The Pen Addict 240/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	240
Title:	A Mythical Colorful Bird
Release Date:	January 18th, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Tiff Arment
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 240
Audio File:	Audio Episode 240
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 240
Length:	8989 min <br />1.483 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Pen Chalet

Myke Hurley: Welcome to The Pen Addict episode 240. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet, Blue Apron, and Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Mr. Brad Dowdy. Hello, Brad Dowdy. Hello. Hello, Myke Hurley. How are you? I'm very good. We have a guest today. Woohoo, I'm excited. Please welcome to the show, host of Top Forum Relay FM, Tiffany Almond. Hi, Tiff.

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Tiff Arment: Hi, guys. How are you? I'm dandy.

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Myke Hurley: Dandy. Thank you so much for joining us today. This is one of the rare times where I book a guest.

Philadelphia Pen Show

Brad Dowdy: Yes, yeah. And I like it. Tiff's back for her second appearance. And she's got stories to tell us, Myke, from the Philadelphia Pen Show, which I was so jealous of, like, everything I saw over the weekend.

Platinum Pens

Myke Hurley: Yeah, Tiff was our reporter in the field for Philly. So we're going to talk about that in a little bit today. But of course, we have a plethora of follow-up to get through. The first is, a couple of people sent me this on Twitter. It is a, what is it, a Platinum 3776 in an incredible pink color.

Platinum Nibs

Brad Dowdy: I know. So, yeah, I love this model. And I get on Platinum a little bit because they're such an amazing pen. Their nibs are spectacular. And they don't really branch out. They're boring. Yeah. Sailor kind of goes nuts with the colors. And they have all kinds of special editions everywhere. And Platinum will release, like, one or two 3776s, you know. And a lot of them have been clear demonstrator barrels with different types of finishing on them. Or they've done some transparent blue and things like that. And they're all cool. They look great. But I don't, I just wish they would do more just because I love the pen so much. And this one, you know, I guess maybe falls into that category. It's still part of the same kind of collection that they've done in the past with the lakes. It's the same style of pen. It's got the same faceting as one of the previous releases. Except this time it's in pink and rose gold. And it's, I mean, it's a stunner. Like, if this was rhodium plated, I would have bought it already. And you know I love pink pens. But I don't know if I can do pink and rose gold. Like, what do you all think about this? I'm all about that. It's like the old Montella combo.

Rose Gold Furniture

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's beautiful. Rose gold all the way. If you're going to go fluorescent pink, why not go rose gold as well?

Rose Gold Furniture

Tiff Arment: Of course. Yeah. What else would you put with it?

Furniture Pens

Brad Dowdy: It looks really good. Yeah. It looks better than, like, regular gold. Like, that would not look good. I like the rhodium and silver look with it. I mean, this would be my first rose gold furniture pen if I went down this path. It's really tempting. Like, I've never been interested in any rose gold furniture pen before.

Furniture Pens

Tiff Arment: What do you mean by furniture pen?

Furniture Pens

Brad Dowdy: So, clip, band, nib, anything that's, like, the accessory type, like the metal parts on a plastic pen. So, the hardware parts that are exterior to the barrel. It's all called the furniture. Mm-hmm.

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Myke Hurley: Gotcha.

Platinum Pens

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. And when I say that, that's what I mean. It's usually clip. It's usually, like, the exact things you see on this particular pen. Clip, cap band, nib. Yeah. I'm all about it. I just want to know where to get it. That's all I want to know. Yeah. Usually, they'll all coordinate. Yeah. That's a good question. Who is this? Where did we get this link from? It was on Facebook. Is this just... Oh, this was actually Platinum's page on Facebook.

Social Media

Myke Hurley: Platinum's page on Facebook. And then it was sent to us from Calligraphy on Twitter as well. Actually, people sent me this tweet. And it seems like that it's debuting in a couple of weeks on the 1st of February. Seems like it. It's called the Lyra. But I haven't seen anywhere where it can be purchased.

