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183
June 16, 2022
1 hr 3 min
I Can Heal Your Soul, But Not Your Foot
Johnny Tim Andy
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This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.

Transcript

Johnny 0:00

Change that, baby. He's got blood crutch down there.

Tim 0:03

Baby's got cases of the mud crutch over there.

Johnny 0:14

Hello, and welcome to episode 183 of the erasable podcast. I'm 49% power remaining Johnny Gamber here with my fully charged co hosts, Tim Wasem and Andy Welfle. Hello?

Andy 0:24

Guys, my battery is definitely not fully charged.

Tim 0:28

I don't think it's ever been fully charged.

Andy 0:30

I mean, yeah, it's like one of those old batteries, like rechargeable AA's from, like, the 90s, which, if you recharge it, like, three times, all of a sudden you only get, like, you know, a quarter of the power out of it. Definitely, that's me.

Johnny 0:45

Or Big Lebowski style cell phone. Yes.

Tim 0:51

I was at a. Our local bookstore today, and speaking of Big Lebowski, they had a Look and find books. Like a Big Lebowski look and find book. It's like huge scenes from the book, and you had to, like, find the dude and find different things in it, like a Where's wallet.

Andy 1:05

Yeah. I mean, there's so many scenes that are good for that. Like the Jackie Tree horn house scene, like that whole thing, like the whole dream.

Tim 1:13

Like the dreamscape and the movie set.

Andy 1:15

Yeah. Yeah. That's so good.

Tim 1:17

Bowling alley.

Johnny 1:18

Yeah. So that was a bad way to reference what we're going to talk about tonight, which is half used up stationary. I don't know where my brain was when I wrote that intro.

Andy 1:33

Let's run with it. Yeah.

Johnny 1:35

So being ecologically minded citizens of the world and, you know, pencil nerds, we don't like the idea of throwing away, perfectly good paper and pencils. And this seems to be a time of year when, you know, kids or office folks or college students are bringing home, like, half a notebook, three quarters of a pencil, or three quarters of 20 pencils. So, you know, it's a. This is stuff you can make something with. And in the summer, you know, being creative and making things is probably a good way to not just watch TV all day. So, yeah, we're gonna take a look at some stuff you can do with the crap your kids or partners or friends are bringing home or you or doing that. I'm close to someone who's going to be cleaning up their office soon, so I'm anticipating some fun discoveries. I volunteered to go help for that reason.

Andy 2:28

Yeah.

Johnny 2:29

But before we talk about old stuff, let's talk about our current stuff and tools of the trade. Do you want to go first, Andy?

Andy 2:35

Sure. Well, I. I did Something that I barely ever do. I. First, I went to go see a movie for the second time in the theater, which I don't usually do. And secondly, it was also a Marvel movie. Like, I like. Marvel movies are fine. Like, I don't watch most of them. I like Doctor Strange because I like Benedict Cumberbatch. And a friend wanted to see the latest Doctor Strange movie, which I saw maybe like a month ago, and I went with him to go see it, and it was. It was. So have either of you seen, like, a Marvel movie for the second time, like, in the theater or anything like that?

Johnny 3:05

I've never seen one for the first time.

Andy 3:06

Okay. Yeah. It's amazing. It's amazing how when you, like, kind of have a track of the plot, like, how many huge plot holes, you see as soon as that happens. Right. Like, I. There's. I mean, the kind of the formula of Marvel movies and really many movies, action movies, like, this is just like. You know, there's a thing that happens, and then you have to figure that out. But there's this other thing that happens that he has even bigger stakes, and it just kind of escalates and there's, like, new mechanics that are introduced, and it's just, well, you know, what? If you just did that in the first place? Like, it would have been. Wouldn't have had this whole thing. And there was definitely, definitely something like that happened in this. But it was fun. Again, big Benedict Cumberbatch fan, the sort of, like, idea of multiverses and, like, alternate realities and all this stuff is fun. It's a fun movie. It's directed by Sam Raimi, who has directed a bunch of just kind of, like, old kind of kitschy horror films, army of the Dead and, you know, things like that. So it's. There's, like, some interesting, like, horror elements to this, which is bigger and more pronounced than in many other Marvel movies. At one point, Doctor Strange is, like, necromancing an alternate reality version of himself, and, like, like, little demons from hell come out and, like, try to drag him to hell, and he. He uses them as, like, his cape to fly through the air. Like, it's just like a lot like zombie. Zombie. Doctor Strange does this. So it's fun. It's very kitschy and campy. Imagine if, like, some of those old horror movies had, like, the budget that,

Tim 4:38

like, I was gonna say, if Marvel movies. Million dollar budget.

Andy 4:41

Yeah.

Johnny 4:41

Oh, they wouldn't be as good.

Andy 4:43

Exactly. And I think they did a really good job of like, maintaining sort of that that like campiness, but yet making it like. So it was very good. I guess if anybody hasn't seen it and you don't want spoilers, we should sound the spoiler horn and say that I really wanted to see if it's because Patrick Stewart's in it in this in a way that is kind of secret and I didn't realize until it came out and I just, I love Patrick Stewart. So that was really fun. Yeah, sorry.

Tim 5:07

No, it's. I'm. I don't think I've seen the first Doctor Strange and so that means that I'm probably like three and a half years away from seeing the new Doctor Strange.

Andy 5:14

Yeah, it's totally fine. I think the reason that he's in it is probably the bigger spoiler for people. And I will not, I will not kind of spoil that. But if people here are invested in Marvel movies, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, like there's like. Yeah, just some cool reasons. There's that I am just started a novel called Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak, which is by one of my favorite sci fi authors, Charlie Jane Anders. This is the second in a trilogy about. I think I talked about the last one called Victory is Greater Than Death, which is sort of like this really great sweeping space opera but with like in a universe where there's just like so many like non binary characters and it's just sort of like hyper inclusive, which I think is really cool. So kind of reading that it's, it's very like so imaginative in the same way that like a Douglas Adams novel is and, but also like has a lot of like really fun. It's written for young adults, so primarily. But it reminds me of this book series from when I was a kid. Tim, you might have been familiar with this. Did. Do you remember Bruce Coville, like a YA sci fi author? He wrote a series of books called like My Teacher is an Alien. There's some that are like more fantasy rather than like sci fi opera. Oh sure.

Tim 6:15

I'm looking up a list right now. And Aliens Ate My Homework.

Andy 6:17

I remember that has really strong Bruce Coville vibes which was I think very important to me as like a middle school reader, somebody who read a lot of like of those books when I was that age. So yeah, these just I hope and like to think that there are kids who are like in middle school or even earlier who are just like really getting into reading literature because of these books. So it's just kind of fun to read. And I also, I don't do a lot of reading of graphic novels. But a friend recommended this thing called Don't Go Without Me and it's like three. Three sort of like shortish stories told in graphic novel form. And it's just like gorgeous. Like the. It's all illustrated in just three colors, I think it's like white and yellow and pink and they just capture just a really certain. And there's sort of like this metaphysical kind of like science fictiony kind of beat to it. And it's just so good. So I should ask our friend Tiffany Babb about this novel if she's. If she's read it and has any recommendations. Because, yeah, it's just extremely good. And I am writing with an extremely. Speaking of half used, beat up, half used golden bear, one of the later made in the USA ones. Excuse me. In my journal that somebody amazing made me out of a murder mystery cover.

Tim 7:30

Oh, awesome.

Johnny 7:31

Can I interrupt you and ask how you like the paper?

Andy 7:33

Love that paper.

Johnny 7:34

Okay. It's new. I don't know how it's working.

Andy 7:37

It was at first when I was writing with it, I was. Because I'm very much used to baron fake paper at this point. When I was writing with it, I was like, oh, this is so smooth. Like, is it going to work? But no, it's so good. That was a good choice.

