This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Oh, wait, I'm the boss. I can just do that.
It's up to me now. I'm Mr. Manager.
Same manager.
Hello, and welcome to episode 178 of the erasable Podcast. I'm Johnny the Dude Gamber, and I'm here with Tim Walter Wasum. Andy the Nihilist Wellly. Hey, guys.
Hey.
Happy March.
Happy March.
Spring.
The intro abides. That was nice. I like that.
It really ties the podcast together.
Nobody was Donnie. Yeah, I didn't even think of it. I believe in nothing. Yeah, I believe in nothing. So later on, we're gonna get to chat with Ashley, Coaxum of the Paper Herald, which is a stationery shop in downtown Baltimore. Yay, Charm City. And we have a lot of questions to ask her, so why don't we jump right into tools of the trade? Do you want to go first, Andy?
Yeah, happy to go. I did not write any of this down, so I apologize in advance for just winging it, but I am in the middle of reading a really great book of short stories by Ursula K. Le Guin. It's one of her many books of short stories. This one is called the Birthday of the World and Other Stories. And it has some really good. Some just really good short stories that take place in some of her kind of existing universes. Like the one that they call it, that the Heinous universe. It's the people of the Left Hand of Darkness, the people who, like, don't have gender until they're about ready to mate, in which case they, like, their bodies just turn into. Turn into a gender. And the societal structures around that. So a few stories set in that universe, a few stories sit in a different one.
Just. Just so.
She's so imaginative. Like, her universes are so interesting, and the rules that are built in the society around that is really good. So reading that, I am. What are we watching on tv? Just a lot of stuff that I've mentioned before, but we. One. One thing of note is that Star Trek Picard Season 2 just started, which is the Michael Chabon showrunner. Star Trek. And it's. He's the showrunner. Yeah, he wrote the first. He wrote a few episodes in season one. And I think he's still the showrunner. He was for season one at. Yeah, I knew that he had done
some writing, but I didn't realize he was that, like, instrumental in it.
Yeah, he was. Yeah, just a really big part of it. Yeah, it's one of those shows. There's so much sort of just, like, pandering to Star Trek fans. Like, that's the whole point of it. It's just like, hey, let's bring Patrick Stewart and guests back. And this one is no different. That has Whoopi Goldberg playing her character Guinan, who was a semi regular in the Next Generation. She's back. Q is back. John de Lancie, the actor who played like sort of a semi omnipotent, like non corporeal being who was definitely like, yeah, just like a kind of the mulligan of the show. Like he can do anything, go anywhere, whatever. And they just use him as like, they're sort of like magic trickster. He's the.
He's the Johnny of Star Trek.
Yes, yes, he is. You go anywhere, do anything. Makes a lot of scenes. Yeah. So he's back. He showed up at the last episode of the. The first this. The season. But also just really good universe building and characters like Star Trek always is. So, yeah, that is back. I'm looking forward to that. And I am writing with a. I just picked this up out of just a disc drawer. A Palomino Blackwing. Cal Cedar. The. The one with the green eraser and the green print. It was. It's not the. It's not the first extra firm, but it's the, like. I can't remember. This one is an extra firm, right?
Yeah, yeah, I think it is.
I think it is the first extra firm. I think they were.
Yeah, they were getting ready to I think probably release the like regular stock Blackwing extra firm, the natural. And they. They just put this one out. So just found this one at desk drawer and it's almost to the Steinbeck stage. It's almost perfect. So writing with that in my. In my Baron fig confidant. How about you, Tim?
A couple days ago I started reading Storyteller by Dave Grohl, which I'd been like, actively avoiding since it come out because.
Because Dave Grohl sucks.
It's because Foo Fighters suck.
Like both do.
I've tried as a fan of big, like rock groups talking like Tom Petty and stuff like that. Like, I. I always thought like, man, I bet I would like the Foo Fighters. And then I listened to them and then I changed my mind very quickly. But as somebody who's been in nirvana and has been around for a while and I've heard a couple interviews with them, I was like, ah, crap, there's going to be some good stories in here about like. Because I am just a sucker for rock and roll stories. So this is basically.
He seems like such a smart Guy like Johnny. Did he, like, insult your mother or something? Like what?
I really just hate Foo Fighters. I hate Dave Grohl so much.
As an artist or as a human?
Both, mostly as an artist. My friend Paul that I've been playing music with since we were teenagers, like, loves Foo Fighters, and I have. Every once in a while, I listen to him with an open mind. No.
Can't take it.
No. Yeah, I just. Yeah. Food Fighters, I just can't get into. I love Nirvana. And when I hear interviews with him, he seems, like, great, very entertaining to me. He was just on Hot Ones, the wing.
Yeah.
Which is a really good episode. And it seems like there's not a whole lot of editing that goes on in that show. And he. Well, I'm just saying that not to make fun of it, but just that, like, when he came onto the show, he showed up with Crown Royal, and they did, like, six shots over the course of that episode of Hot Ones and that. It's only, like, 25 minutes long. Like, I'd be, like, in the hospital by the end of that. But,
you know, alcohol is supposed to help you ease the heat on.
Yeah. Maybe that's why it was just a long con. Yeah, that's why he was doing it.
I. I definitely, like. I'm not really a huge Nirvana fan. Not a Foo Fighters fan, really. But, like, Dave Grohl as a human is a really interesting, compelling person. Like, I. That whole thing with that little girl who was, like, a drummer and challenged him to, like, a drum off on YouTube, and eventually he, like, had her on as a life performance or something. Like, I think he just seems like a really, like, cool, interesting guy.
I love that video of him that was going around when the stuff happened at the Travis Scott concert or whatever.
Yeah.
That video of him, like, shouting down an entire crowd and, like, getting this kid and his family, like, up on stage because they were getting, like, crushed in the front. It's like. Yeah, I think he's got a good heart. He has that sweet feather tattoo on his forearm, too. I like that he has a giant feather on his forearm, like, the bottom of his forearm.
So, I mean, it's not as cool as a pencil, but that's.
Well, now it's close.
It is close. So, yeah, I'm reading that's been entertaining. Got it from the library. And I have re. Rediscovered Mumford and Sons, who I haven't listened to in a long time and have basically. I don't know why I started. They probably showed up on some kind of Amazon Music station or whatever and heard a song, I was like, oh, gosh, I haven't listened to them in a little while. And then I started listening to their. The last album, which is called Delta, which I had, I don't think ever listened to, which came out in like 2018. It's been out for a while and that's what I've been listening to for the last couple days. And it's good. It's really mellow. It's kind of like they. They went. They got all big and raucous and like arena rock big. And then all of a sudden they still have like the sounds of the arena rock stuff, but they've dialed it
back like 10 years ago. I couldn't tell the difference. Like, I had no idea what the difference between Mumford and Sons and the AV Brothers were. And they. Luckily they went in different directions, so it was. Became easier to tell.
But.
Yeah. Yeah.
You know, one, like, sort of random, interesting thing about Mumford and Sons that I was thinking about when I was driving the other day is that Marcus Mumford is like one of the only people I know of who sings in a British. Like, how you. There's that thing where usually you just tend not to sing in an accent. It all just comes out the same. But he totally sings in a British accent.
So interesting.
Pulling a jo.