Pen Editions

Brad Dowdy: So, most... Anytime I've bought one of the Platinum Special Editions before, I've been able to get them from one of our usual vendors that we'd normally be able to get them from, like Pen Chalet.

Nakaya Nibs

Myke Hurley: That was my hope. So... Like, because I really want it. So, let me know, Ron, if you're going to get this thing. Because I don't own any of the Platinum 3776s. Because, as I said, I find the design kind of uninspiring. But everybody, including you, is always talking about just how great they are. But I've just never been drawn to the way that they look. They're just not... It's just not exciting to me at all.

Rose Gold Furniture

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's completely understandable. Except your nib's going to be very similar to your Nakaya nib, though, when you get it. But Tiff knows all about that. She's way ahead of you, Myke. I know.

Retro 51 Pens

Tiff Arment: Oh, I do.

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Myke Hurley: We're going to get to that later on.

Retro 51 Pens

Tiff Arment: I know. And mine's even in rose gold, so, I mean... Oh, yeah.

Retro 51 Pens

Myke Hurley: Yeah, see, I have a Retro 51 with rose gold furniture. I got it at the Atlanta Pen Show. And it's... I think it's brown lacquer with rose gold. Yeah, that one was real pretty. I forget the name of that one. Yeah, okay. I'll get that one as well then, shall I? It carries on forever and ever.

Retro 51 Pens

Brad Dowdy: You know, one of the things we didn't put in the show notes, and I'm just going to hijack right here. Mm-hmm. What were those Retro 51s you found, Tiff? Like, I meant to put that in the show notes. So, tell me that story. I just saw the pictures and we didn't talk about it.

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Tiff Arment: Let me pick them up here. Um...

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Brad Dowdy: That was evil. Oh, just got the wall sitting right next to me. Let me get all my special stuff.

Groove Writer Series

Tiff Arment: I do. Just let me fan them out and check them out. So, they're the Groove Writer series, which I think it was like in the early 2000s. Mm-hmm. Maybe they're from. Anyway, but I was just like looking around this stationery store that is in a town nearby, and I saw that they had some Retro 51 boxes. So, it was behind a glass case. And I asked the guy, I'm like, oh, can I check those out? And he opens up the case and the boxes are empty, right? And I'm like, well, where are the pens? He's like, I don't know. I guess we sold them. And I was like, okay. And then he's like, well, we might have some in here. And he brings out like this bin that's also behind this glass case. And in it are like all of these pens. And I was like, what? What's happening? I've never seen these. So, he pulls them all out. And I grabbed three of the ones that I was kind of interested in. There were some duplicates and stuff. So, if you guys are interested, I know where I can get some. And then they opened them up to test them. And of course, the ink's all dried out. And I was like, it's fine. It's fine. And they're like, well, let's see if we have the refills in the store. And I'm like, you don't. You don't have them.

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Myke Hurley: Trust me. You ain't got it.

New Old Stock

Tiff Arment: I was like, just sell the pens to me. And they're like, well, they're dried out. And I'm like, I don't care. It went through this whole thing. Marco's like waiting for me in a restaurant. And I'm like, no. Just sell me the pens. And so, eventually, they're like, all right. Well, we'll knock a few dollars off of it because there's no refill. And I was like, okay, whatever. And I was like, but just give it to me. So, I got them each for like, I don't know, maybe like, I got to find the receipt. I should know this better. They were listed for about 31 each. So, I got them for like 28 each. Wow. Sweet.

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Myke Hurley: That's so awesome.

Stationery Stores

Tiff Arment: New old stock. And then I learned a cool new word, which was the whole some guy situation. Yeah. Because someone posted it on my Instagram. And I'm like, I'm excited. I got to be the some guy.

Stationary Stores

Brad Dowdy: That's right. That was cool. I love, we actually don't get too much of that anymore. Like the stationary store finds, number one, because there's not that many stationary shops out there for us to find stuff like that. But it's always cool when you do. I remember, you know, years ago, people would find ink stashed at some stores. And, you know, that hadn't been released for years and years and years. And that's always cool when someone just runs across something like that randomly, especially something as cool as those pens you got from Retro 51. That's awesome.