Johnny 7:49

Yay. Thank you.

Andy 7:51

Yeah. Tim, how about you?

Tim 7:55

Well, I'm going to start out with an apology based on the.

Andy 7:57

I did not have sexual relations with that woman.

Tim 8:01

No. And I thank our buddy Adam Webb for calling me out on this. I got a text from him and said, hey, good thing you endorsed that James Patterson novel right before he said some dumb racist stuff. So yeah, I was talking. What did he say? He said some stupid stuff about how these days white authors are dealing with a different kind of racism. And it's like, says the guy who lived next door to Jeffrey Epstein.

Johnny 8:24

Wow. Wow.

Tim 8:25

Yeah.

Johnny 8:26

I'm gonna go smack him in his.

Andy 8:27

It's even harder for older writers. You don't meet many 52 year old white males. Yeah.

Tim 8:32

Who made their career writing novel.

Andy 8:34

No, hardly at all.

Tim 8:36

It's so hard finding teams of, you know, MFA grads to underpay to write my novels for me. So anyways, I might not be finishing that book because my such a incredibly tone deaf and stupid thing to say.

Andy 8:51

So what you're saying is my Bill Clinton joke was very on. On point.

Tim 8:55

Yeah. I think they're meant for each other.

Andy 8:58

Wow.

Tim 8:59

So, yeah. So I'll start with that.

Johnny 9:01

Thank you, Adam.

Tim 9:02

And issue that public apology. Thought I was being like, in my own version of, like, hey, you know, I know he's popular, but he can

Andy 9:09

write a good book. I'm going to tweet out a screenshot of the no SAP, which is with

Tim 9:13

like a. Yeah, it's actually gonna start with My Fellow Americans, because I. Since Bill Clinton was involved too, I mean, I gotta. So anyways, so there's that. All right, now, moving on. I've been reading a new book to me, but Tom Petty biography, It's called Petty the Biography by Warren Zanes. And I don't know how this, like, missed my radar for so long because I love radio rock and roll books and I love songwriter biographies and stuff. But it's really good and well written. It's written by Warren Zane, who's a musician himself and I think his band, I'm forgetting their name, but they had opened for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for a little while now. He is pretty much just a writer and he puts out some solo albums. I believe the Del Fuegos was the name of his band, but he just became friends with Tom Petty and then Tom Petty basically blessed his writing of a biography. And so a lot of it comes from pretty intimate, like, conversations that they had late at night, you know, just spending time with friends, which makes the book really interesting. So I'm actually pretty far into it, like, I don't know, quarter of the way into or a third of the way into it or something. And a lot of it has been about Mud Crutch, his first band with or not first band, but first big band that had one of the worst band names in the history of rock and roll. Mud Crutch, that's pretty bad.

Johnny 10:37

That sounds like a euphemism for some kind of digestive ailment.

Andy 10:40

Oh, man, my mud crutch is really kicking in today.

Tim 10:44

They, yeah, they're from Florida, so it's a very Florida name, I think. But Mud Crutch.

Johnny 10:50

Oh, Mud Crutch is when a baby has such a load that it drags behind them as if it's a third leg or some sort of tripod.

Tim 11:01

Mud Crutch, Mud Crutch.

Johnny 11:04

You better change that, baby. He's got some mud crutch down there.

Tim 11:08

Baby's got cases. Mud Crutch over there.

Andy 11:09

Mud Crutch. I tell you what, that's dirty pool.

Johnny 11:13

Mister.

Tim 11:14

So. But the book would look awesome

Andy 11:20

if

Tim 11:20

you're into Tom Petty at all. It's a really good read and he has access to everyone. And it's also not Like, a total rah rah piece about Tom Petty. There's a part where there's a really good documentary. It's like 10 hours long or something. It's not really, but it's long. Peter Bogdanovich made about Tom Petty. And there's, like, a member of Mud Crutch who was Photoshopped out of all the pictures in the documentary, which was, like, super shady and weird. And so, like, the book addresses that and, like, you know, talks about how mad this guy was because he was one of the original members. And why did he get just, like, airbrushed out like that?

Johnny 11:57

Was he the bass player? Because they usually forget us.

Tim 12:00

No, Tom Petty was the bass player of Mud Crutch. So they remember. Yeah, he was the bass player. Yeah. So good book. I found a new podcast today thanks to the algorithm at Instagram. So thanks, Zuckerberg. But I follow David Sedaris on Instagram, which is of course not David Sedaris. It's his publicist or whatever. And so I've never. I never see any posts from that account. But one popped up. I was like, holy crap. And then I. It was like a really cool painting of his face or like a. Whatever, a picture that had been made to look like a painting or something. But the podcast is called Talk Easy. Have you heard of this?

Andy 12:39

No.

Tim 12:40

So I just discovered it today. It's called the Talk Easy podcast, and there's a ton of episodes, and it's on Pushkin Network, which is Malcolm Gladwell's podcast network. I don't think it was always on there, but now it is. But I. David Sedaris was on there yesterday, so I listened to that today, and then I scrolled down a little bit and saw that George Saunders was on, and I listened to that.

Andy 12:59

Stacey Abrams.

Tim 13:00

Stacy Abrams is on. Recently I downloaded Jennifer Egan. Her episode I started listening to. Nick Offerman has an episode recently. I don't know. It's just like, a bunch of good people on there. And the interviewer is excellent. Like, does really good research for these. I mean, he pulls out some questions that both. Both Sidearis and Saunders were like, holy crap, where'd you find. Where'd you find that? Or, where'd you get this?

Andy 13:26

So really, I love the, like, illustration styles of the. The guests on their website. Yeah.

Tim 13:31

Isn't that cool? Yeah. So. But yeah, it's. I definitely recommend it. I'm super excited. I love when I come across something like this. It's like, how did I possibly miss this? But there's 150 episodes or whatever to wade through and listen to. And lastly is this album, American Heartbreak by Zach Bryan, that just came out I've been listening to. It's a little more on the countryside than anything else. I've listened to it. Kind of the indie, outlaw country. He's actually. I might have talked about him before on here, but pretty interesting guy because he doesn't. He's totally independent, and I think he started releasing music while he was in the. The Navy or something like that. And he would just record him, like, in his bedroom with a. You know, with like, mattresses up against the wall to. To dampen the sound and release them independently on Spotify and streaming services. And doesn't even. I don't even think he makes physical copies of any of his music. But, yeah, he's a really good songwriter. There's a. If you want to get a feel for him, there's a song called Come as yous Are. Yeah. Not a. Not a Nirvana cover, but it's a great tune, gives you a kind of a feel. It's like Tyler Childer's Sturgill Simpson kind of stuff. But he's great, and so I'm really enjoying that new album. It's a double album. It's another big one, like Wilco's I talked about last week. And I am writing with my Timber Twist, which has a Palomino hb. Oh in it. Loving that. And I'm using my pocket, my. My Navy pocket Moleskin, the hardback.

Andy 14:59

You know, I can't remember if I mentioned here or not. I, I. A couple moves ago, I lost my Timber Twist. I have no idea where it is. Oh, I have. Yeah. And of course, there's no other ones in existence. Right. Like, I feel like everybody has theirs. And I bugged John Fontaine to see if he could sell me another one, and he's like, I don't have any more.

Tim 15:17

Yeah, that's so sad.

Johnny 15:19

You have a metal one at least?

Andy 15:21

Yes, I have two. Two metal ones. I have the blue anodized twist. And then I. He had that, like, special one made out of that kind of like that green enamel coating. And I have one of those, which I really like.

Johnny 15:31

I mean, I guess that's a small constellation, but.

Andy 15:35

Yeah.

Johnny 15:37

Actually, I don't know where mine is either, but I do know it's here somewhere. Yeah, it's probably got lost with that extra box of 24 or two 11s I can't find. Or maybe. I don't know, maybe I don't have it anymore.

