's also a Stationers Incorporated reporter's notebook, which is the original notebook. The original reporter's notebook. Faber Castell 9,000 sharpener, which I've always wanted. And a Doppel Laufer universal eraser. The extras are postcard by Meredith Miatka. I hope I'm not butchering her name of the eraser. And a program that is a facsimile of, I think, Caroline's handwriting explaining the contents.
It looks really close. Like pencil, like she. It's a high res scan, but it looks like it was. This particular one was done in pencil.
Yeah, it looks really awesome.
Like each. Each one individually.
Yeah, yeah.
Stock too, for testing the pencil.
Yeah, it's like a little note from Caroline on the front and then you open it up and then there's a longer explainer on each of the. Each of the elements.
Yeah.
I tried to smear it when I got it. I was like, oh, is this handwritten? Like, I feel special. So what do you guys think about this? The theme as classic? Did it work?
Yeah, for sure.
I think.
Yeah, I think the idea of it is great. I'm sorry. Yeah, I think the idea was great. Seems like a sensible place to start that they did the classic without giving people things that they've already seen before. I think seeing the like colorful Koh I noor magic pencil was maybe a little bit outside of the classic realm. I don't know. But. But it was fun. Yeah. I'm actually kind of doodling with it right now, which is cool. And Henry loves it, so I got to give him points for that because I probably wouldn't have ordered it otherwise. So it's kind of.
It's interesting to me that. Sorry, go on, I interrupted.
No, no, I was just gonna say it's cool to get something you're not expecting. So.
Yeah, it's. It's interesting to me that three out of the four pencils, like the classics of the pencils were all yellow.
Oh, I'm sure that's intentional.
Yeah. Even the Koh I Nord's Mostly yellow.
Yeah. Well, they didn't have like a. They didn't have like a, you know, like a classic Japanese pencil or something like that that might have been a different color.
Yeah. So I guess a good place to start is what was your favorite item in the box? And also what item would perhaps you replace with something different?
Good question.
Yeah.
Andy, why don't you go ahead?
What do you think? I think my favorite item in this box is that Faber Castell 9,000 sharpener.
Yes.
Um, I have never used it. I've definitely seen it before, but I've never really used it. And I think I like it because you can stick your pencil in the hole in the middle and then just like flip it around and fidget with it.
I'm fidgeting with mine right now. So.
Yeah, it sharpens pretty well. It's like a. It's like a pretty solid medium point, but it looks like it. It has a hole for a jumbo and a hole for a regular.
Yeah. That pencil or that sharpener mixed with that semi hex number one was a. I'm so glad that was the first thing I did when I opened it because that was like the perfect sharpener for that pencil. So I was so excited. Yeah. When I sharpen. Whoa, this is perfect.
Yeah.
I refuse to sharpen it with anything else now.
So. Yeah, that. That sharpener is a. Definitely a keeper. I think if I were to replace something in here, I think I would have to probably go with that. That magic pencil, the Koh I Noor 1i. It's weird. I love the magic eraser because it's also sort of like swirled in colors like that. But I know that Anna's a big fan of this magic pencil, but. Anna Reiner. But I. For some reason, I'm not like it. I just don't. If I want a colored pencil, I want a colored pencil. I don't want to write like in swirlies like this. That's just. That's just me. I know that lots of people in
swirlies like this episode title.
Yeah.
Every time somebody says swirlies, it just triggers. Triggers something from my childhood. I don't know what. I don't know what.
What could it be?
Yeah, just my head starts feeling damp.
Yeah.
No. Yeah. And I guess. I guess I appreciate that they included the paper Mate Mongol. But man, that is a crappy pencil.
That's the thing I would take out.
Yeah. Yeah, me too. I understand why they did it. And I'm not. I'm not terribly surprised. But yeah, it Was like, I just hate to have that feeling of opening up and be like, whoa, cool, cool, cool. Something I'll never use. Cool, cool. Yeah. Yeah.
It does say wood clenched on it though, which is.
It's true. That is true.
It's.
I'll take that.
I. I just love how like remnants of the Abhart Faber brand kind of lives on. Like, even. Even in like South American countries, there are still like products that say Abrahad Faber on it.
Yeah. Now they're like, I think in Europe it's. They use it for like their cheap kitty brand.
Yeah. This is the American Faber.
Your fat pencils.
Yeah. So.
And I do also really like the technograph. I think that's a really. Well, just aesthetically nice looking pencil. Yeah. Three fish on it.
It's gone downhill though. They used to be like, they used to have a perfect lacquer job and instead of the barcode, there was a little plastic thing that would go over the tip that had the barcode and that would tear off and it didn't have any adhesive.