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Tiff Arment: And everyone kept cutting me in line, too, because all they wanted to do was buy lotto tickets.

Lottery Tickets

Tiff Arment: Everyone wanted to buy lotto tickets. And I'm arguing with this person. I'm like, just sell me these pens. And they're like, all right. Oh, it was comedy of errors. But I got them. And also, like I said, there are more. So I'm thinking I should probably go back and get the rest of them.

Field Notes

Brad Dowdy: Just hold on. I know. You know, Myke would twist your arm, I'm sure.

Firespotter Pens

Myke Hurley: I want all of them. I remember the day, like back in the day when I used to be able to do this with Field Notes. You know, like I would just find some like random online store that was holding on to like Firespotter or something. I was like, oh my God. And they're like $25. You're like, now it's just crazy.

eBay

Tiff Arment: I just, I gave you a Firespotter, Myke, didn't I?

eBay

Myke Hurley: You did. You did.

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Tiff Arment: We just had one. And I'm like, I don't know what this is. Do you want this? And you're like, oh my God. Give it to me now.

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Myke Hurley: It's nothing. You already put it up on eBay. This one's totally common.

eBay

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Oh, man. I sold all mine, by the way. So thank you to everybody who bought them. If there was anybody, I posted them all out. That's a whole job. Like, I remember why I hate eBay. Like, it's just so like you got all these packages and it was a pain. But it was good. So the Nakaya Fund is building. It's building. So we heard that story about the Retro 51s on a podcast that Tiff was on from Michael Lopp, who's Rant and Repose. He's got a new show, which is really good. And he talks about one important thing. And he had Tiff on the show to talk about pens. And we got a shout out on the show, which I appreciate.

Retro 51 Pens

Tiff Arment: I didn't think I told that same story about finding the retros.

The Pen Addict

Myke Hurley: No. No? No.

Some Guy Thing

Tiff Arment: That's new to the pen addict. I saved it for you.

Some Guy Thing

Myke Hurley: Didn't you talk about the some guy thing, though? You did? She did.

Some Guy Thing

Tiff Arment: Yeah, I did talk about the some guy thing.

Zebra Saracic Clip

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So Michael's a super interesting guy. Like, I've read his blog forever and ever and ever. And he's been around forever. And he probably wouldn't remember this, but I actually got to meet him at XOXO in 2014. And he was like, it's one of those guys, like, you know, he doesn't ever put his face out there online very much. Like, it's even hard to know. You just, people just call him Ranz because he doesn't put his real name out there too much. So I had talked to him over email well before the show, you know, doing some stuff with JetPens or just talking about pens in general because he would bring them up from time to time. And, you know, I would link them on the pen addict and I'd shoot him emails. And, you know, I think I even did something with him when I was at JetPens. So I wanted to meet him. And he was like one of those guys where usually I'm pretty good about like walking up to someone and saying, hey, you know, you know, my name's Brad, you know, I follow you online. It's like, I was nervous to go talk to him because he seemed like, you know, like he doesn't put himself out there. So maybe he doesn't want to be bothered, but he couldn't have been nicer. And, you know, we talked a little bit on and off through the show. And it was really cool to hear that podcast. I really enjoyed it. He was funny talking about fountain pens, like how he has a bunch that have been given to him and they're just like sitting in a drawer. I would die to know like what he actually has.

Retro 51 Pens

Tiff Arment: I know I should have had him take a picture of his drawer. Be like, reveal your shame.

Retro 51 Pens

Brad Dowdy: He's like, oh, people give me fountain pens all the time, but I just use the Zebra Saracic clip, which is an awesome pen. That's also the Gruber pen. And I had hopefully I think I had a little bit to do with with both of those back when I was at JetPens.