Andy 15:48

Yeah.

Tim 15:48

I stole both of those when we came to visit a couple years ago.

Andy 15:51

Oh, okay.

Johnny 15:51

Well, at least they're getting used fest up now.

Tim 15:53

Yeah, but that's all I got.

Johnny 15:55

So.

Tim 15:55

How about you, Johnny?

Johnny 15:56

I just have a couple things I. It's. I've taken. It's taken a few goes because I keep kind of falling asleep but I was watching a but set in Amsterdam crime drama called Vander Volk. There was on Masterpiece. You guys caught this or did you also see the picture and assume it wasn't in English because the guy looks.

Andy 16:14

I think maybe you're talking about it before. Maybe that's not it. Yeah, I mean have not seen it.

Johnny 16:19

Me and my British crime dramas.

Andy 16:20

Yeah.

Johnny 16:22

Yeah. It's totally watchable. There's a another season out. I don't know when we're gonna get it in the US but yeah, they also endeavors on Sunday. Just saying the new season. Like I'm losing sleep over this like Father's Day nothing endeavor. But yeah. The only other thing I've been consuming is a book that I only started recently called the Paris Library that Amazon kept recommending to me over and over again. So I just bought the damn book. And so far it's interesting. It's a nice ode to libraries. It's about the American library in Paris right before World War II, which was an English language subscription library. So there's a broad cast of characters. Really cool. And yeah, that's it. I've been like super boring and just like binding books and trying not to lose my mind with the kids ending school.

Andy 17:13

And you haven't been reading books, you've been making books.

Johnny 17:16

Yeah, it's getting out of hand. So I'm using a write notepads telegraph that I found in my pencil cup. I forgot that's I think the prettiest pencil they put out.

Andy 17:27

Yeah.

Johnny 17:27

And there are a lot of close seconds. That was a really good pencil. And I'm writing in a pride notebook that I made that has Neenah Classic crest which really likes pencils and fountain pens. Especially the cedar point that I used earlier I'm seeing.

Andy 17:41

Yeah.

Johnny 17:42

How about we jump into fresh points. Go first again.

Andy 17:45

Don't have a lot to talk about since last time pencil related. But I realized that the like. I guess this is a little bit of a meandering story. But I swear it gets to something that is related to this stuff. So I just started a couple weeks ago I got Invisaligns which are those like basically braces that are the clear little liners that you put on your teeth and I have them in now and I had them when we recorded our last episode. But my lisp, it gives you a lisp. And my lisp was so bad that I was just like, I don't, I can't do a podcast with these in. So it's still a little bit there. I don't know if anybody here can

Johnny 18:16

tell, but I wouldn't have known anything if you didn't say it.

Andy 18:19

Yeah, but I. As part of this, like you have to wear them all the time except when you're eating and you're supposed to put them back in after you're done eating. So I realized that if I wanted to go to a restaurant, I really should have like a little travel toothbrush and some toothpaste with me so I can brush my teeth or something. So been trying to find a little tiny carrying case to put a. Excuse me, small toothbrush and toothpaste into my shoulder bag that I usually carry around with me. And there's a company called Tom Bin. If anybody here is a bag person, you're probably familiar with Tom Bin. It's a Seattle based company and they had the most perfect little bag. I'll find a link for the show notes, but it looks kind of like a little taco taco shaped and you just put your little toothbrush in there and your toothpaste in there and it's, it also would work for like small like bullet pencils or short pens or something like that, just an eraser sharpener. And I just love it. So I kind of clip that to the inside of my bag. And I also, while I was just on their website, I found this really great little travel accessories tray that they make which is like if you're traveling and you know, stay in a hotel or something like that, there's this little fold out dish that you can put like your keys and your sunglasses and like all your stuff in just to kind of keep it together. And I am just so happy with my purchase. I just like these things so much. So it's not exactly pencil related, but it's sort of like the whole like, you know, storage and everyday carry kind of thing. So I definitely recommend Tom Bin. I love my shoulder bag from Tom Bin. Someday I'm gonna buy a backpack like a book bag made by them. Just a big fan. Yes, that is, that's it for me. Tim, how about you?

Tim 19:55

Well, first thing, I just, I feel like every once in a while it's now it's seeming like it's every Other episode, I end up talking about the Musgrave Instagram page.

Andy 20:06

It's so good though.

Tim 20:07

It is so good. It's so good. And my latest obsession from the Musgrave Instagram page was from. And actually have to pull it up again here, but was a photo they posted of somebody and said, like, who loves. It's just like, who loves the Tennessee red this much? Or something like that. And there was a picture of this like, really cool looking, I guess jam jar is what you'd call it. It's like hexagonal jam jar filled with nubs of Tennessee reds, which just absolutely loved. And then I realized that my kids have that jar. I think they got it like from their grandparents and had like a, I don't know, some stupid roly poly in there or something that died like three weeks ago. And so I ran into their room and found it and dumped it out, cleaned it and now I've got the exact same jar to store all of my pencil nubs. And it makes me so very happy. And I was wanting to ask you guys, we haven't talked about it for a while, where did you guys keep all of your pencil nubs? Or do you just throw them out?

Andy 21:07

Oh, I, I often like, don't have pencil knobs because I switch pencils before I even get to that level.

Tim 21:14

That's what I was going to. That's. I was going to say, like, I don't produce as many as I would have thought because I used to plan on filling up this whiskey bottle with them in my office. And there's like nine. I'm like, what, I guess, what do

Andy 21:26

you consider a nub? Like, how short?

Tim 21:29

We'll say from like eraser to point, like three inches.

Andy 21:37

Okay, yeah, two and a half.

Tim 21:39

Like that. I don't know.

Andy 21:41

I usually stop right. Right before it gets down past the Steinbeck stage, but. And usually, like, I just, I don't even know. I usually lose it or I put it in like a empty cigar box or something like that. So I don't have. I have an assorted collection of mostly used pencils, which I guess is part of the topic we'll get into. But yeah, I don't usually have. I don't usually let it get to an upstage.

Tim 22:00

Yeah, yeah, that's me, most of them. But man, I'm in love with this little jar and I love their Instagram feed and I love this picture so much. And I'm assuming that's the doings of our friends if they're the ones who Are using that many Tennessee reds. I love it.

Andy 22:13

Yeah. I mean, Nicole's probably just sitting there, just sharpening them all the way down just so she could take that.

Tim 22:16

They're just letting the kids busy. Like, I need to sharpen down.

Andy 22:22

Sorry that your fingers hurt. Keep sharpening.

Tim 22:25

Your hands are all calloused from like the crank sharpener.

Andy 22:29

Yep.

Tim 22:31

Yeah. So I just thought I would start with that now. Other thing I was gonna bring up that I saw in the Facebook group, that absolutely blew my mind in 15 different ways. Did you see the. Somebody had posted just today that at a thrift store they found a full box of 12 Eberhard Faber black wings with the black stripe.

Johnny 22:54

Wow, that makes me happy.

Tim 22:56

It looks like. And I didn't see as I looked through the comments to try to confirm this, but it has a $2 sticker on it. And so the person posts it and says, hey, I don't know how much these are worth, but are these the newer ones or the older ones? What do you guys think? And then the entire, you know, group had a seizure. And then. Yeah, but this is. And I. It was mind blowing to think this is. That this is out there at all. Because I remember in our early days of podcasting and because one of the things that sparked this, and I've told this story before, but when I was at church and I found that round Ticonderoga, and I was like. And I asked you guys, like, do you know what these are? Where can I find these? That started this kind of obsession with just kind of always looking around. Like, you're always sort of foraging for pencils. And I don't spend a lot of time at thrift stores, but I would be at like, you know, my grandparents house or I'd be at like, places and I'd be like, I just wonder, somewhere around here, you know, I'm gonna find it. Or, you know, like, as if you're gonna go to an estate sale and there's gonna be like a box from an attic that's full of this kind of stuff. And then it gets you into that depressing thought of like, how many of these are sitting in landfills, you know?