Yeah. So, yeah, been enjoying that. And then haven't really been watching much. We started watching that Inventing Anna show on about the con artist. I'm gonna withhold judgment. We're one episode in.
It seemed pretty.
Pretty interesting, but I was also half asleep. But I am reading a. I'm rereading a favorite book right now, which is Wendell Berry's poetry collection called this Day. It is called It's. Yeah, this Day collected in New Sabbath Poems, which they're basically just. He made it this habit of every Sunday he would walk around his property and write a poem. The subject matters of the poem. Poems are all over the place. That place. They don't have any sort of themes. But it's just every Sunday he writes a poem and then every five or six years he puts a collection together of these poems that he wrote on his day of rest. And this is the collected version of him. It's really fantastic. I've loved it since I was in. Since I was in college. It's good stuff.
Yeah.
And I am writing with a Levenger True Writer fountain pen that Johnny bullied me into buying. That's strong wording there. I was begging him to bully me into buying one of them.
I'm happy to help.
And I am loving it. I'm loving it. McDonald's. Yeah, I am. It has it. It came in a couple days ago, and I've been using it all the time. And it's like jumped up to maybe being one of my favorite fountain pens because it's just. More on that later. We'll talk about that more later. But I'm using that. And I'm using my Rhodia Pocket hardback notebook, A little web notebook.
How about you, Johnny?
So I'm a big Britbox fan and a big Shetland fan. So the. I think her name's Ann Cleaves. She wrote the novels that they based Shetland on, and she also wrote the novels they based another show called Vera on. Like, we have pretty similar taste in tv and he loves Vera, but there are a lot of seasons. And Britbox recently went to the beginning. So recently we watched Vera season one and two, which is interesting because the phones were small. But, you know, it's also new enough that it was filmed in hd, so it was a bizarre experience. Then they pulled out a phone. I'm like, these British people are giant. Oh, no, that's not a smartphone. But that's very good and not full of horrible language. And I've recently read a book called Handbook A Manual of Instruction by this curmudgeonly dude who does not believe in modern adhesives and swears by wheat paste. So I've been making wheat paste, which is really fun.
I was gonna say, does he just smear, like, animal fat on it? Just like.
No, he's like his whole thing about how for centuries. Actually, I don't know where the book is. I wanted to read that part. It's really funny.
Yeah,
I'll make too much noise getting it. But yeah, it's a. It's not a huge book. But a lot of the book binding books I've read have a lot of like, here are the tools you should get, and here's like, this other crap that you should maybe get. And History of Da. And he's like, okay, get these things. Here's how you do it. Let's make a book now.
Yes.
Let's just get into it. I've seen some websites, like, very heavily plagiarized from his book. But it's good. It's not full of very pretty, but hard to decipher photos. Everything is done by line drawings, and I'm pretty sure he does himself. So if you want to just read a random book about bookbinding. Check it out. It was also, like, pretty cheap. And I'm writing with a true writer from Levenger. Also mine is called Carnival, which is timely and also, like, oh, my God, it looks like, I don't know, a unicorn ate cotton candy and threw up and they made a pen out of it. If you look it up on the Internet, it's something else. And as a tribute to Andy, I have it filled with. I'll mispronounce it. Liera Sauvage from Giherbon.
Wild ivy.
Yeah. One of the many colors in this pen.
Yeah. Such a good. My favorite green that I've found so far.
Yeah, I keep. I've tried a couple different ones. I keep coming back to that one. Like, why am I messing around? This is just perfect. So why don't we jump into fresh points and maybe take a leap of
faith? Yeah. So let's see. Where to start? Sometime late last year, I can't remember if it was November or December, Aaron Draplin, he was doing his, like. Like 25 days of merch or 12 days of merch miss or whatever it's called, where he basically would introduce something new each day. And, like, there were some slippers and there were, like, some new stickers, and he had, like, a collab with, like, some mitten company. Like, he would just do all these, like, like, product reveals. Sometimes it would be a poster and one of them was. He is. Basically, he was like, look. Well, first of all, it was on the Field Notes website, and it was just like a big sort of like, note. And the conceit was that he took over the Field Notes website and posted this. But it's basically like, look, I have an idea for Field Notes Edition, and I can't do it right now. I should be able to do it by, like, February, March. And you're just gonna have to trust me. And he posted a link to buy it, which I thought was just such a baller move. And Aaron Draplin is just such a. Just such a baller. And of course, he had just. Everybody just eating out of his hands with that. Right. So, like, people were posting. Just people are buying.
Left the country.
Yep. And then he was like, see ya go into Fiji. But he. Yeah, so. So people ordered it sight unseen. He was like, it's going to be cool, trust me.
And.
Yeah. And so didn't hear nothing about it until just a few weeks ago. And he was like, okay, we're getting ready to ship these things and I'll. So what I'M going to do. If we had a spoiler horn, I would sound it. But I'm going to describe. I have not yet received mine. I did place an order. Johnny, you placed an order too, right? Oh yeah, yeah. Tim, you didn't. I don't think you did.
No, I didn't.
Yeah.
Deliberation.
Can't wait to hear about it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. So after much deliberation of Aaron, just saying like, hey, trust me, posted the place the order but people have been starting to get theirs and I. If you want to wait to hear about this, you might want to skip over like the next five minutes or so. I was just going to describe to you a little bit just like what this edition is. It is. So first of all, it's really cool. It's. It's like the same aesthetic as the deader prints, but he's not using like old stock. It looks like he's using photos that he is manipulating to, to like make the covers of it. And I, I wish I could find the. The inside like practical applications because he had some good descriptions of it. But it looks like he's taking several different kinds of like neon cover stock. I see yellow and orange, um, with just some like, just some really good, just sort of like bright application. So yeah, yellow and orange and I think olive it looks like are the colors here. But there's some that have just a big bright like half tone on them. There's some that looks like maybe they're just photos from his personal collection. There's some that have pictures of boxes of field notes on the front which I think is very meta. He has one, a picture of his mom. And what's cool is there's one in here that is a picture I'm thinking from a maybe like a Field Nuts meetup or a field notes like Chicago meetup. And it has our friend Larry Grimaldi and then also a just really great active field nut and somebody who's pretty active in our group, James Spears on the COVID of this field notes. So that, that's pretty amazing. It looks like there's a bright orange grid on the inside. Not a dot grid but just a regular grid which is cool. So yeah, I, I don't know yet how many there are out there. I know that there will be a very like actively an active trading scene. And yeah, yeah, I ordered two packs. I'll wait to see what are in mine. Haven't got those yet. But yeah, I. This is cool. Some people in the Field Nuts group, as always were not A big fan of it. I think that they were expecting something more like those. Do you remember from like five years ago, those like factory floor ones that had just like the really just heavy like silver and orange like applications of ink. Yeah, I think that people are expecting like that which like fair. But this is, this has that same aesthetic as like a deader, a dead print. So yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I think they're from. From the pictures I've seen, they look really cool.