Retro 51 Pens

Myke Hurley: I wonder how he'll take to the Retro 51. I think you did a good job selling him on it.

Retro 51 Pens

Tiff Arment: Yeah, I think he'd like it because it has no it has it meets his requirements, right? It has no cap to lose. It has a really nice refill and it's, you know, it's just a regular pen. So if he does lose it completely and it's not that big of a deal.

Retro 51 Pens

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, he won't be able to dish out three or four hundred at any of his talks, though. I don't think. No, no. Retro 51. Give us a call. We can set something up.

The One About Pens

Myke Hurley: So go check that out in the show notes. It's called The One About Pens is the name of the episode. So I'll find it, which is funny. I like the naming as well. It reminds me of Friends. Okay, let's take a break. And then we've got bags more follow up. I have a little a little surprise. I don't know if you spoiled yourself, Brad, by looking at the document. Yeah, if you haven't, then don't. This week's episode is brought to you by Blue Apron. Blue Apron is on a mission to make incredible home cooking accessible to everyone whilst supporting a more sustainable food system. They set the highest standards of ingredients. They build a community of home chefs. That's what Blue Apron is all about. For less than $10 a meal, Blue Apron will deliver to you seasonal recipes along with fresh, high quality ingredients that will let you make delicious meals at home. Each meal comes with a great instruction card, which gives you step-by-step breakdowns on what you need to do to put together this awesome meal. And all of the ingredients that you get, they're all pre-proportioned. They've been weighed out. They've been checked beforehand. And they've made sure that everything that they've got is pre-proportioned. It's all in these little bags. It's all in these little pots. So you'll just need to know, oh, I just grabbed this bag of food and I've got everything that I need. You don't have any waste. You don't have that one ingredient. You have to run to the store to go and get. They take care of it for you. You can customize recipes based on your dietary preferences and choose the delivery option that fits your needs. There's no weekly commitment. So you can only get deliveries when you want them. And Blue Apron delivers to 99% of the continental US. Blue Apron knows that when you cook with the freshest ingredients that support a more sustainable food system, you can make incredible meals. Blue Apron sets the highest quality standard for their community of artisanal suppliers, family-run farm fisheries, and ranchers. Now, Brad, I believe you have been cooking up a storm at Shea Dowdy this week.

Blue Apron

Brad Dowdy: I'm dying laughing because I do not cook. Like, that is not one of my things. I can't grasp, like, some of the concepts of the freedom that's required to be a good cook, right? I am too strict, too detailed, too anal retentive to, like, be free in the kitchen. So I'm very instruction-oriented and detail-oriented. So Blue Apron's perfect for me. So I, like, I just, I got my meals in. I got the salmon meal and I got the meatloaf meal. And then I picked the salmon one. I just said, I'm just going to grab this, do it myself, have dinner for my wife when she gets home from work. And it was kind of awesome. I, it was, it was hard for me, you know, but I was able to follow the directions and get it done. I had a little rice snafu and I tried to double plan, double plan my timer situation, but it all worked out great in the end. And I got to say, the food was fantastic. Like, I mean, luckily I didn't, you know, I can't really butcher it because they give you all the ingredients and all the directions. So it's hard to mess it up. And the flavor and taste of both the meals, we've eaten them both so far, they were outstanding. And I know, Tiff, you're a Blue Apron user, too, right?

Blue Apron

Tiff Arment: Oh, yeah. For like over two years now.

Blue Apron

Brad Dowdy: Oh, wow. Okay. So yeah, you're like, you're like OG Blue Apron. Yeah. Before they were cool.

Blue Apron

Tiff Arment: Yeah. Yeah. I did. We were totally, I like, I would have a t-shirt and everything. No. No, we love Blue Apron.

Blue Apron

Brad Dowdy: This could be like addicting. Yeah.

Blue Apron

Tiff Arment: It is addicting. And we just love the variety and it's made us better cooks. It really has. We know how to do things much better. Even when we cook on our own without Blue Apron recipes, we're a lot better at it.