Yeah.
This is perfect.
This lacquer is not glossy at all. It seems really thin.
Mine is like cracked and I can see the wood.
Oh.
Which is nice. But for a three dollar pencil. Nah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Karen Dash makes way nicer stuff.
They do. Tim, what is your. What's your favorite?
I'm with as. As they say in oh Brother, Where Art Thou? I'm with you fellers.
I thought you was a toad.
Thought you was a toad, man. I think that the sharpener is my favorite part. That was. That was really exciting. Well, actually that part's that. That choice is a little tough. It was between the sharpener and the general semi hex number one. Just because like I was saying earlier, I've been kind of avoid, or not avoiding it, but just like stalling on ordering one. And that's been really an awesome pencil to use and I use it at school all day today on a bunch of different stuff and really enjoyed using that. And I'll definitely order more of those. So. So I guess judging by like what would I order again? That's definitely at the top of the list. But the sharpener is great. It's a, it's a good pocket sharpener and I, I always love a sharpener that you can use and keep the shavings held in without it taking up a bunch of space and you know, being just a crappy sharpener, which. That one's not a crappy sharpener. It's a good sharpener. So that Was my favorite. And then. Yeah, the Mongol was one where I was like, whatever. You know, I'm not. Probably not. Probably not gonna use it. I. I sort of get it. Yeah. Because it's. If you're, if you're looking for a pencil that's out today that's going to be a good. To fit that classic, the word classic, to fit that category. And there's no way they were going to put a Ticonderoga in there. Right.
I mean, yeah, everybody's probably got one
of their car already, right? Or they found one like in the bathroom at the gas station. Like, they're. The things are everywhere. They're. They're. Yeah, they're all, they're all over this. So they're going to pick something. It's a, A super classic, like an iconic name.
What every pencil needs a home.
Yeah, I'm looking for pencils everywhere. Then of course they're gonna go with the monocle, which is a good choice. I get why they chose it and it. And I'm sure there's some sort of like, economic choice of like, fitting in, like what's gonna make sense economically to, to sell in this package, you know, that maybe they had to have one that was like on the lower end just to, to meet their needs and also meet their, their theme. So I get it. But that's the one that I. I don't. I wasn't excited about it, but at the same time, now that the more I talk about it, I wonder what could they possibly have switched it out for and still like, met the same price point that they were going for or whatever. So. Yeah, I get it. Yeah.
Johnny, how about you?
I'm with you on the sharpener because I've always wanted one of these, but, you know, what are they? Six or seven bucks? I have a lot of pencil sharpeners, so it's hard to justify getting one of those. And I don't know, it's a toss up whether I'd get rid of the Mongol or the reporter's notebook, because the reporter's notebooks paid kinda sucks. It's a cool notebook and I will use it, but I wouldn't buy another one.
I think we got spoiled by write notepads and by field notes.
Yeah, there's been a lot of beautiful reporters notebooks.
Yeah, this is more like what an actual reporter uses. Like when I worked when I interned at a newspaper, they had like a brick of notepads that were very similar to this in the supply closet. So this feels more like what like actual reporters use.
Yeah, but if you put a Bic pen with it, it's kind of badass. You want to go out, like, spy on somebody, get some dirt, Mr. Journalist fountain pen people. So we could take them down.
Yeah.
Brad Dowdy, in your ink, was this
paper fountain pen friendly? No, it's not.
I don't know. It might be. It held up to the Oniba air pretty well. Maybe it's a secret. Maybe it's a fountain pen notebook. We don't know. But the covers. Actually, I shouldn't say that. The reporter's notebook's pretty nice. It's well made. The paper's just not very good.
I do like the COVID It kind of reminds me of a. What's that? What's that store you like going to?
Oh, bobsleet.
Yeah, it kind of reminds me of a bob slate cover.
It's probably made by them or something.
That's what I thought it was the first time when I opened the box, I thought it was a bobsleigh notebook.
Oh, you know what bobsleigh uses a double O ring. So they're. They're binding things. But I like how it's reorder from and then it's their address.
Yeah.
And phone number.
Yeah, that's true.
That's pretty awesome. I'm backpedaling. I would get rid of the mongol. I would keep the notebook.
Yeah.
Did you guys try out the eraser?
I did, actually.
About to, as we speak, so.
Smells really good. It's rubber instead of some sort of plastic composite.
The ink side doesn't work worth a crap, but the other side works really well.
Yeah, I really like the postcard.
Yes, I love. The postcard's fantastic.