I'm curious to see what he put inside because he usually uses a different cover stock or. Sorry, he usually uses different paper than field notes uses.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I saw. Man, I can't find it again. I saw the. Somebody posted a picture of the back cover, the innards like the specs and I did not say that I should have but I was talking to a friend of the show toffer brutechild today and they wanted me to send them some pictures of the field notes that I saw in the nuts. And so of course I sent them pictures of it and then also proceeded to just complain about the field nuts, which is my way. But yeah, love the way this. So yeah, that is the field nuts. Leap of faith. I'll try to share some pictures in the erasable group once I get mine. And if you want to see some pictures of them yourself and you are in the field nuts group, just head over there and there's some. You can see some spoilers. The other thing I was going to mention is something that we will talk more in depth about in a upcoming issue of Indelible, which is our Patreon only ink podcast. But I wanted to mention I. I bought a glass nib today or no, this week, I guess last week. But I bought a glass nib, one of those like hand blown kind of like twisty glass pens, dip pens. Just because I wanted to sample some inks and it's so darn messy to just like dip your regular fountain pen in it because the ink gets like up inside the nib and then you have to like use a Q tip and you have to use a paper towel and like just really clean it out before you can switch to the next ink. And with the glass nibs you just have to like swish it around in some water and that completely cleans it. So Johnny, do you have one of these?
I do. When I test inks I usually use it like a metal dip pen.
Okay.
Nibbed dip pen.
Okay.
But they're even. Those are harder to clean than it Than a glass pen?
Yeah. Yeah. Tim, do you have a. One of these glass nibs?
No, I don't. I've used one. My uncle has one and that's been fun to mess around with, but no, I'd like to get one. Do you ever, like, try to. Have you tried to just with it continuously, like Thomas Jefferson style and see, like, how long it lasts?
I. I have not yet. The website says or that says that you can. You can write like a hundred characters with it with one dip. I don't know if that's true. I've mostly had just been writing like a line of text and then like I filled out my color ring, like color swatch with it. But it's. Yeah, I'm told you can write quite a bit with it. This is just a 10. Like a. It was $10 on Amazon. It was really inexpensive, like, surprisingly inexpensive. But I. I was inspired. I was at the San Francisco pen show last summer and they were. Lisa Van Ness and I were just talking a little bit about like, glass, like nib pens. And of course they sell really fancy, nice ones, like hand blown. Right. But this one, I'm sure is just mass produced for super cheap. It looks like a Harry Potter wand. Like, it's really fancy, more fancy than I like, really wanted. So I was like, can I get like a minimalist glass nib pen?
Can you share a link in the show notes to the one you got? Because I just dug into Amazon and. Oh, my God, they have a lot of them.
Yeah. This one was really moleshine. It's a mole shine for your moleskine.
Yeah. Oh, my God.
Yeah.
This one, $10. It came with a. The pen. It came with a little like, resting stand, so you can like lay it down with the nib kind of like suspended and tilted backwards. And it came.
These have like six of them for 14 bucks. Like, yeah. How are these that cheap? There's no way.
It's crazy.
It came with a bottle of like green shimmer ink that I have not even opened yet because I'm just like, I don't even want to know yet how bad this is. Yeah. I'll post a link in the show notes of this particular pen, but I used it to. So what we'll talk about is I bought from van Ness pens 3, 6, 7 different samples of just some nice springy inks that I. That caught my eye after spending some time looking around there. And I used this to just sample those really nice. Both the inks are. And then also, like, it handled like, one of these inks has like some shimmer, some pearlescence to it, and it handled that really well. So, yeah, big fan of this dip pen. And then, yeah, to clean it, you just swish it around in some water and dry it off and it's clean. Can't recommend that enough. Yeah, so I'll wait. I'll wait to talk about the. The spring inks that I dipped into. Some really good ones. Check that out. If you are a Patreon subscriber at any level, we'll be posting probably what, like, next week, Johnny, I'm hoping.
Yeah, we're way overdue.
Yeah, it's been a while. And speaking of which, just quick Patreon announcement. It's just about time to have a fun little gift for our subscribers at the $10 level. So if you've been thinking about getting that subscription, sign up soon and I'll. This is what, March 7, 2022, that we're recording this maybe by like mid March. So maybe like March 16th by St. Patrick's Day. Sign up for St. Patrick's Day and we'll make sure. Oh, we'll make sure to include you in. That was probably racist in some way
that I don't even realize I can get away with it.
You're allowed to say it.
I'm allowed to be prejudiced about my people. That's terrible.
They're always after me. Lucky charms.
There it is.
I'll be sure to. By then we'll have an announcement of what it is that we are are going to do for everybody, which I think is pretty cool. Well, that is it for me for freshpoints. How about you, Tim?
Well, first thing, I want to talk about this pen again because I just can't stop looking at it and playing around with it. My new Levinger true writer. And I was what, like, pushed me over the edge with this with. Because Johnny had like hinted in the last episode or sometime that he had a small collection of them. I'm protecting your the truth, Johnny.
Many of them.
Very, very small collection. A very sensible collection of true writers. And I actually have. I have two true writers in the rollerball that I was given. They started my whole pen obsession because besides the G2s and stuff I used in high school and obsessed over my dad when I went to college, started buying me a pen every year for a few years and he would get them from Levinger and he'd have my initials put into the side of them. So I had two of those from like 2006 somewhere around there 2007 and loved them. And you can put gel pen refills in it. And I knew they did fountain pens, but I just assumed for the longest time that they would probably be just okay. But when Johnny talked about his. And I ended up going down the research rabbit hole and found the. Yeah, I don't know. I. I think I assumed it was just marketing copy from Levenger saying things like, well, my. I think the owners was it. His dad was a penmanship teacher, which amazing that actually existed. But in that he always got Esterbrook pens. And so he said in the materials that basically they had created the true writer to fill in that gap in the world of, like, what we lost with Esterbrook pens or those, like, classic 20s, 30s, 40s fountain pens. So I was like, all right, I'm sold. I'm gonna try it out. But Johnny turned me on to this seller on ebay and I got. It's a black marble medium nib fountain pen with chrome clip and band. And it writes so incredibly well.
Johnny, does it write true?
Very true.
It. It won't write lies. I've tried.
Sounds like something out of Harry Potter. Johnny, does yours have almost like a hooked nib?
Yeah, they all bend down a little, like cross nibs.
Because this one writes in such an interesting way and puts such a cool line on the paper that I almost wondered if what I thought was brand new is actually used and somebody had had it ground in some kind of cool way. But I love it. I've got it inked up with the gawn Pearl noir black, and it's just been wonderful. Been using it every day, all the time, and I love it so much, and I'm probably going to buy like, 15 more. Thanks, Johnny.
I have a lot of them, and some of the colors are really hard to track down, and they're just part of the fun. I tell my bank account
I've got one color that I'm just dying to find, kind of two, and then I'd like to get one in broad nib.
Wait, is there, like, a website where you can go look at all the colors and past colors and decide, well,
hand on Levenger's website, can't you.
Yeah, they have a thing called, like, a timeline, the true history of true writers. But they're missing a couple, including my most recent acquisition of True Teal, which is a demonstrator.
Can you buy them that are like. Buy them for cheaper than, like, $80?
Yeah, Levenger's always got a sale, like, if you get on their list. They will literally email you every day.
But there's a coupon code right now for like 20, 20 off or something like that. Okay, score. And I got this one on eBay for 50.
Okay.
It's brand new.
I got the one that Tim has on ebay recently for 25, not brand new. And I had to replace the nib. But still it was worth it.
Yeah, killer pen. Just feels very sturdy. Feels like it'll last forever.