Blue Apron

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So like my wife cooked the meatloaf one. She said, okay, I'll cook this one. We did that like two nights later. And she was mocking me by the time she was done. She's like, look how clean my kitchen is. Yeah. Okay. Settle down over there. Top chef.

Blue Apron

Myke Hurley: This is very similar to when me and Adina started this as well. And now I really enjoy it. But at first it was just like, it's just like a war zone. But these things really can make you better cooks. And I've become a better cook as well. Cooking these sort of meals every week.

Blue Apron

Brad Dowdy: And I just want to reiterate real quick. The taste of both of the meals was phenomenal. Like I thoroughly enjoyed it. My kids ate every bite. It was really exceptional quality food.

Blue Apron Recipes

Myke Hurley: New recipes are created by Blue Apron's culinary team. And they're not repeated within a year. So you'll be able to cook recipes like mushrooms and chipotle pepper enchiladas with lime sour cream. Burgers and red cabbage slaw with creamy sriracha sauce and roasted sweet potato. Or maybe potato and broccolini samosas with coconut lentils and yogurt sauce. There's just some of the stuff that's available right now. Go and check out this week's menu and get three meals for free with free shipping by going to blueapron.com slash penaddict. That's free food. Like three meals, free, free shipping. Blueapron.com slash penaddict. You'll love how good it feels and tastes to create incredible home-cooked meals at Blue Apron. We'd like to thank Blue Apron for their support of this show and Relay FM. Blue Apron, a better way to cook. So I, after last week's show, I got a package from my friend John Voorhees, who lives in Chicago. And John had gone to the Field Notes HQ and he bought a gift for me. He picked up the uncut kind of covers, you know, those big cover sheets of Bylon for me. How cool is that? So now I have this like big sheet of one of my favorite editions, which I'm going to put in a huge frame and hang on my wall. It's so awesome because I was pretty jealous of the people that get to pick these sorts of things up because they're local to Chicago. So now I have an uncut covers of my favorite edition.

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Brad Dowdy: I might have had a little advance notice of this one. Oh, yeah.

Field Notes

Myke Hurley: You're involved in all of my gifts.

Gift Giving

Brad Dowdy: It's people, people want to do nice things for you, Myke. So they're looking for a little assistance. And I'm recalling up these tweets now from John that me and him were talking. He says, Myke likes the Field Notes reporter notebooks, right? And then we had the whole conversation about where he's at and what he's doing.

Lamy Safaris

Myke Hurley: That's awesome. Thank you again, again for arranging a gift for me.

Lamy Safaris

Brad Dowdy: So pro tip, Myke likes Field Notes. So it's not like I'm going out on a limb here, right? Yeah. So, I mean, I'm two for two and getting you something from pointing things to Field Notes. So it's not rocket science. Talking about two for two.

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Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Lamy Safaris

Myke Hurley: You sent this to me a couple of days ago on Goulet Pens Instagram. They have a picture of two Lamy Safaris. One regular one and one... 2000s. Lamy 2000s. Lamy 2000s. Sorry. Two Lamy 2000s. One which is the regular one and one which is the anniversary edition. What year was it? How many years? This year.

Lamy Safaris

Brad Dowdy: Oh, 50. 50 of the... Yeah.

Lamy Safaris

Myke Hurley: And basically it says that if you buy a Lamy 2000 Black Amber right now, which is the anniversary one, you get a regular Lamy 2000 free.

Lamy Safaris

Myke Hurley: Which is a multiple $100 pen. So you buy one, get one free. What is going on here?

Lamy Safaris

Brad Dowdy: So what were your... Or both of y'all's initial thoughts when you saw this? Because before I even linked it, I knew what was going on here. Like, what were your thoughts when you saw this? Were like, oh, that's a deal? I was like, that's a great deal.

Lamy Safaris

Myke Hurley: That's kind of... It just went over my head until you kind of explained to me what you think's going on.