Andy 24:03

Yeah, I think about like, estate sales and when like, you know, estate sale planners are going through things, trying to figure out what to sell them. Running across just like some old desk from a guy who, like, was a. An artist in the 60s or something, and like looking through all of the like, old pencils and just being like a trash.

Tim 24:23

Just chucking them.

Andy 24:24

Yeah, just chucking Them. Like, I think about that a lot.

Tim 24:28

Yeah. It's pretty remarkable that these ones even made it from wherever the hell they came from into a thrift store and got marked $2. Like, yeah, like that.

Andy 24:38

And then somebody who like had some inkling of like knowledge of what these are was just like, oh, look at these. You know, it could.

Tim 24:45

It's probably been in that thrift store for 15 years.

Andy 24:48

Right.

Tim 24:48

Like it's been in the same booth at this little antique store, thrift store or whatever. And this person's like, I just, I carry it in, I put it down and I forget about it and I pick up my money every once in a while. It's just been there since like Clinton was in office,

Johnny 25:04

you know, before he was writing books with racists.

Tim 25:08

Anyways, I just love that it was. Yeah. Posted by Marcy in the group and just. Yeah, Marcy, congratulations.

Andy 25:14

That's amazing.

Tim 25:15

I'm so happy for you. Very cool. And another story, I wanted 52 comments.

Andy 25:20

I'm sorry. Looking at that post right now.

Tim 25:23

Yeah, it is. Yeah. People are like, and you just made $598 or whatever.

Andy 25:29

Yeah.

Tim 25:30

Pretty wild. Yeah. Another story, which I. Did we talk about the David Rees sharpening of the giant pencil story before.

Johnny 25:38

I don't think we did.

Tim 25:39

I don't think so. I didn't want to make. We talked about it a little bit before the show and then it like hit me that like maybe it had gotten mentioned, I don't know.

Andy 25:44

But.

Tim 25:45

So story out of Minnesota. There's a. In a place called Lake of the Isles in Minnesota. And there's this fellow named John Higgins who read about and saw, I saw a video about this that he commissioned an artist to turn this like damaged oak tree, I guess like a beloved tree or whatever. Like their house had fallen down and to turn it into a 20 foot tall pencil.

Andy 26:12

Yeah.

Tim 26:12

And so I guess through the connection of this artist who worked on turning it into a giant pencil called the trustee says on the side, that person is probably the person who knew about David Rees and then roped David Rees into this insanity. And it is just one of the best, like to think that David Rees, writer of how to Sharpen a Pencil this far past all of that pencil stuff that he did, still got called back in, still had the apron and showed up and just like went to work. If you haven't seen the videos, you need to watch them because it's pretty short, like news clip, like local news clip. But they. It looks like he had helped them fashion like a pretty Nice looking, like hand trimmed point on this gigantic pencil. And then the unveiling ceremony is they put this like little wooden cap over the core, which I'm not clear if it's actually a core that big or if it's just painted. I'm assuming it's painted because that would be bananas if it wasn't. But anyways, they just put this cap and then this dude pulls out a chainsaw and chainsaws the cap off of the tip. And it was like everybody was waiting for the unveiling of the point of the, of the pencil, which was amazing. Like absurdist David Rees kind of stuff. Like as if everybody was standing next to these, this scaffolding. Like, I wonder what it's going to be.

Johnny 27:34

Is it going to be a chisel point? Is it going to be a long point?

Tim 27:37

Remove that. Like, oh, it's a pencil. Oh my gosh, I had no idea. But yeah, such a cool story. But like, and I need to point out that this the last. The person who commissioned the artist to turn this pencil thing into a pencil, there's a quote from him in this little, you know, dinky local news article. And it closes. The article closes with when you sharpen it, it's a promise to write a love letter, to write a formula, to write a story. It's like, oh my gosh. New tagline for the podcast. Thank you, Mr. Higgins.

Andy 28:09

To write it.

Johnny 28:09

I wonder if we can talk to this individual on our podcast.

Tim 28:12

Oh, that would be fun. That would be fun.

Andy 28:14

Yeah.

Tim 28:14

Oh my gosh.

Johnny 28:15

Okay. I volunteer to track this person down.

Tim 28:17

Do it.

Andy 28:18

Yeah.

Tim 28:19

John Higgins.

Andy 28:20

Maybe it'll be easier to get than this author of this book.

Tim 28:26

It's true

Johnny 28:29

backstory.

Tim 28:33

I think that's all I got. So, yeah, it was, that was. I found it was posted by Dan in the group. So that was where I had originally come across it. I come across it on Twitter. Like when it first had come, I think it was maybe through David Rees following him and he had reposted it on or he had posted on Instagram or something and I just kind of forgot about it. But then I was reminded by Dan's post. So that was just a cool story.

Andy 28:54

Yeah.

Tim 28:55

Pencils in the world. So Johnny, Johnny, how about you?

Johnny 28:59

So I don't have a lot. I've just been like bookbinding and spending hours on end researching needles because needles are a very interesting topic and. Excuse me, I spent a lot of time in my day with different kinds of knives and awls and things like this. And I get like, little cuts. But, like, last weekend I took a break to make some salad and I dropped a chef's knife on my foot. And, like, you know, usually you get out of the way. And this time I did not, and it landed point down. So I learned a lot about. What are those things called? Steri strips. I'd never used them before, but when

Tim 29:32

you told us, like, the preview of the story, I was imagining, like, an exacto knife from bookbinding.

Andy 29:37

Yeah.

Johnny 29:37

Oh, no, it was an ancient chef's knife.

Andy 29:39

I figured you. You have all these needles, you could just stitch yourself back up.

Johnny 29:43

It was. It was gaping open. And like, you know, it was a Sunday around dinner time. Like, I really don't feel like getting stitches tonight. Like, I had to get my toenails cut out once. And, like, getting needles in your feet really hurts. And, you know, I'm. I've had other things to do than sit there getting my foot sewn up. So we gave butterfly bandages a shot. And it was such a clean cut because I keep my knives so sharp that it stopped bleeding and my kids stopped freaking out, like, really bad. I didn't realize I left a blood trail into the bathroom. And they're like, oh, my God, Daddy's dying. No, I'm not dying. One of the medicines I'm on thins

Andy 30:19

my blood, so it's all five toes anyway. Yeah.

Johnny 30:23

But, yeah, could have been a lot worse. This is not related to pencils at all. Except just be careful with your knives. I'm careful all days. But Frankie and I were talking and I was cutting a cucumber and I was like, oh, no. And then it got me. But, yeah, in a non sharp way. If you're. You know, I know some folks offline are dabbling in some book binding, but I just got some saddler's harness needles, which you'll have to look up, which have, like, changed my life. And part of that is that they're not sharp. And, you know, I have less puncture wounds in my hands these days. So if you're bookbinding, check those out. And finally, I've been experimenting with suminagashi, which is Japanese paper water marbling. Have you guys seen, like, any cool videos with this or what it looks like?

Andy 31:15

So if that's the one, I'm thinking

Tim 31:16

there's some on Instagram.

Andy 31:17

I feel like. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it's. You like the little brushes in the water that you just kind of use to make the patterns, right?

Johnny 31:25

Yeah, it's different.

Andy 31:26

It creates rings.

Johnny 31:28

Yeah. Turkish marbling. Is a lot more or not a lot more. It's more like intentional. Like you have a little more control, but with this, like you have some control. But I like to use like airflow and just like see what happens and get some very unexpectedly cool and also like completely garbage results. Because this, I mean, this seems like the kind of thing you've got to do a lot to get really good at it and. But it is very relaxing and fun. And unlike other forms of water marbling, you don't need to prepare your water. It's just plain water.