And I've like had him on the bed and Henry's kicked him across the room, like picked it up, looked at it, uncapped it, wrote with it. It's fine. So really quick, what are the finishes that you're searching for?
Kyoto. Sorry? Kyoto is my. The one that I want the most, which is, I guess it's like a. Almost like a tortoise, but it just has like some splashes of more color in them. So Kyoto is at the top of my list. And then some sort of tortoise shell. I just like this kind of classic look with these. I'm not. Yeah, the Kyoto is basically a tortoise seashell with. Would you call that like turquoise splashed throughout it or something?
Yeah, that's lovely.
It's a little darker than turquoise, but.
Okay. Yeah, but that's number one on my list is so. Looks like I'll be spending every morning on ebay as I drink the coffee
up and a reminder.
Yeah.
Hey, real, real quick. Can I read to you the Amazon title for that glass nib?
Yes, please.
This is very much like Tim's Amazon basics.
Our content. This is prime erasable content.
Glass ink pen set luxe Eve glass dip pen with ink and pen holder or art crystal glass pens for signatures business Christmas gift. Glass ink pens, parentheses, green comma, basic parenthesis SEO. It's for signatures Business Christmas gift. Classic ink pens. It's for all your business Christmas gifts.
Word salad.
Yes. Okay. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.
There are a lot of Etsy listings that are like that.
I just want to capture every list. My sister who does a lot of like ebay sales for like vintage toys will often put like commonly misspelled versions of the words like in the title or in the description. So people like jump in searches and it's funny cuz she basically like came to like SEO strategies like completely independently of reading, of knowing what an SEO strategy is.
Oh, I love that.
Yeah. Anyhow, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Tim.
Oh, you're fine.
I know. Yeah.
So yeah, lots of true writer love and I got a feeling there'll be more.
Yeah. Yeah.
I thought this was a pencil podcast.
For now. One other note. I was just going to mention that Mr. Bookbinder gamber over here sent my kids some notebooks, and I just wanted to say thank you to him on the podcast because he sent them because we've been going through some tough stuff, starting to get better, but he sent some notebooks, and both my kids have been writing in their notebooks all the time. My son is using his to basically recreate his own version of these Minecraft novels called Diary of an eight Bit Warrior.
So he's, like, writing his own version of that fanfiction.
Exactly. And my daughter is doing more of a traditional journal where she writes one sentence on the left side and then draws a picture to go with it on the right side. All very descriptive and very literal. And she's already made it through half of her little notebook. So her plan is to finish the whole book and then to take a few days to go back and color in all the drawings. That's what she's doing. Which is just delightful to see her, like, would not wanting to leave the house without grabbing her notebook. It makes my heart happy.
What I was gonna say. I need to make her a bigger one.
Yeah, no, she. That's the perfect size for her. She's just, like, grabs it and holds it under her arm and goes, oh, my God, she loves it. Very cute. Yeah, it's very cute. And she loves a little pencil loop that you made on the side to, like, hold the pencil in it. She's obsessed with it. As soon as she got that little naked pencil that you. You sent with it, though, I was
trolling you with that.
And then. And you gave one to. You gave one to Henry, too. And I was like. Like, lusting after this pencil, and then it comes back into the room from. He walks away, and he comes back, and he had sharpened it at both ends. God damn it.
It's yours. What did you do? It's all yours.
I'm not gonna steal it from you.
So there I found three, and there was another one for you. But I didn't send it because I forgot.
That's funny. That's all right. But no, I totally. As soon as I saw that, I was, like. My, like, sort of, like, hand was reaching out towards it, like, no, that's not for you.
Don't steal from your children, Tim.
They keep, like, popping up in places.
It's funny for multiplying. All right, so thank you, Johnny.
Oh, you're welcome.
And last thing, and before I passed off to you, Johnny, is we are going to do another book club episode. So it's been a good long while since we've done one.
Like seven years.
Well, yeah. Well, I mean, we did like Caroline's book.
Oh, yeah.
That would be a book club book.
And we.
Yeah, it's been a long time still. And the book that we're gonna try, and none of us have actually read this yet. It's just looking for something that's in our wheelhouse and something that would be relevant to the show and to our. Our listeners. We've picked a book by Matthew Battles and is called Palimpsest, A History of the Written Word. This book is from. It's pretty new. I think it's 2017. 2015. Came out in 2015. So it's fairly new book. It's really pretty book, really good cover. And it is just like, I guess just like it's described. It's a history of the written word. It goes back and starts all the way back in like the 4th century BCE talking about the development of writing and then the invention of the codex by early Christians and then getting into manuscripts and get. And so it's got a lot of stuff about Chinese writing and calligraphy and all this and just how writing, physical writing, got from its starting point to where it is today. So I have skimmed through the book. There's the audiobooks on scribd. If you're on scribd, you can find the audiobook on there, if you're into that.
But is that how you say that? Scribd.
That's all Scribd. That's what I've always said.
Okay.
Scribe. Scribe.
I don't know. Yeah, I've never heard it pronounced. So, yeah, I'm.
Pronunciation. Scribd sounds like ribbed.
Yeah, no, that's what. That sounds good to me.
That's on their website. It says, okay, support scribd. Yeah. So, okay, cool. Learn something every day and accidentally get something right every day.
So,
yeah, anyways, I'm gonna read. This is a little like, quote from a blurb, but he quotes a room of one's own on writing as a system that can, quote, absorb the new into the old without tearing the fabric of the whole. Which I think is something that I've heard about. This book is. Some people say it's, like, fantastic. Some people have commented on him being a very, like, floral writer. Like, very. Which I'm looking forward to getting into just Some sort of sentences that just get off the rails and go wild on a subject I. I care about.
Yeah.
Yeah. So we are going to read this together if. And we'd love for you guys to read it along with us. I think we are going to talk about it in sometime in mid April so it'll be at least two episodes away when we get to it. But I bought my copy on thriftbooks.com so if you want to go to a place like that or Amazon, you can find used copies for five bucks or something like that. And it's also on, like I said, on Scribd and you can find the audio version of it on there. I hope you'll join us and then let us know what you think. That's all for me.
I'm stoked, Johnny.
Yeah, sure.
So this is possibly mean because they sold out today, but there's another field notes that came out recently which is a collaboration with the United States Postal Service there. I don't know what they're officially called, but they're in conjunction with the release of their Title 9 stamps.
I have some of those stamps.
Oh, you've got them already.
Awesome.
I don't have the notebooks, but I have the stamps. They're really nice.
So I didn't realize why there were four. Because there are four different stamps. But each notebook has an actual stamp and the cancellation stamp. Bing, bing stamp from the day of release on there. Which is awesome. Yeah. And apparently you could get them last week by phone. But I don't go to the Field Nuts group very often and I noticed it today and went and ordered a pack on the website and then they were sold out pretty quickly after that. But when you buy something from the Postal Services website, it's the Postal Service. They don't charge you shipping. They charge like, I don't know, a dollar.
They are shipping.
Yeah.
What if they just send it through like DHL or something?
I. I buy my stamps from them. They charge like A$30 for however many you want. They show up quickly and with a lot of packaging these days, but that's another story. But they're gray and I just read a couple comments that whatever the COVID stock is feels really delicious. But the Postal Service does not have a lot of info about them on them, which is weird too. They do that.