Lamy Safaris

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So what I think's going on is Black Amber can't sell because it's a train wreck of a pen. And Lamy as a dealer refuses to let retailers discount the pen. And this is me speaking from no inside information at all. It just seems very obvious to me what's happening.

Lamy Safaris

Brad Dowdy: So Lamy's sitting on ticked off retailers who cannot move a pen that they did a bad job with. And Lamy won't let them get out of it by discounting it. Which stinks. So now dealers have to essentially go around the process and invent a discount that doesn't discount, right? So the discount now is you get a free amazing pen with purchase. Which is a great deal if you want both of these pens and gift one to someone else or one of both for yourself. It's an awesome deal. But the onus lies on Lamy in this case for not allowing dealers to get out of one of their products that they kind of screwed up initially. Like this was the pen we talked about constantly last year. You know, the anticipation was huge. Then the release came and everyone went like, oh really, that's it? And then the price is outrageous. And I think there was only 5,000 units made. And I thought they would have no problem selling it. Even just 5,000 units to Lamy fans, they're going to sell it. But apparently that's not the case. And they can't, dealers can't get out of them. So it's very interesting. And I just, you know, it's hard. And we're going to talk more about, you know, manufacturers in a minute. They do very weird things in this market because they think it's the right thing to do. Because that's the way they've always done it. These are 100-year-old companies. And, well, we just don't allow our dealers to discount it. Well, now you're getting a bad rap because of what's happening with things like this. So it's a tough place to be in.

Lamy Safaris

Myke Hurley: I mean, it just seems so strange that it's like they're being restrictive about this one pen. But overall, seeing a deal like this is not great for the Lamy brand. Like, you don't get a good, like, I think the feeling that they're trying to avoid is to try and devalue. They don't want the pen to be devalued, right? Right, right. But what you end up seeing is the whole Lamy 2000 as a thing, which is one of the greatest pens ever made, gets the same treatment if you look at it like that because you can get two of them for the price of one, which shouldn't happen with this pen. Right. There shouldn't really be discounts on this thing very often, in all honesty, because it is so good. So it's kind of strange to see something like this.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, as we'll find out in a minute, you know, a lot of these huge brands just don't care.

Lamy Safari

Tiff Arment: Tiff, do you have a Lamy 2000? I don't.

Myke Hurley: Have you ever used one?

Tiff Arment: I don't care for it. No, I haven't because I just don't care for the look of it. Yeah, it's not. It's a little too industrial. It is. I don't know. It looks like a concrete building in a pen form.

Brad Dowdy: It's very accurate. I think that's an accurate statement. Yeah. It is quite brutalist. Like, it's not.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. There aren't really any nice. There's no niceties to it. Really, a lot of the greatness comes in just the way that the pen feels because it's made of that mackerel and stuff. So, like, it's like holding warm metal. It's very strange. It's a very, very peculiar pen in a good way. And, yeah, so it is a great pen, but I can totally understand that it doesn't really have the aesthetics. It's kind of you just have to, if you like kind of boring things, maybe you'll like it. And sometimes I do like boring things. And so.

Brad Dowdy: Which is why they needed to drop a red mackerel on. I know. For the 50th anniversary edition. I know. And solve a lot of problems at once and be praised instead of now they're just getting crushed. And, I mean, I say that. I mean, that's literally overly dramatic. It's like some guy on the internet's typing bad things now. What are we going to do?

Mont Blanc Lucky Orange

Myke Hurley: So, you picked up some Mont Blanc Lucky Orange. We were talking about this a couple of weeks ago, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, it's funny. I haven't inked up a pen with the bottle yet, but I was having my own pen show party here. And because I was jealous about that. I know, right? This is the world I live in.

Tiff Arment: Just Brad sitting around his pens. Hey, guys.

Brad Dowdy: I totally was. I had like a whole thing where, okay, I want to be in Philly and I'm jealous. So, what I'm going to do is ink up any pens that I bought at pen shows last year. So, I'll have good memories.