Yeah, Meredith made that set of lapel pins that they have that I got for Christmas.
I met Meredith when I was in New York last. And yeah, she's just a super talented illustrator. Her Instagram is full of just like little tiny illustrations that she's made. So, so good.
I dig. I dig the eraser. So I'm blowing. Blowing the rubbings off right now. Success. Good job. Good eraser. It works. It erases pencil. I'm pro the sharpener. I have to say, I also, for some reason, was very excited about having. And I forget the name of it from the magic of the paperclip or whatever that book was called, but the paperclip that was included inside the. What do you call that? A butterfly or some sort of wing?
Oh, yeah, the butterfly clip.
Butterfly clip. I thought that was called. Yeah, I just. I was Tickled to see one of those included just because I hadn't used one in a while.
So, yeah, those things are sturdy and kind of bitching.
My grandmother, who was very Catholic, saw that it was. It was shaped like an angel. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay.
We all know what it's called, so I imagine if they were to keep doing these for a while, it would be pretty hard to keep coming up with themes because it's not like, you know, field notes or a notebook company where they can just use different papers and off the wall stuff. It's got to be a box of stuff. So I was wondering if you guys have any sort of predictions or suggestions for future boxes.
I think that there should be one that is curated by the three of us and we pick out our three favorite pencils. I'm just gonna put that right there.
There we go. Leave it right there. Yeah, I have a feeling. Or just. I think it would be cool if they did boxes that were themed by geographic location, which I know seems really simple, but just a Spanish box, right? An American box, Japanese box, a German box.
I mean, they could go single origin.
Yeah, single origin. Oh, yeah, that'd be cool. Which actually, if we're. Would be impossible, right? Is that the whole point of the.
Oh, because of globalization.
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I won't get picky on that.
Well, maybe it could be like, you know, country of country of origin, like where they're from. Like, if you were good to go into, like, if you were to go into Romania and go into a big box store, like, what pencils would be there?
Like the market or something?
Like rad and hungry. Like, you know, the rad and hungry kids.
We need to have her on the show.
Yeah, I haven't talked to Han in a long time. Yeah, she's great, though.
So I came up with a couple, and most of them are work safe. If I can share a few.
Yes.
Satan's Pencils. They're all black and red and they're hexed. The Hipsters and Denial box. They're all made from Soviet countries in the 1970s and you've never heard of them. The Bro Box. They come in manly colors and they feature bears, tigers.
Put them in your man cave trucks.
The Dipsticks box with the best n dipped pencils and a pack of those chocolate dipped madeleines from Starbucks. I would like that one. And the. The pencil box. Oh, sexy. It'd be red, pink, purple, blue, and pearlesque.
So my idea is a. A vintage pencil and his modern equivalent.
So, like, that would Be really awesome.
Yeah. Like, so an old, like, Faber Castell 9. 9000 and then a modern one. Or like an old. Maybe an old Eberhard favorite. Blackwing, and then a modern Blackwing. I'm sure that'll come over. Or like this, like an old vintage Mongol and then one of these new ones.
That's a good idea.
Then it would just make you cry. Yeah, it just make you cry for, like, the quality of modern.
A modern Blackwing and a picture of a vintage Blackwing.
Mine's just snarky and mean. Satanic.
No, yours.
Yours are great. So do you guys think that this particular pencil box is worth the 30 bucks for entry? I got quiet.
That's hard to say. Yeah, well, it's. It's hard to, like, quantify it, and it's hard to say because, yeah, we know them so well. Like, or we know. And they're. They're such a. A presence in the, in the community. Like, we know they're not trying to overcharged. I'm sure there's something that we're not, like, accounting for is. I guess all I'm saying.
Well, I mean, it's a lot of labor. Like, they have to put these together. They have, like, four people who work there. It's a shop, I think. So we all talked about it in Reddit. I'll have a link in show notes to Dee Scolardi. She's one of our group members. She runs a blog called the Weekly Pencil. And she was, I think, the first one I saw to actually, like, write about this. And she kind of broke it down, broke down the costs. So the cost of all of these different things came to like, $16. And then shipping and materials and things like that was maybe another. Like, it might be a little generous, but like another $10, so.
Ish.
That's about $26, and it's about $30 that we paid for it.
So
I think my view is that, you know, you're paying for sort of this big experience. Like, you know, you're paying for them to, like, come up and. And curate this. They're basically writing it out and assembling the themes, and they're sort of. I mean, it's kind of like, like Birchbox or Art Snacks are one of those things. Like, it's always going to be a little bit more than the,
like, the pieces.