Tim, when you are the Postmaster General, will you make a collaboration with every field notes?
I don't think we'll do anything other than make field notes.
Okay. Just pivot to field notes.
Collab it's going to be a notebook brand.
So.
Yeah, perfect.
Funny story. Outside Baltimore, there's a town called Gamber after my family. And there's a road called Old Gamber Road. Apparently my great grandfather. Great grandfather was postmaster up there.
Going to take you down to Old Gamber Road.
Oh, geez, I need to move there. I wonder if I could be this automatic mirror.
Or at least next time we come to visit, we're all going to go and steal the street sign.
I mean.
Oh, yes, absolutely.
Oh, bring my ratchet set. Let's do this.
These are suburban street signs that are up, like, really high in the intersection.
We can make it happen.
Yeah, we'll just stand on each other's shoulders.
Yeah. Like the Three Stooges.
Yeah. Get a really long trench coat.
Fireman. Get the fire truck up there.
There you go. I'll bring some kind of, like, circular saw that'll cut through metal. We'll make it quick, be in and out. It'll be like Ocean's Eleven, but
three
Dremels going at once from LSI to.
I'm sure they have an attachment for that prankster's kit.
It's like, oh, crap, where do we plug it in?
Little bastard prank box or something.
Anybody got any Triple A's?
So, yeah, the. I don't want to advertise my wares, but there are new zines out you can find in my Etsy shop. And that's all I'll say about that. And.
No, wait, go back. What kind of zines? What kind of zines are they, Johnny?
They're about pencils and pens.
Really? Tell me more.
Shocker. Actually, the pencil zines aren't really about pencils that much anymore. They're sort of like our podcasts. There's like a little bit of pencils in the beginning and then not. But nobody's complained, so I'm going to keep at it.
Look, we're like eight years in. We just expanded our topic a little bit.
I think it's fine.
We're seven years past what we thought
we would be able to do, right? Exactly.
Yeah. Actually, in a couple days, it'll be eight years.
Yeah.
Great.
Oh, wow.
Insane.
Yeah.
The children that didn't exist yet and the children who were babies pooping their pants when we started.
This is the longest creative project, including, like, employment that I have ever stuck with, so.
Oh, man. Yeah, me too.
Yeah, like, yeah, totally.
Yeah.
Probably will be forever.
We gotta make another two so we can do some really bonkers stuff for 10 years.
Oh, yeah. Oh, definitely.
Oh, yes. And my last fresh point is I've been struggling with a commission book for book binding that's like just this enormous sketchbook. So I finally finished it. And if you want to know what a moleskin would look like if it was the size of a phone book that'll be on social media this week. Before I send it out, you should
do a case study on your on pencil revolution. Just showing like talking about like what it took to make it and how it went.
All the cuss words.
Yeah, all the cuss words.
Yeah. There was a point where I just redid the COVID because I didn't like how it was turning out. I'm like, oh wait, I'm the boss. I can just do that.
It's up to me now. I'm Mr.
Manager, same manager.
I've been working with Craftex a lot lately, which is a paper based or. I'm sorry, it's a fabric that's made of paper, but it's as tough as leather. So like if you don't buy the pre washed kind, you can't use it until you crumble it and wash it and crumble it and wash it. So it's neat. It's really cool stuff. But. Excuse me, it's expensive and different to work with. But yeah, I was. I haven't sent it yet because I don't want to let it go. I put a lot of work into it.
Let it go, Let it go.
But it's all black. Like everything in this book except the paper is black. So I'm working on more colorful stuff now, getting my eyesight back, doing a lot of squinting. I'm like, I'm sewing black thread on black paper on black cloth.
Like.
Oh my God.
Wait, so the, the inside paper is black too?
No, the paper is the only thing there that's not black.
Okay, okay.
Oh, I'm a liar. There's a pocket in the back that has gray book cloth too on the sides to make it more durable. But it's almost.
How much do you charge for something like that?
A lot. This one, I quoted a price before I realized how involved it was going to be. But I would charge a lot more if I did it again.
Like if I wanted to order something like this. Not me. Like it's just some random person wanted to order something like this.
Well, this one, okay, 125. But yeah, it's a lot for 125. It's got like a lot of really nice paper in it and the COVID material is really expensive. But it's fun. I expanded my skill set.
Yeah.
And I only stabbed myself twice making this book. But I had a moment where I was getting close to the end of the sewing, and it was a complicated stitch that I had to make up. And I heard this loud, like, snap. I'm like, no, but it was. The needle broke in half, so popping out your finger. I thought I cracked the spine somehow. I'm like, oh, no. I thought craft tags was bulletproof.
Think about, like, old school hand bound books. Like, I wonder if any of them. If you split open the. If you, like, split open the binding, you would find, like, blood. I'm saying, like, evidence of, like, handmade.
Like, there's only one way to find out, Tim. We have to go destroy a bunch of old books to Harvard.
So my kids have a bunch.
Get your box cutters, boys. We're going to Harvard.
My kids have books that have blood in them because. Oh, wow. Make them on, like, a drop of blood I might be able to wipe off. But sometimes I've, like, bled profusely on stuff. Like, one of the medications I take thins my blood out. And, like, it's visibly thin. It's heat. It's like a horror movie. Like, look at that go.
Can you use it as a fountain pen?
Ink?
When I get my glass dip in, I'm gonna try.
Hell, yeah. Yeah.
I'll leave it with my collection of oils. Next time I get a wound, I'll try to dip it. I'm totally not joking. Yeah, My collection of alls. I need to, like, take some photos of those.
Jenny's all in.
I have to sterilize them because they go into my hands so much.
Jenny's all in his hand.
It's all good.
It's all good in the hood.
Yeah, I just got that. I'm slow tonight. Sorry.
Yeah, it would be cool if somebody made one with a wooden handle with an owl so they could call it the Owl all. I'd buy, like, 10 of those. Okay, so why don't we call up Ashley and stop talking about things that stab paper and my hands and writing with our own. Perfect. While we have been the bearers of sad news regarding brick and mortar stationery shops in the recent past, tonight we get to talk about some good news. Especially if you live in Char. In or near Charm City. A few months ago, I got a pen pal letter from my friend Caroline Weaver. And in there was a really cool looking business card, and she wrote a message like, a new stationery shop is opening in Baltimore and what do you do when you get that? You're like squee, squee. So I was like haunting the Instagram and Ashley Coaxum opened the Paper Herald in Baltimore's famous Mount Vernon neighborhood late this fall. And Ashley is kind enough to join us for an interview tonight, which is Monday, her only day off. And we're very excited to have you. Thanks for joining us, Ashley.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, thanks for joining us on your day off. This means a lot.
Hey, happy to be here.
So we have a bunch of questions and I'm already talking, so I'm going to jump in and go first if that's okay. Can you tell us a little about yourself? Like are you from the Baltimore area originally and what were you doing before Paper Herald?