Andy 32:01

So it looks like the examples I'm seeing looks like, like tree rings.

Johnny 32:05

Yeah, it's really neat.

Andy 32:06

Yeah.

Johnny 32:06

There's the. One of the. My favorite YouTubers, Daz bookbinding, he does a really nice video of it and he's like really good at it. And he has a very relaxing Australian accent that sounds like the dad from Bluey. If you have kids and you watch that really cute cartoon, delightful. But so, yeah, be careful.

Tim 32:27

Don't be like, Johnny, watch your toes, people. Watch your toes.

Johnny 32:31

And I, I took the bandages off. Now it's reopening a week later. So it's alarming.

Tim 32:36

Let's get some super glue. The hospital, you like red hot chili pepper style. Just super glue that thing shut.

Johnny 32:42

And so I had to have my finger glued shut before. And the nurse, like, he sat there with an entire bottle of water, drip by drip, cleaning it out. And I'm like, is it necessary for you to torture me like this? And it turns out if you glue it and you don't, you're not positive it's absolutely clean, you'll have a subcutaneous infection that can be very painful. Like, okay, putting the glue away. Because, you know, bookbinding glue is flexible. So that would work well, right?

Andy 33:11

Yeah.

Johnny 33:13

Okay. This is getting.

Andy 33:14

We are not medical professionals. Do not take your medical advice from these little podcast folks.

Johnny 33:19

Yeah, Rosie doesn't know that yet. Rosie's like, daddy, you're a doctor. I'm like, like that.

Andy 33:23

Not that kind of doctor.

Johnny 33:24

I can heal your soul, but not your foot. So we're going to jump into our main topic and I feel like this is one of those episodes where there can be some fun, like practical takeaways if folks, you know, do any of these things and put it in the group. That would be really cool. Maybe we could feature it somehow. But you know, we, as we mentioned before, it's that time of year when your kids might come home with like, you know, half composition book, 13 quarter length pencils like half pink pearl and other quote, fractional school supplies. And excuse me, yesterday I was at Office Depot and they had like back to school stuff out already. Yesterday was June. What was yesterday, the 12th? Yeah. So I mean, they didn't have back to school signs up, but it was clearly all their back to school stuff. It was really freaky because usually 4th July is when they start doing that. But you know, we'll be there no matter what pretty soon. So it's tempting to just toss all that stuff. Like I'm gonna buy new pencils soon. I don't need these pencils. But I think, you know, we have a pass on a better ethic to our children and teach them to be creative. And you know, sometimes that half chewed up pencil is when you're not gonna be afraid of using up and who knows what you might create with it. So I thought we could put this in sections. Talk about like the thing at least in my house that comes home most is unused notebooks.

Andy 34:51

Oh yeah.

Johnny 34:51

Charlotte came home with none because she used all of her unused notebooks to draw when she was supposed to be paying attention in class. But. Or worse uses of notebooks. But what do you guys think you could do with some especially composition books because the paper is not loose?

Andy 35:08

Well, it'd probably be a very, not a very good episode if I just said that I just like hoard them all and I just have a shelf full of all this stuff. Probably not a great idea, but I. When I lived in the same town as my young children relatives, I would often just give them. Give my. At that time, my toddler niece, like half used books just to draw in or write in the back. I think it's a good. If there's not like, you know, much in the front that I'm trying to save. Like it's a really good. You can just flip it over and have some blank pages. So it's good for children to just play with. Right. I think that's a. That's definitely like a way that I like to. To use it. Yeah, that's the.

Tim 35:46

This topic almost kind of makes me sad because in thinking about this is a great, great idea for a, for an episode. And then it just made me realize like how I could have done cool things or I could have done something interesting because like, I have all these ideas now that. But I. We actually just cleaned out my son's room. And so because I am who I am, I'm going through his notebooks that were left over from second and third grade. And he's in the years now where they have like, five that they, like, shuffle through all day long for each subject or whatever. And so I'm going through them like math trash history trash, English keep. Because they do all these, like, cool, like, foldables and stuff like that. But now I'm thinking, like, I mean, moving forward, one thing that would be pretty cool if you're into this kind of thing, is to go into some more like, old school scrapbooking and, like, actually clip stuff out of their notebooks like from the pages that they did use.

Andy 36:43

Oh, yeah.

Tim 36:43

Which isn't exactly how to use the rest of the notebook, but, like, you know, just like funny sentences they write or like a little doodle or a drawing and just kind of create a few pages of a sort of scrapbook setup to represent each year of, like, little artifacts from school would be really neat. And that's something I might have to.

Andy 37:00

That is really fun.

Tim 37:01

Think about trying.

Johnny 37:01

Yeah, that's a good idea.

Andy 37:02

Next year, I mean, I still have. My mother saved a bunch of notebooks from when I was a kid, and I now have a notebook from first grade where I wrote, like, little short stories and.

Johnny 37:10

Oh, awesome.

Andy 37:11

Yeah, that, like, that's a. It would be fun to curate that into some kind of a collection.

Tim 37:15

Oh, yeah, totally. And the ones that I've pitched from Henry's are definitely not like, he. We. If anything, that he just has had himself, like, personally and just been like, writing stuff down and little list. I'll keep that until I'm in the grave. But the school stuff don't have the same kind of attachment, I guess.

Andy 37:33

Yeah.

Johnny 37:35

Yeah. And my Henry was very eager to get rid of his, like, nope, that goes over. I don't want it anymore. Fair enough. It's been a long year, but I get that's a good way. You could use up what's left of some glue sticks. I mean, if any glue sticks survive the school year. Because I don't know what the hell kids do with glue sticks, but my

Andy 37:54

God, they just eat them at the end, I assume.

Tim 37:55

Yeah. Do you guys just eat these things? Like, what are you doing?

Andy 37:57

Yeah. Delicious. They're not peppermint flavored anymore, so they

Johnny 38:01

have sent it ones from Elmer's.

Andy 38:03

Oh, dangerous.

Johnny 38:04

They're. They're back out this year and they're. I mean, they're not bad glue sticks, but I've let Rosie use some of my more expensive ones before, and she'll hand it back to me. I'm like, oh, you keep it like What'd you do to this thing?

Tim 38:15

It's all gone.

Johnny 38:16

It's a simple operation.

Tim 38:18

I've got some notebooks. I have a good amount of notebooks from when I was in probably, like, high school. Not younger than that, but do you guys. Have you ever experienced this where I have. I had a. The one that I'm thinking of specifically was for my creative writing class, I think. Or it might have been junior English. It was junior English. And I was like. I think I did some, like, really cool stuff in that dome because I remember wanting to keep it. I held onto it. It's been following me for, you know, 15 years or whatever. And then I find it, and I open it up, and I only wrote in, like, the first 20 pages. Like, geez, this is, like, an empty note. It's, like, in my imagination, it's this, like, amazing. I keep using the word, but, like, artifact. Like, oh, gosh, this is, like, an important moment. And then I look at it. I'm like, I didn't really do much in here, but the myth of it is stuck with me.

Andy 39:04

Yeah. I mean, with. And this happens with field notes. Like, I. Because I don't use pocket notebooks a whole lot. I don't go through them very fast. And there's definitely times when I, like, want to try out, like, a different notebook. I get bored of one before I fill it before I fill it up. And I even just, like, keep those around because, like, I really enjoy looking through just, like, lists that I've made or a quick sketch that I did just to see what I was, like, thinking about. It's kind of like looking at your Facebook memories. Right? Like, it's the same sort of like, oh, I wonder what I was. What was in my mind, like, on this date. So, you know, field notes don't take up that much space. I mean, in the scale that we collect them. Yes. But, like, I sometimes just like to pick one up and look through it. So that's kind of fun.