The pieces of the like, of the whole, you know, would come out to be a little bit less. So I. I don't know. I think that if you're willing to pay for sort of an experience and pay for like the curation of this from like arguably the most famous pencil store in the world. Like they, you know, this was hand packed by Caroline and Alex and Caitlin and Meredith. I think it's worth it, but I would recognize that it isn't for everybody.
Yeah, I would agree. Yeah. It has. Is a sort of uber specialty subscription in that. Which we went over the specs. But there's a certain element of it that you don't know what you're gonna get. Right. It could. They could literally. Which is great for them and great for some people, like, including me. But they could go any direction.
They're not even bound sort of by like what, you know, Blackwing or field notes or somebody who makes their own. Their own products. They're not even sort of bound by those unofficial rules. Like. Right. Like the world is their oyster. So, you know, if, if, if you get a subscription to, to Blackwing, you know that every three months you're going to get 12 pencils of some kind. 12 black wings. And so they. Yeah, they can definitely branch out. So your selection. Not a selection, but like you're the. The future is endless.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I think it was worth it because it got. There's some stuff in there that I really wanted that I wasn't getting off my butt to buy. Like the sharpener and the notebook. I don't remember why I didn't buy one. I saw one in New York. I kind of looked at it and I guess I forgot to get it because Charlotte was antsy. Yeah. But I mean, I would totally get another one. Especially if they get. They come with Twinkies or Madelines.
Yeah.
I mean, it's not like Twinkies, they're going to spoil in the mail or anything from Starbucks. It's not exactly fresh.
I think we should have the Tim Wasem edition and all the pencils are just like less than 6B.
Or the Tim Awesome Edition, which is just like a box with five Palomino HBS inside of it.
That's it.
They'd never be able to find enough of those for their boxes.
I probably have enough.
So. Yeah, we need to everybody email pencils.com and ask what happened to that pencil? Because that's sad.
It's gonna show back up.
Sound like a Trump tweet right there.
Yeah. Sad.
Yeah.
Worst pencil company ever, I am guessing. Like, remember when we talked about, I think, I guess it was the Black Wing 24 and how it was like, oh, it's this new core and I was basically like, yeah, that's the Blackwing HB core. Pretty sure that's a Black Wing HB core. I think the HP is going to kind of disappear and they're going to come out with a new standard Black Wing, which is the hard core, which is the same, which is cool, but also sucks big time because it's gonna be twice as much as the Palomino HP was.
Maybe they'll make it natural with a pink eraser.
Also, the Palomino was kind of in the way because before they wrapped all of the other brands underneath Palomino, it was sort of like the flagship pencil that they have. And now that the Blackwing is here, there's a new flagship in town. So we've always been saying that.
That it ruined a really great pencil.
Yeah.
Pencil made their brand.
Yeah.
Sad face and like.
So they're gonna reduce from six to five brands now and just keep it going, man.
I'm glad I have a couple of the end dipped blue ones left.
Yeah, I just have like half a dozen of those left.
I hope I'm wrong. I'm just kind of like guessing like I hope I'm wrong, but I got a feeling that they're gonna.
We could have Charles on and just put them on the spot.
Yeah, I just got a feeling that there's gonna be a certain. There's gonna be a point this year sometime where they're gonna introd Black Wing because they haven't done that yet. They haven't done that since the. The Pearl, so. And it's going to be the. That hardcore. And I think that that hard. The extra firm core is going to be basically whatever's going to replace the. The HB. I only have. I only have a like 145 of them left. So I don't know what I'm gonna do.
If it's a natural finish like the 211, I'll be forgiven.
Oh, gosh. Yeah.
Silver feral pink eraser. Perfect pencil.
Yeah, it better happen.
I will drive to where? Where are they? What's that?
I'm much closer. You can just send me Stockton.
Stockton. Now I gotta fill up my car.
I'll pick you up on the way.
You guys stay with me.
Died carrying pencils.
I'll pick you up on the way. I'll be there in four days.
Yeah, it's gonna be like in Stranger Things. We'll just like gear up and then go out with our walkie talkies taped to our handlebars.
I'll bring the pez. Yeah. I'll bring my PEZ wrist rocket and
you bring a thousand dollars for our Starbucks bill.
Yeah, right.
You guys drink a lot of coffee.