Sure. So I'm originally from Washington D.C. i used to live approximately 100ft from the now National Stadium and went to college in Atlanta and after college moved to New York. I worked on Wall street for many years. My family has always been in real estate for several generations and I always knew that ultimately I wanted to end up in that industry. So went to business school after business school kind of dove right in, did real estate development in D.C. and worked at a nonprofit profit related to real estate after that. And development was my world for some time. And I never knew what the next step would be, but I always knew that I wanted to work for myself. So when I was thinking about what my next step would be, I randomly took some inspiration from my favorite movie, you've Got Mail and which is so just every like romantic girl's dream. And I said, you know what, maybe I should open like a bookstore. So didn't know anything about bookstores, but I googled how to open a bookstore and there was this great course in Florida, Amelia island by Paz and Associates. And they have a course on opening bookstore. And several well known bookstores have been opened by folks who have gone through this course. So went through the course, had a great time, came home and that was literally probably two weeks before COVID hit. And I sat on the idea for quite a while because I didn't really connect with just a fully a flush, full flesh out bookstore. But I didn't know, I just couldn't get real really rid of this idea. So my husband actually was the one who said, he's like, you have to open something because I'll never have into this. And he said, why don't you like open a stationery store? Like you spend all of this money getting Japanese stationery, like waiting months like, you're spending all this money on stuff, pens and pencils, and your office is just, like, overcrowded with all this stuff. Maybe other people have a similar interest. So that's when it really clicked for me. And that was probably about a year and a half into Covid. So my father, who's also in real estate, tapped me and said, hey, I know this realtor. He's in Baltimore. Have you considered where you would potentially open this? And I had really tabled the idea. And the first property that I saw was 702St. Paul. So. And it was perfect. My development mind just, like, went crazy that the store was vacant. So that's how I opened the paper Herald. And really just wanting to find other people that wanted to experience and touch and feel stationary like myself. And it's very similar to how I wanted to, like, feel and touch real estate.
Awesome.
So what was in that shop before?
So he was a laundromat for quite a few years. Yeah, quite a few years. And every day someone comes in and has this nostalgic moment about trying to
give you a shirt.
Yes. A crazy story at the laundromat. It's right next to the Pewati Institute. So a gentleman came in a couple of weeks ago and talked about how the owner gave him a key to practices cello at night. So, you know, people are really nostalgic about the laundromat, but they come in to see what's new.
Such a Baltimore story.
So I'd love a little bit. It sounds like you've already been a stationary fan, actually. Like, you're buying Japanese pens, and it sounds like you're already one of us. Can you talk a little bit more about kind of your background with stationary and either a, how that played into your kind of, like, previous job and career path and how you connected that together? Sure.
So I have always been a stationary person. My grandfather, who was in real estate, used to send me money most of my when I was young. And the stipulation was that I had to write a thank you note, handwritten one. And even throughout college, he would send me $100 every month on the 1st, and if by the second I hadn't put something in the mail, it was like a problem. So very early on, I learned how to kiss the ring and show my appreciation, and it has helped me in so many different way. I got my first job in development because I hand wrote thank you notes to everyone that I interviewed, and they were so taken aback that someone would go pay for nice stationery. Handwriting, personal notes, mail them that they said that was the reason that I was able to land the job out of, you know, so many other folks. So I've always loved stationery. For me, it's a way to connect to the past and memorialize your thoughts. And unlike, who knows who unearths what the computers we use today are, but when you open a capsule from 100 years ago, you can, you know, still read what they left behind because it's on paper. It's not like something you have to, like, plug in or download. So I've always been a paper person. I think I. I always loved it, but I never really knew that there was, I guess, elevated a stationary. There were levels to the stationary game,
I guess, until it goes so deep.
It's so deep. And I'm not even. I feel like I'm a newbie, so. But I think when I studied abroad in Strasbourg, France, and American kid in France, with all these other kids and school starting, you're like, wait, I need. I need back to school supplies. I'm like, in the store. I don't even know what these French notebooks look like. And then it dawned on me like, like this is paper just. Just like I use in the States. But there was an extra care that was taken into it and people really valued their stationery and what that meant and what that signaled to the person who received it or its use. So I think that's when I took a little bit more care and attention and have used it throughout my career and I think my personal life and now I'm deep in. So when I. When I think about what to stock in the store, I often have kind of two Devil and Angels on my shoulder. I'm definitely thinking of what would I like to see in the store. What have I seen on the websites when I was looking for stationery but wanted to feel in touch in the store, but I'm always looking for those kind of red herrings, items that I probably likely would never stock. I'm not a big cat fan, to probably so many people's chagrin, but everything that I stock that has a cat on it sells like crazy. But, you know, I try to take in that feeling, feedback from what folks are looking for and also try to have a curated view of what I enjoy in the stationary world.
Ashley, you have a really great website and the store looks really beautiful and it's in a really cool area of the city, as far as I can tell. And what I've heard from Johnny, do you have plans to host any sort of, like, events at the Paper Herald.
Yes. So the first event we'll have is for Mother's Day. We'll have a Mother's Day workshop. But I definitely plan to have workshops in the futures. Everything related to. To probably have some book readings. Definitely. You know, calligraphy. I've had requests for private parties. Don't know if we'll go that far, but we'll definitely have some workshops that are either seasonal or perpetual ones. Maybe by small groups.
Cool. I think I know a local guy who's probably got a beret and some zines he can read.
I think he's a pretty cool guy, too. So that could.
You said events and, like, Charlotte wants a birthday party this year with a cake.
I've gotten so many requests for birthday parties, so we'll see.
That sounds like a nightmare. So sort of related. The local guy has the question of, are you going to maybe have some, like, Baltimore stuff in your store, like, write notepads or even work with Zeke's Coffee to get, like, I don't know, the Harold Morning Blend?
I'm obsessed with coffee, so that sounds like a great idea. Definitely write notepads. We carry Tiny Dog Press, Odessa Rose, so we'll definitely explore more Baltimore and regional brands. That's definitely something that I want to highlight. And we typically have a good variety of books about Baltimore. I think there are so many positive things about the city. My grandparents are from Baltimore. My family has grown up in this area for centuries, so. But some. It's like a personal quest for me to highlight all the wonderful things about Baltimore and its history of the surrounding area.
Awesome.
I guess. I don't know. Baltimore doesn't seem that great to me. I think it's fine if you don't. Sorry. Just. Just baiting Johnny.
It's fine. Come. Come over to this coast and say that.
No, I. It was just like two years and a week when we were there last and when Tim and I and Johnny were together, the three of us together for the first time. And we got matching tattoos on Reed Street. We ate lots of really good food. So I had such a good time in Baltimore. I can't wait till we can go back. So. I'm just kidding. Would love it if we can just geek out a little bit about. About stationary. Ashley, Often we have some stories about how we can trace our interest in stationery back to, like, one thing, like one pen or one notebook or one pencil. And I know that you were. You got started in stationary with, like, writing handwritten Letters. Do you have, like, a stationary story with, like, with one tool or one pen or whatever that you can share?
I would say my grandfather was a big fan of Cranes stationery. I think that over time, I love the. The Claire Fontaine. Hold on, let me make sure I say that right, because I don't want to.
Oh, Claire Fontaine.
Yeah, the Claire Fontaine.
Yeah.
I was gonna roll my R, but I different. The Claire Fontaine notebooks, what I used in college for years, I used a bicpin, which I'm even embarrassed to say. But I've grown in life. But I'm a pretty simple person. I think. I used to try to make my own paper, honestly, when I wrote, like, love letters, etc. So I'm an equal opportunist. And it's funny because I used to feel bad about that. But the more that I understand kind of paper people, they like what they like, and it doesn't really matter how elevated something may seem or basic, it harkens back to that nostalgic moment that they remember. So we've. I know I can't say that.