Johnny 39:42

Yeah. A couple years ago, I was trying to distill, like, interesting stuff from my field notes and put them into another notebook. Because, you know, in any given field notes, like, two pages are worth looking at and the rest fit. Like the.

Andy 39:54

Yeah.

Johnny 39:55

But early. I'm mine. Not that you guys are writing crap in yours. It was, like, daunting. I just kind of gave up after a couple weeks. It's like, I don't know when. And like Tim was saying, sometimes in those artifacts, you look back and you're like, what the hell did I do with this notebook that if it wasn't written in, would be worth 300.

Andy 40:13

Yeah.

Johnny 40:14

Like, but, you know, it was $3 at the time. Now they're $5 a piece.

Andy 40:21

Wow.

Johnny 40:22

So the. When it was this and the. I don't know why it came out in the fall, but I found a giant pack of loose leaf paper in our recycling bin that Charlotte had shoved in there because I think, like, the corners were bent. Like, all right, child, so we're not this spoiled.

Tim 40:37

Geez, we're not gonna waste the 24 cents we spent on this pack. Loose leaf paper.

Andy 40:43

Yeah.

Johnny 40:43

Oh, you know what it was? We bought it online, so it might have been a dollar, but I, like, cut it up and made a two inch thick notebook. I'm like, here, use this notebook for stuff. I don't think she did anything with it. But this year I took Henry's, and I think I've gotten a little better at making books since the fall. And I made him this, like, really cool little fat book that had Mandalorian and the Grogu from a recycled gift bag from his birthday on the third as spine. Like, it looks really cool, but he won't use it because it looks cool. He doesn't want to mess it up.

Andy 41:13

Yep, he's one of us. Yeah.

Johnny 41:15

Usually he's the kid that'll sharpen it right up and be like, let's rock. So I'm surprised, but I think it's. It was Grogu. He has a special place in his heart for Grogu.

Andy 41:24

That's Baby Yoda, right?

Tim 41:26

Yes.

Andy 41:27

Okay.

Johnny 41:28

That's. Everybody called him Baby Yoda.

Tim 41:29

Yes, that is him. Now this. Not to change this or not really change the subject, but like, a notebook like that Johnny, that you make out of, like, this found stuff for Henry. How long does it take you start to finish, to make one of those?

Johnny 41:42

It's hard to say because of the

Tim 41:43

glue drying, but let's say like active time.

Johnny 41:46

Like, not, I don't know, hour or two of cutting, folding, sewing, and then making the COVID But it was small and it was for Henry, so it was like all recycled stuff. And I might not have been that careful on all the measurements. Plus, like, at that size, it's really hard, too. It's like two and a half by three and a half or something like that. It's pretty little. It's cute, though. But yeah, I've. I mean, I've started doing that, but that Henry had some notebooks that we got them from Staples with plastic covers and black tape, and they were all falling apart, and the covers were destroyed and useless. But it occurred to me that if we'd had some cooler covers or even just heavier covers, it could have made some fun stuff out of that. Just for the hell of it. Like, hey, here's a box. Put all your, like, lightsabers in this for your Legos. You stop losing them, and I don't have to pull them out of that vacuum cleaner anymore.

Andy 42:39

One of those Legos can just really go through the. Really do some damage.

Johnny 42:45

Yeah. I knelt on a Duplo, I guess, before the pandemic, and I got a puncture wound because it hit right in the part of my knee where there wasn't any bone. And I'm, like, bleeding like a pig. Roy's like, are you okay? Like, this is part of parenthood, dude.

Tim 42:57

There's a. Henry, like, was laid out on the ground, and I had to hold back from being like, now you know how it feels.

Andy 43:06

He.

Tim 43:06

No, but he stepped on one, and it was like. It's one of the, like. It's sort of the shape of the classic four dot bricks. Like the square ones.

Andy 43:15

Yeah.

Tim 43:16

But it was like, I guess a chest, like a treasure chest or something. So it had, like, a cap that comes off, so it just has, like, four tiny prongs sticking up off the top of it. It's like, 10 times worse than a normal Lego. And he stepped right on it and just, like, laid him out on the ground. He was like. I was like, what happened? He's like, I just stepped something. I thought it was a Lego, but it did not feel like a Lego. It's, like, went over, and I was like, no, dude, it was. Look at this thing. He's like, oh, my gosh.

Andy 43:43

For kids. Yeah.

Tim 43:44

I mean, this is. There was a. Like. Because usually they kind of work it out, you know? But this is, like, sharp and dangerous.

Andy 43:49

Yeah.

Johnny 43:51

Yeah. Henry just got the. If you haven't seen Boba Fett, the N1 starfighter set with a lot of little parts, but it was one of those ones he does. He never gives up. He's like, I don't know if I want to do this by myself, Daddy. Like, all right. And then I looked at it, like, jesus, I don't want to do this either. It was really fun put together.

Andy 44:11

Yeah.

Tim 44:12

I was thinking about getting that for Henry, and my Henry and I just

Andy 44:15

feel about putting together a Starfighter.

Tim 44:17

Oh, man. Well, he could do it on. He's a Lego. Like, it's insane. He'd probably put it together in, like, 15 minutes. The thing I'm worried about is looking at that it would be in pieces in two days because he would play with it and it would be all over the house. And it's like, yeah, yeah.

Johnny 44:31

I don't think they built this particular one with a lot of play in mind.

Tim 44:35

Yeah.

Johnny 44:35

It doesn't look kind of like, Henry, don't hold it by the back, please don't hold it by the back. He's like, why? Because it'll break and I'll be pissed because it was hard to get at the time.

Tim 44:45

I do love that it comes with the Amy Sedaris character.

Andy 44:50

She's so good.

Tim 44:52

How do we end up here?

Andy 44:54

I don't know where we're going with this.

Tim 45:00

I think I forgot we were podcasting for a second. I was just, like, waited.

Andy 45:04

Lego is analog. We should totally do an episode about Lego.

Johnny 45:07

And they make a lot of stationary items. A freakishly large. Okay, note to self. So moving on to what's even more relevant to our podcast, and in my experience, the second most ubiquitous thing that comes home. It's parts or holes or halves of pencils.

Andy 45:27

Yeah.

Johnny 45:27

What would you guys. I mean, aside from just sharpening it up and using it, which of course makes sense, but maybe it's, you know, a little too short for adult hands. What would you do with these items?

Andy 45:39

I mean, I don't have kids who live in this house, so I. I mean, not so much of it just goes into a bag and. Or into a. Like a drawer or something like that. But I definitely, like, if they're, like, really fun ones, I usually trust, like, try to save them. And next time I go to Indiana and see my nieces and nephew or, you know, if I know kids who, like, just are interested in, like, the color purple or whatever, and it's purple pencil. Like, I'll save it for that. But I really don't do anything. Interesting things with them.

Tim 46:07

Yeah, I definitely don't do anything with them. I do. I go through a pretty rigid, like, weeding process of, yeah, keep throw out keeper. And, like, because I never send Henry with crap pencils to school. So the ones that come back are usually pretty decent.

Andy 46:20

And so no child of mine will be seen with crap pencils.

Tim 46:23

Are you kidding me? Step foot in this house with that. But they're always looking. The two things my kids are always looking for is a pencil and scissors. And it's like, oh, actually in Scotch tape. Those three things. They're constantly looking for those three things. And I'm like, first one. Are you kidding me? There's 5,000 in this house. So I'll keep those from school, like, from Henry. And they even still have, like, his number on the side because they, like, I guess on the first day, they have to, like, number their pencils so they like his classroom number or whatever. And so I just kind of scatter them around the house. We have, like, cups and stuff. Like, I have one of those magnetic cups on the side of the fridge, and I know this year's leftover pencils. I plopped them in there and then put some on his desk and put some in the little, like, art table in the back corner and just, like, scatter them around without them being on the floor to be stepped on, like everything else in my house.