I. I feel like my. Maybe my. The thing I most love weirdly about the whole package is the little booklet that has all the information about what came. I was so tickled by that. Like, it looks that it's really high quality. It literally looks like they just sat down and wrote all of them. Which would have been. Yeah, which they obviously, that's why it costs so much. Yeah, that's why they added the $4 on, you know, but they obviously didn't do that. But it's. It was so cool. It's just a little, little booklet, you know, a little. It's like looking at album artwork or something. When you, when you get a. An album is the little note and getting basically a mini paragraph about everything that's in here, which is so cool. So I think that was. I was definitely careful to keep it safe and keep it from getting drawn on by a certain three year old in the house because I wanted to save it. Yeah.
I think also as we go on and they pick up more subscribers and more people like doing this, they can start, you know, buying things a little bit more in bulk and, you know, their, their margins can like, you know, widen a little bit and maybe, maybe we'll just start seeing like this just enriched more and more.
Yeah, the next one's gonna be like 50 bucks worth of stuff now.
Yeah, well, that's true. They also have the. Don't they have the freedom to do that if they. I mean, they haven't said anything about everyone will be 30, have they?
Right? Yeah, I know.
Yeah. Which is fine. Which is fine by me if like they just, you know, do whatever they need to do. I just want them to do what's best for them. So that would be as long as it's the. A good curated little package that they feel good about then. Mm, cool, man.
Yeah, I really like your idea of the vintage and modern equivalent box.
Yeah, that would be cool.
It's a better. It's a good acronym.
Does anybody know how to get a hold of Caroline? Cuz we should tell her.
Listen to our podcast.
I don't know. Do they even know about this podcast, you guys?
Yeah. You want to tuck her in for the night?
Yeah, I need to eat dinner.
Oh, yeah. God, you're overrated. Failing dinner.
Your fake news.
I had delicious dinner. Fake dinner. Homemade vegetarian polish food.
Vegetarian polish food. Yeah. Just sauerkraut.
Just sauerkraut vegetarian gobumpkis. Okay, go.
What?
Have you never had a gowumpki? It's.
I've never heard of a gowumpki.
It's ground beef with rice and just made that up. Onion wrapped in a steamed cabbage leaf and baked with tomato sauce. Oh, I've had those.
We call them cabbage rolls with Lorax
meat inside of it. Yeah, sounds like something from the doctor's
Ace Morningstar veggie crumble.
Yeah.
In Indiana, we just called them cabbage rolls.
Oh, yeah. Oh, cabbage rolls. I know what that is. Yeah. Yeah.
You know what a cabbage rolls.
Cabbage rolls. Yeah, we ate those. Yeah. Pierogies and cabbage rolls. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, I'm not Polish.
Sonny's all fancy.
My mother's half Polish, so it's a thing. My mother and I also make very, very good kashiki, which.
Like bow tie pasta?
No, the pastry ones with the powdered sugar. Oh, my God, they're so good. They're basically very, very, very, very thin pieces of dough made into a bow tie and then fried and then covered in sugar.
Dude, I think. I think your mother just made this up.
Yeah. One of the ingredients is also. So you can have a little bit while you're cooking.
Yeah,
they're very good.
Well, one of my favorite foods out here is a. I'm hungry for blah blah. It's one of my favorite favorite things
you ever had a good for.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah.
You get it on blah blah blah's blah blah.
Oh, my. Okay, okay, so we have reached episode 70. So you can find this episode somehow. Yeah. At erasable US 70. In between recording this episode and recording the next episode, this podcast turns three. So it can sort of read and sort of color if it was a person. And it's well potty trained, so that's fantastic. You can catch us at our Facebook group, which is literally global 24. 7. Pencil chat at facebook.com group/groups. Erasable.
That's one of the coolest descriptions of our group I've ever heard, by the way. So you just blew my mind a little bit with the whole global 24. 7.
Yeah, well, I've got a free minute. Instead of checking my email like you would in, you know, 2005, I checked the erasable group.
You can always count on, like, the Australian contingent to keep things going overnight.
I always catch the Brits, like, they're at lunch and I've just woken up at like 6:00am yeah. You can also check out our Facebook page@facebook.com erasablepodcast we're on Twitter and Instagram raceablepodcast and erasable usshop. You can go get those cool lapel pins. I think there's some stickers left too, right?
Nope, stickers are out. I need to do another printed run of those.
Well, you can go in there and look at the stickers that you can't get and you will be able to someday. So you can be the coolest kid in your class or office or house or fraternity or sorority or gang wizarding school, whatever, cult. Yeah, we could do some sort of initiation where you put the pin and we punch it into your chest like in the Navy. And then we'll all go get 10B tattoos. It'll be badass.
Patent pending. Awesome.
Thanks for listening and we'll see you closer to International Pencil Day.
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 time
this has happened before. Oh, I said.