Yeah, we've done whole episodes about the bit crystal, so just how great it is. So you definitely, like. Yeah, don't feel ashamed for liking basic tools.
Yeah, it's. It's like when you know better, you do better. But I will say the most surprising thing. The first day that we were opening open, during the grand opening, I had this raffle for a big thing of stationery. And to fill out the raffle, I used a Sharpie Rollerball. And can I tell you that people ask me about that pen all the time. It's like, people are like, hey, when are you going to carry that Sharpie Rollerball? Like, we have so many other pins, but this particular one just really strike their fancy. And they were looking around like, do you sell this here? Like, I love this.
Like, definitely don't check Walmart. I'll be. I'll have some next week. I know I'll get some next week.
Exactly, exactly. So now I think when I'm writing something, I usually use something like Le Pen if I'm feeling fancy, a Kweco or something like that. But it's interesting. You feel like depending on the type of paper I'm writing on, I tend to switch up my pens.
Yeah, I love that. I was just looking in your website and you have like a refillable rollerball from Urban, who makes some of my favorite fountain pen inks. So I'm really interested in, like, picking that up and seeing how that works because yeah my my very favorite green ink is J Urban.
So yeah. So what are some of your. You've told us about some of the early stuff with crane stationary but like what's some of your favorite stuff today that you used? You mentioned the Coco and the. What are they called? The Le. Le Petit Lepain.
Le pen.
Yeah. So like what are some of your favorite things today that you've maybe discovered recently or just have entered into your everyday use?
I would definitely say my favorite notebook to date is probably Rhodia. I love their gold book. I feel like it's a holy grail. I won't mention the name of the journal that I don't carry that starts with an M and ends with a skin. But but I love it for many reasons. Throughout grad school I really bullet journal a lot and it has a lot of the features that I like. It has an index, perpetual calendar, all the pages are numbered, has a pin loop. Great quality of paper, no bleed through, no ghosting. It's just like a workhorse. So that's my favorite notebook. I would say the Maduri paper is amazing. They're binding is flawless and I just think it's particularly like their Smaller sizes in B5 and B6 are just nice to carry around.
I'm.
I use it all and everything I carry I pretty much love so that it's hard because I feel like on a day to day basis I've switched from real estate to consulting because I'm like a a stationary therapist that people come in they're like I want to do this specific thing and I need something very particular and I'm really neurotic about these particular features. Do you have it and usually nine times out of ten we have something in the store I can recommend something so but yeah I switch around. As far as planners. I change planners probably three times a year. So I'm currently in a Rifle planner but I've used Passion Planner cloth and paper has some amazing transparent tabs that I love. I've used Planner, Washi Tape, all of that great stuff. Stuff I love. I would say one of my favorite brands that I discovered was the Completist out of the uk. They're just design and is really minimalist but fun. So I love their notebooks and their planners. So I really try to find planners from across the world. My goal is to at least have every continent represented and as many states represented as possible and it's just great to see and learn about stationery and why are the margins you know, so thin or wide from a particular country. I hope to develop that more as I gear up a blog, really understanding the history. Because all of that kind of harkens back to, you know, why we started as humans using paper, why we felt the need to memorialize our thoughts. So I hope to explore that in the future. But I. Everything in the store I love and even some of the things that I'm a little hesitant to stock. I'm always surprised when someone's like, this is exactly what I was looking for, or I used to use this as a child. I get a lot of folks who come in and they love the pin wall and they just get a thrill out of seeing gel pens that they haven't seen since they were in middle school and they're just like giddy. Right. So for a lot of people it feels like being a kid in a candy store and like a little treat, a little pick me up in these kind of like uncertain times. Times.
Yeah.
You know, that makes me like just hearing you describe that part. Could you like describe your shop to people who haven't been there or seen pictures? Like, what is the experience like of entering your shop? Like, what are the different sections and what are your kind of favorite parts of it?
The shop? Sure. So I really went with a very light and airy approach to the shop. A 15 year old came in two weeks ago and said that it was a aesthetic and that made my year. A 15 year old giving a very honest and positive opinion is noteworthy. So I have a couple of different sections. So the interior of the space is completely white. When we were thinking about the space, I exposed the ceiling because it is historic. It's a part of a historic neighborhood and building. I wanted to like highlight that feature. So the kind of ceiling is exposed, exposed. You can see the, the beams and white and bright, huge windows. So thankful for artists like Sean Danaher who did hand painted lettering on the windows which kind of display our offerings. And when you come into the store, to the right is the greeting card section and the pin testing. That was super important to me to have an area where you could test the pens and pencils. There's a greeting card section which is like ever expanding because people, I get a lot of requests for more greeting cards. Also have a pen wall, pen and pencil wall to the right as you come around to the left. I have different sections for creative supplies, books, notebooks, and two large tables in the center flanking that. I change out pretty frequently, whether it's seasonal or as I get More notebooks and stationery. I display them there. I also have a section before you come to the cash wrap, which is just for like desk accessories. So people love caddies. They love. This is where you'll find all of the erasers. So all the John Hopkins and Peabody students come in and love the that. I have so many erasers and refills. And then there's like the wall with the Washi tape that people just love to explore. And I will say probably the biggest surprise are from that section is the pop up stickies, which are a fan favorite amongst kids and adults. So yeah, nice.
Sounds delightful.
So, Ashley, if you could design your dream pencil with any conceivable set of characteristics that you're either make up or have seen in other pencils, what would that pencil look like? Write like, smell like, feel like all those. All the things.
I love this question because if I had my ideal pencil would actually have a recorder that says like don't write that or a grammar check. This is actually. That's not the way it's spelled because I don't have the best spelling.
But it sounds like you need Microsoft Word to be your pencil.
Exactly. And it works well because the icon in Microsoft Word was a pencil. So, you know, playing on that, but exactly right. So I think ideally I have really small hands and it. I really like like jumbo pencils. Like I'm a kid. Like I love jumbo pencils, but I really like the thin lens. So ideally it would not be too large. So I imagine it's like a step up from like a golfing pencil, but really jumbo with a nice refillable eraser. Green is my favorite color that could edit my writing at the same time.
Yeah, well, I was going to say some parts of that you could definitely like work with like Musgrave or somebody to. To produce. I don't know about that last part though, about editing automatically. But you know, so you can find somebody who can.
I'm sure kids would pay money for that. Actually, Mom, I need this new pencil that edits my papers.
What are your some of your favorite, like IRL pencils that you either that you stock or that you like using?
I like blackwing pencils. Gosh. Rhodia has a nice pencil that I like.
Oh, the triangular one.
Yes, a triangular one, which is much easier on my little hands. Tomboy has a mechanical pencil that I like that's super smooth. My sister, she. She has studio. She's in interior designing. So she actually purchased it before I even really had A chance to test it out. And I really like that mechanical pencil. I really do like mechanical pencils. But, you know, when I write with pencils, I write a little too aggressively, so I'm constantly flying through lead. But we'll see. I just got in brass that has, like, big, fat, like, lead piece on it, so.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
You got one of those really nice Washington that time.