Andy 47:11

Yeah.

Johnny 47:13

Yeah. Okay.

Andy 47:15

I was gonna say, I'm really interested to know what you do with them, Johnny, because you have the smallest living space and the most people living there and probably the most pencils.

Johnny 47:24

Yeah. I mean, Henry likes to share, so he comes home with far fewer pencils than he goes to school with, which makes me happy on a practical level, and. Oh, Henry's a sweetheart.

Tim 47:34

Level.

Andy 47:35

Yeah.

Johnny 47:35

But in years past, what we do is, like, I did. I wrote a blog post about this that I'll put in the show notes because, like, it's hard to visualize, but take, like, a mint tin, figure out the exact measurements of the width, and cut your pencils to that size with, like, a utility knife, and then stack them to the top in half of the book and fill the rest of it with a sharpener and an eraser, which probably also came home. And then you'd even, like, make a tiny notebook and put it on the top. And so sketch kit and my kids and their friends were like, oh, my God, this is so awesome. Like, I literally just handed you trash. I, like, cut and sand it up. Like, I love that you love it.

Andy 48:16

Yeah. But it'd be so much fun just to, like, leave that on, like, a park bench or just, like, just kind of seated around, like, public spaces and see.

Tim 48:26

Yeah, totally.

Andy 48:27

People just take. Take them off the idea.

Johnny 48:29

We have a. We have a lot of little free libraries around here.

Andy 48:31

Yeah. Yeah, Stick that in there.

Johnny 48:33

I've left, like, zines and sketchbooks in there before just for the hell of it, if they're kid friendly.

Tim 48:38

Yeah, that reminds me of a. There's this person on Etsy who makes guitar amplifiers out of Altoids.

Andy 48:47

Oh, yeah.

Tim 48:47

Container. Have you seen those?

Andy 48:49

Oh, wow.

Tim 48:50

They, like. Yeah, they rig it up, and you can Plug right into an Altoids tin and play your guitar.

Andy 48:55

That's so fun.

Johnny 48:57

Yeah. I wonder how I can buy like 50 of these. I know you can buy blank ones on Amazon pretty cheaply. It's not as fun, I guess. Although they won't say Altoids on the front, which some kids might like. Yeah, probably my kids are like, can we cover this up? Like put a sticker on it. God, whatever. Yeah, you have no stickers. I mean, I guess you could paint them. That's a lot of extra effort and mess.

Andy 49:24

Yeah.

Johnny 49:25

Yeah. So what about erasers? Somewhat related.

Andy 49:30

I mean I am, I'm a big user of pencil erasers. So I don't have a whole lot of erasers laying around. But I definitely, yeah, have like so many of those little like Mars Lumograph style erasers or the Tombow erasers and they, they just collect in drawers is kind of what they do. When I was a kid I used to like whatever, like kind of like pink pearl eraser I had. I would turn into like little race cars or like little spaceships or something. And I would draw like little either like little engines on the side or wheels on the side and have like windows with like little people's faces sticking out of it like on the kind of curved end. And so I would definitely like do a lot of just playing with my eraser in that way.

Johnny 50:11

Childhood.

Andy 50:12

Yeah. Yeah. Which is not like. I guess what you do is like a half used eraser. But what I did with erasers a lot of the time, I mean they're

Johnny 50:19

pretty easy to cut into a regular shape.

Andy 50:21

Yeah. I would be interested to see people make like. I'm sure people have done this. I bet you have done this, Johnny. Like make little like black wing erasers out of that. Just cutting them up.

Johnny 50:31

I mean I'm like, I've sat at a table before and sliced up a pink pearl into Blackwing style erasers and then throw them in the trash because I'm like, oh yeah. Turns out like, what am I going

Andy 50:42

to do with these?

Tim 50:43

I tried to do that.

Johnny 50:45

Not a new pink pearl.

Tim 50:46

Yeah, I think it was like the. Who makes it? The pentel is the high polymer one. What's that one called? That one like I tried to make, I tried to do that and I was just like, I didn't have the patience for it. Maybe I will now try it now. But yeah, didn't work for me. Now I have a confession to make on the subject on erasers. I have a thing where I am just repulsed by used Erasers.

Johnny 51:08

Is it the grime or the shape?

Tim 51:11

Yeah, it's a grime. Yeah. It's mostly. I'm sure I could. I'm sure I could buff that out, you know, whatever. Yeah, Figured out. But they just. They gross me out so hard that when I'm cleaning out the end of the year, those things go in the trash so fast.

Johnny 51:25

Well, if you, like cut them, that gets a clean side. You can take like another eraser and sort of erase it and smooth them down a little bit on the corners.

Andy 51:33

Yeah, but then how do you erase that eraser? It's just erasers all the way down.

Tim 51:37

Yeah, but then it's erasing the other one, and then suddenly you're just holding a bunch of dust.

Johnny 51:41

And then it's a good. It's a good logic problem for the children. Like, what came first, the eraser or the eraser?

Tim 51:50

Now, I did this year when Henry got home in his backpack, I found like an ocean of pencil caps, erasers, like those pencil cap erasers or whatever like that.

Johnny 52:04

What is that called? The arrow. Arrow.

Tim 52:06

Yeah, I like those, but they're like multi colored. And I was like, oh, where did you get these? At first I was like, which. Did you steal this from your teacher? He's like, no, my teacher was just giving away like all kinds of stuff at the end of the year. And I just grabbed a handful and I was like, can I take all these? And she said, sure. And so I did dig those out and helped him find, like a little receptacle for him. So now he's. He just got a new desk in his room or a new, old desk that I fixed up. It was in our garage. And he's got it all. He set up. It was like the big event of the week. Which I was like, he is definitely my son. He was so happy. He was like. He got home from camp and he's like, can I go up to my room and set up my desk? I was like, yeah, man, do it. He went up and put his audiobook on and set up his desk. And then we put all those like, all those pencil capper erasers or whatever and all their own little compartments and stuff. And he was just a. He's a pig in. He was happy.

Johnny 52:59

We were at Walmart, I think last year. They had piles of erasers that were like rainbow but not painted. They were dyed all the way through. So I have. I might have bought 20 of those things. And they're all gone because I think Henry gave them to all his friends. So we haven't had any erasers come home this year, which is fine. That's someone else's problem. But another thing my kids come with is a lot of like half used up or even barely used up glue sticks, but that are pretty gross. I have this problem too with myself because I go through a good number of glue sticks and it's just a lot of trash to throw away. So I don't know, like with them.

Andy 53:41

Can you buy just like cartridges in the same way that you can buy hot glue refills? Like hot glue is. Just comes like itself, just the glue. Can you buy like glue stick refills?

Johnny 53:51

I don't know. Not that I'm probably not.

Andy 53:53

Because you can't buy like chapstick refills. And the chapstick is probably the closest thing. And a lot of glue sticks.

Tim 53:57

I don't know why that grossed me out so bad.

Johnny 54:03

A lot of glue sticks are already like half dry. So they would just. You'd just be like, what's this plastic thing?

Tim 54:09

I was imagining like Johnny like in the kitchen at his place melting down the remainders of all these glue sticks and like pouring them back in to like refill.

Johnny 54:19

I don't know if you can melt them.

Tim 54:22

It's like cooking it down and forming them back into old or into.

Johnny 54:27

I guess it. That could work. Wouldn't work that well. But I don't like the plastic, so I've been avoiding using them and using those tape rollers which are fun. And Elmer's makes one that's refillable, so less trash.

Andy 54:40

Yeah.

Johnny 54:40

Which is cool. But I digress. What are some other items? Like when I was little, we would take our old binders and use them for like baseball cards.

Tim 54:49

Oh, totally.