Tiff Arment: It is. You literally did have a little tea party with your pens.

Brad Dowdy: I did. That's what I was about to say. It was totally my own little tea party. I did. I promise you. And I was so frustrated with my tea party in that I didn't have enough ink I bought at shows to use only ink I bought at shows last year. I had way more pens than ink. Uh-oh.

Myke Hurley: So, I see this as a problem for future pen show purchases. Like, I need to buy ink. So, when the dowdy pen show's in town, we've got...

Brad Dowdy: So, I was really trying to restrict myself to just pens and ink I bought at pen shows. This totally happened.

Brad Dowdy: And I didn't have anything for this Mont Blanc. And I just bought these... I bought cartridges as well because I have that short safety Mont Blanc. The Noir et Noir, which is now the Bonham. Not the Bonheur, which is next in our topic list.

Brad Dowdy: The Bohem, sorry. My little short pen. And it's a safety pen. Takes short international cartridges. So, I was like, oh, those Lucky Orange will be great. And I inked it up. And I haven't been able to get the ink flowing yet. So, I haven't gotten to use it. But, so, I will have to do a full report back on Mont Blanc Orange. I'm sure it's going to be good. It looks very middle of the road. Like, I call it straight up orange. It just looks like it's just going to be orange. It's not going to have a lot of yellow. It's not going to have brown. It's probably not going to have too much shading. It's kind of like Akramon 16. I imagine it's going to be like that. Which is a good, bright, popping orange. So, my at-home pen show wasn't a complete success. But I am using the Sailor King of pens, which I bought last year. I inked that one up. Because I've been missing using that pen. And that was part of me getting some of these other pens out and inked up again and in the rotation. Because I've missed using them. So, I had my own little pen show this week. A little tea party. No one was invited but me.

Mont Blanc Bonheur

Myke Hurley: A couple of weeks ago, we spoke about the Mont Blanc Bonheur. And when I say we spoke about it, we got a little bit upset. And we shouted for a while about this pen, which was created by Mont Blanc for women and marketed explicitly as such. A couple of days after the show, I was in a department store. We were buying furniture. And I actually saw one of these in the Mont Blanc stand. And it is a very good-looking pen, except for the fact that they put a little jewel on the end, like on the cap. Which kind of ruins a lot of what I like about it. It kind of makes it look a little bit tacky. Not on the cap. It's on the end of the pen, right? But, yeah, I didn't really like that part. But the rest of it looked really good. And I explained it to Idina why we were so mad about it. And she thought it was kind of ridiculous. But at the time, we were kind of under the feeling of like, well, I think even you said, right, at the time that Applebaum, who are selling the pen, they used marketing copy that frustrated us both. But at the time, you were willing to kind of just give them a pass and say, well, this is what they're being told by Mont Blanc to say. Yeah. Yeah. And then, I'm frustrated we even have to talk about this now. But Applebaum posted to their Instagram account a picture of the Bonner on top of a bra.

Brad Dowdy: A black lace bra.

Myke Hurley: Of course. I forget the important details. Sitting on top of a black lace bra. And this was maybe, I can't remember who sent it to us, but then me and you both got really mad on social media and started tweeting at the Appleboom account. They didn't really seem to care and or understand what we were talking about. But we were really mad about it. And Tiff, before we kind of move on with this, I want to get your opinion on this. What do you think about the marketing of this pen? How does it make you feel?

Tiff Arment: I think it's rather ridiculous. It feels pandering. You know what I mean? Like, you guys, we just talked about a pink pen in pink gold, right? And it had really nothing to do with women. It was talking about a flower, right? And the marketing of that, the platinum pen. So, this pen being marketed like this, it's just so ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous. Like, why is it on a bra? Who writes with their pens topless? Like, who's doing this? Oh, yeah, because that's what it is, right? Like, I didn't realize that. That's what it's applying. It's like, oh, let me just, you know, relax, take off my bra and use my fountain pen. Like, come on.