Yeah, I got one of those. Those are fun.
Yeah.
So we'll see. We'll play around with that one a
little bit for mechanical pencil. We don't really like mechanical pencils in this podcast, but we'll let you. We'll let this slide.
That's like a clutch pencil. So, like.
That's true.
That's better. Yeah.
Technically, it's a very simple mechanism.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Yeah.
You have to tell me the story. Why you guys don't like mechanical pencils or.
I don't even know.
I have to find that out in another podcast.
It's five years.
I don't really remember.
It's been part of the lore.
I enjoy a vintage, like, celluloid mechanical pencil very much. There's a really snotty thing to say.
There's this. This book called how to Sharpen Pencils by David Rees, and it's a. It's an entire book just about how to sharpen pencils. And he has a whole chapter that's entitled something like A Brief word on Mechanical Pencils. And we just picked that up and. Because you have to, like, the entirety of the chapter is Mechanical pencils are bullsh t. Yeah.
Yeah. And that's chapter 11. Yeah.
I think that's just set your. Set your boundaries somewhere. So we. We went with. We like to sharpen and smell the wood. Can't smell the wood pencil.
So I love it. Like, you're inspiring me to go get a pencil sharpener, like one that's attached to the wall. That'd be great.
You could get the X Acto School Pro and put it by your cash wrap.
Oh, well, people come in, they love the Mitsubishi pencils, and I definitely want to have some Musgraves and Black Wings in the store. But, yeah, I think they just. Particularly those who, you know, have traveled to Japan or lived in Japan, it's very nostalgic for them as well. So especially, like, all the vintage kind of packaging they have these days. So.
Yeah.
So what are some. We got to know. What are some of the strangest requests that you've had from guests at your store? Things that they wanted you to stock or order that. Not necessarily. Maybe not just strange, but just like, most unexpected. Like, wow. Okay.
Gosh. Every day. So, yeah, every day someone calls me and asked me if I sell reams of paper, of printing paper.
Sounds like some. Some weirdo name named Johnny Gamber cleaning up.
I don't want to tell you how
much paper I've bought from last week.
I know. So I'm even considering, like, perhaps I should just stock one brand of reams of paper because it's a daily request. Definitely gotten some simple requests, but things that I hadn't really considered. Flashcards. I got a lot of requests for flashcards. Very particular types of tape that I've gotten requests for. I have gotten more and more requests for a five manuscript journal from the Peabody students. So, yeah, I want to carry as much stuff as the community would like.
Just wait till the chalk people find you. Like the chalk people.
Oh, I know, I know, right? Being close to Micah and all of these great schools. Right. And at pinch, you really want to be their go to. So those are some of the craziest ones. Most people who don't know that I'm a stationary store think that I'm a newspaper. So I have gotten calls asking to cover particular stories. This one gentleman called me and asked me to cover his renovation of his boat he thought was pretty important.
And did you?
I did not. But I felt invested. I should have asked for pictures. I get a lot of online searches that I can see on my back end. Like reporter, editor are some of the things that they type in. Looking to see if I'm a newspaper.
The Baltimore paper Herald.
Yeah, exactly, exactly. So that's funny. So I've gotten a couple of those, asking if I can run stories, but who knows? Maybe I'll carry some, like, reporter notebooks just for giggles.
Yeah, write notepads has a new color. I just saw like a half hour ago, like, ooh, you could do a zine called the paper Herald, because there's a zine about everything but not paper.
And the funny thing about the name. So I wanted to start a blog that kind of talked about the history of stationery, which I will do eventually. And that's how I came up with a name. I was like, what if it was like a newspaper theme? Let's run with this. And then I had already bought the website. So by the time I opened the store, I didn't want to change the name, so I just kept it. So something's going to come out of that. Yeah.
Yeah.
So what's in store for the Paper Herald especially as Maryland is bragging about our Covid numbers and how great they are and people are shopping around. Are there specific brands or items or lines or things like that that you're planning on to carry soon or not soon?
Yeah. I try to go through quarterly and really make sure that I'm carrying have a balance of brands. So I really look for smaller brands. Baltimore, Maryland makers I would like to carry. I've gotten a lot of interest for regular stationery sets which I was a little surprised about. But I increasingly get more and more folks who I think in these kind of tough times want to write letters again which is great. So definitely want to expand that section. Dipping the toe into exploring more fountain pens, rollerballs, etc. But I I do not proclaim to be an expert, but I definitely want to explore that and definitely eventually having customary stationery we get a lot of requests for that and and that's probably the next iteration of we're headed Cool.
So I think that kind of wraps up most of the questions we had. Ashley, do you is there anything that we didn't talk about that you want to make sure you mention anything that you want our listeners to know about?
Not really. I think you guys did such a great job with the questions. They can definitely always Visit us at 702St. Paul street in Baltimore, Maryland. Our website is the paper is paperherald.com and they can always follow us on Facebook or Instagram at the Paper Herald and just look forward to seeing everyone in person or our faraway friends online and would love any suggestions or cool ideas folks have. That's a great thing about small businesses is that we can be nimble and flexible and everything that that you want isn't necessarily on Amazon, which is a great thing. So you might be surprised it's in your local small business. So I always get a thrill when someone says that they went to Barnes and Noble and couldn't find what they want, but they found it at the shop.
That's great.
Never forget.
Yeah. Well thank you Ashley for yeah go on channel really nice talking.
No, this has been really nice talking to you and we look forward to coming to see your shop in person. And Johnny is has been threatening to troll us with pictures of how cool your shop is whenever. So we will let that fuel us to till we finally can make it over there.
Yeah. Charlotte has made me promise not to go without her. Like you're a child. You're not my boss.
Hey Johnny, you need to promise the same thing to me. So, yeah,
Andy and Tim, can you tell folks where to find you guys on the Internet?
Yeah, I am@andy WTF as my website and then a Wealthley from Twitter and Instagram. How about you, Tim?
You can find me on Instagram @timwassom and I'm on. Sorry, no, I'm on Twitter @timwassom and on Instagram timothywassum.
And I'm Johnny. I'm@pencilrevolution.com on social media at Pensolution and on etsy@pencilrevolution.etsy.com we are erasable.
Yay.
If you are on Spotify, our website's at Erasable Us. This is episode 178 which will be at erasable US 178. You can check out our Facebook group at facebook.comgroups erasable for a very rare friendly corner of the Internet. And we're on social media raceablepodcast. And we would like to thank our Patreon patrons who are at the nubbin level. And this is a big list, so I'm gonna take a drink of water. And if we haven't mentioned it in a while, for folks who support us at this level, you are a producer, so you get producer credits, which is fun. So in no particular order except for how Patreon gave them to me this morning, thank you to Angie, Matthew Chavon, Andrew Austin, Tara Whittle, Ida First, David Johnson, Phil Munson, Donnie Pierce, Bill Black, Miriam Bokout, Diana Oakley, Tom Keakley, Andre Torres, Kyle Paul Moorhead, Jamelia, Stephen Fransali, Aaron Willard, KP Millie Blackwell, Chris L, Bob Ostwald, Michael d', Alosa, Jacqueline R. Myers, Tana Feliz, Jeff X In the Midwest.
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Sorry.
And John Wood. Thank you and we'll talk to you in two weeks.
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