Andy 54:50

Dungeons and Dragons fountain pens.

Tim 54:52

I still have those. Yeah, I still have. We were actually going through our baseball cards the other day and going through. And some of them were in my old binders from school, ones that I had used in class.

Andy 55:04

You know what I use quite frequently is. This is very niche. But the boxes that Baron Fig confidants come in, I think that they are just the right size to put. To put pencils in and things like that. I. Yeah.

Johnny 55:16

Oh, I always put the journal back in them.

Tim 55:19

Yeah, I don't think I've ever thrown one away. I've put.

Andy 55:23

It's just such a nice.

Tim 55:24

When I bought a big pack of those Joy inkjoy gel pens to take to work and I grabbed a confidant case and threw them in there. And that's still how I store them in my desk. Just. Yeah, tell me.

Andy 55:34

Anyone?

Johnny 55:35

Evidently they make 30 colors now.

Andy 55:38

Wait, what? 30 colors of kabada?

Tim 55:40

Yeah, I had a pretty big joy.

Andy 55:43

Oh, Inkjoy. Sorry, sorry.

Johnny 55:44

36.

Andy 55:46

Wow.

Johnny 55:46

Like this is more related than most of our tangents tonight. But I have been able to find them for sale. So if anyone knows where to get them and want to send us a link, I'd be appreciative because I need more pens.

Andy 55:57

You sure do.

Tim 56:00

You gotta have one matching inkjoy gel pen with each Levenger True Writer with an ink in it that's the same color as the gel pen. That's your chance.

Johnny 56:12

Well, gel pens dry out, so I pretty regularly. Holy crap, they're expensive. Get rid of them. Like my. I was out with my dad yesterday. He's like, can you help me find like a good gel pen for signing stuff? I'm like, yeah, my.

Andy 56:22

Can I, Can I ever.

Johnny 56:24

You'll be doing us both a favor. They're harder to donate than pencils. At the end we just like. I make a box of pencils and send them into like Henry's math teacher or Frankie used to take them to school and put them in the teacher's supply closet and like by lunchtime they're gone.

Andy 56:40

Yeah.

Johnny 56:40

So that was good. They get used.

Tim 56:42

Yeah. Teachers don't mess around.

Johnny 56:44

Yeah. I think the cheapest thing in there was usually like Ticonderoga. That's pretty decent.

Andy 56:52

I will take a half used pads of post it notes and just as you do with like a sliver of soap about how you kind of like put it onto the next one. I will take that and make just like Uber packs like pads of post its that are multicolored and when I would go into an office I would just put that back in the like a supply cabinet. So yeah, that's my. That's something with post notes that I like to do.

Johnny 57:13

Oh, that's cool.

Andy 57:14

Yeah.

Johnny 57:15

We were out of those page markers so I sliced up a bunch of post it pads.

Andy 57:19

Oh yeah.

Johnny 57:19

Very badly. Found some at Office Depot that were much more suitable.

Andy 57:25

I use. I think we talked about this. I use those, those like little thin post it notes or the page markers to use to wrap around my pencil when I put it in the front. The classroom friendly pencil sharpener. Oh, that's easy. That's. Yeah. Because it doesn't like. It doesn't leave teeth marks that way. It's so fussy. But it's. Yeah. Good way to deal with that.

Johnny 57:42

Oh. Whenever I remember it, I do it too. And I think of you every time.

Tim 57:46

I literally do too. I have one on my desk at school that I fitted perfectly and then wrapped it in scotch tape. And so I just slide it off and slide it back on.

Johnny 57:57

Great.

Andy 57:58

Yeah.

Johnny 57:59

Just like stick it on the top, get a couple uses out of it. Don't want to waste post its.

Andy 58:05

Yeah.

Johnny 58:06

But yeah. Do we have any other. I don't know, like what about if you start a new job or change offices?

Andy 58:14

Yeah.

Johnny 58:14

Like I stole the picture in my living room of the Washington Monument from a job, my last job, because they were going to get rid of it. And like no, I take home.

Andy 58:26

I do have. I mean it's a partially a tech company thing. Partially just like a hoarder thing. I have so, so many stickers from tech companies or from friends or whatever and we've been trying to figure out what to do with them. I've just amassed so many of them. And in our new garage we have this like back of a shelf that's made out of like pegboard. And Katie suggested like taking all of these stickers and just making just like wall to wall stickers on this particular like board just so it looks like an old like band, like a dive bar or something like that. So I think that's what we're gonna do with our stickers is just make a sticker wall.

Johnny 59:04

That's cool. When we're not recording, I'll tell you about something we did in college that was similar.

Andy 59:09

Okay.

Johnny 59:11

But I guess that's. We wrap this one up.

Andy 59:13

Yeah.

Johnny 59:14

Because wow, it's getting late.

Andy 59:16

Yeah.

Johnny 59:17

So you want to tell folks where they can find you guys online? Andy, do you want to go first?

Andy 59:21

Yeah. I'm Instagram and Twitter as awealthly. And Andy, WTF is my website? How about you, Tim?

Tim 59:29

You can find me on Instagram TimothyWassom. And I'm on Twitter imwassum. And I'll be at home not reading James Patterson.

Johnny 59:37

Excellent. So I'm Johnny. I'm@pencilrevolution.com and on social media ensolution and we are erasable. So we are on Twitter and Instagram at erasable podcast on facebook@facebook.com erasable or is it a raceable podcast? I don't remember. Sorry. And you can search for the erasable podcast pencil community on Instagram, which aren't Instagram. Facebook which is probably the friendliest corner of the Internet. And while I get on Facebook once every two weeks, it's for that group. So I can't let go of my account. It's totally worth it. And we have a Patreon which is a patreon.com erasable which you can use as a beans to support our newly or renewed regular programming and if yeah our folks who subscribe at the producer level get a mention at the end of the show as producers.

Andy 1:00:39

Yay.

Johnny 1:00:40

So I'm going to read this list and hopefully not butcher anybody's name. So big thank you to Melissa Miller Digitalitent Tech Angie Aaron Bollinger, Matthew Siobhan Andrew Austin, Tara Whittle, Ida Umphers, David Johnson, Phil Munson, Donnie Pierce, Bill Black, Ed Swift, Tom Keakley, Andre Torres, Paul Moorhead, John Cupelletti, Jamelia Stephen Fansali, Aaron Willard KP Millie Blackwell Michael d', Alosa Jacqueline R. Myers Tana Feliz, Ann Seipe Joe Crace Michael Hagan Chris Metzkus, Bill Clow Random Thinks Elon Musk Jason Dill Dave McDonald, Mary Collis Alex Jonathan Brown Andre Provost, Kathleen Rogers Kelton Wiens, Scott Hayes Hans Noodleman Jay Newton I'm a wiener. Oh my.

Tim 1:01:43

I can't believe it's taken me this long.

Andy 1:01:45

I watched, I watched him type that in there as Johnny was reading this list.

Tim 1:01:51

I can't believe it took me a hundred and some episodes to to try that.

Johnny 1:01:57

Our poor friends at the end who are after that, Chris Jones and John Wood. Thank you folks, especially Elon Musk who is not buying our podcast. And we'll catch you again. Yeah, we'll catch you again in two weeks. Oh, before we sign off, we are going to somehow take feedback to see what we should do about our book club issue because or episode we had trouble getting hold of the author and it turns out that a lot of people really disliked the book, so

Andy 1:02:31

probably should have thought about that before.

Johnny 1:02:33

There's a lot of negativity in the world already. So if folks don't like, I mean if nobody wants to talk about the book aside from to not like it, we might skip it to a different book next time or something. Yeah. So stay tuned for that and we'll talk to you in two weeks.

Andy 1:02:50

Do you like our podcast? Most people like our podcast, but if you like our podcast, David will turn it off.