Myke Hurley: Let me just put it down for a moment.

Tiff Arment: Yeah. And obviously, the bra came off first and you were using because the pen is on top of the bra, right? So, I mean, like, what is that implying? Like, and plus, when you use a fountain pen, it's at your desk. Another place where you're typically not without your bra. Like, it just, come on. I mean, it's one step away from seeing, like, a sexy model only wearing lingerie holding the pen seductively. Right?

Myke Hurley: Like, I mean, and it is only a stone's throw from that at this point. Yeah, exactly. It's super close.

Tiff Arment: It's just ridiculous. And if it's trying to market towards women because it's the ladies pen for, you know, our lady brains, like, or whatever they're trying to say. It's like, well, we don't want to see it with sexy lingerie, right? Because, I mean, the majority of us, I mean, come on. It does. That's. It's just. It just feels. I'm trying to put. This is. It's tricky. I thought I was going to have some good jokes to talk about this, but now I'm just getting mad. Because, like, it's like, yes, ladies like nice things. Ladies like lace and frilly stuff and everything. But then it's also, like, you're not a real woman unless you like this stuff. Or you aren't pretty if you don't have sexy lingerie. You know what I mean? Like, so there's, like, all these tricky, messed up messages. It's like, it's a pen. Get it. Get it off my bra. It's not like it has nothing to do with it. Yeah. And I thought the Twitter responses to that picture also are pretty insane. Like, some people are like, ooh la la. I'm like, ew, shut up. And then, like, and then there are a couple of them saying how ridiculous of a marketing campaign that is. And so that was good to see.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, like, on the one hand, like, pen companies have been doing this for a long time, right? I mean, as long as there have been pen companies, they've been making such and such for women. And, you know, it's hopefully changing over the years that they're realizing that, okay, this is not necessary to market a pen like that. Just like you said, we fawned over a pink and rose gold pen because it's an awesome pen. We would do the same thing with this Bonheur because it looks just awesome. It can be a pen for anyone. And the marketing is just super strange. And I was willing to, okay, we talked about it and we're done and it's going to happen again. Some other company is going to come up with something and we'll talk about it again. And, you know, Applebaum had no skin in the game. They were, you know, working with Montblanc, you know, as a Montblanc dealer using Montblanc copy for the pen. Great. So then yesterday, Applebaum took it upon themselves to do this picture. And that really set me off. Like, I was pretty upset about it and was tweeting at them, you know. So, and Yost, who is the owner of Applebaum, started, finally later in the afternoon, after they had went on a rash of, like, replies to, like, some of my questions, you know, saying, like, well, why isn't the men's pen marketed with men's underwear and stuff like that?

Brad Dowdy: The response I got, and I'm not pulling this tweet up, was essentially, I can't wait to see that picture. This is from Applebaum. Um, and I was like, wait a minute. Something's not right here. So, like, here's one that they sent to me.

Myke Hurley: And it's like, it's just, it's just like, it's like they give with one hand and take with another. It's like, of course women can use all pens. But the Bonner is marketed, especially for the ladies around us. It's like, oh, my God. Like, so close. And then you just, you just snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Yep. Like, why?

Brad Dowdy: So, Yost sent me a, several messages. We talked back and forth a bunch yesterday. That part got lost in the translation, the tweet responses stuff. He thought we were joking around with them. Um, and he responded accordingly. And he's like, I just didn't understand that. And he apologized. And, you know, he understands what we're trying to say now. He never really said anything about the pic. Other than, he's like, you know what? Our next door neighbor, retail neighbor, is a lingerie store. We thought it would be fun to go do this. I'm like, okay. I had, I like, I disagree with that. We're going to end up just, you know, I essentially said that. And, um, but there were, the, the Twitter responses were a definite, definite loss in translation issue. I fully believe that. They didn't mean any harm by that. Um, I don't think, I just think there's some cultural differences to where they don't, they have no issue with the picture. It seems like to me without saying that directly. Um, they're like perfectly fine with that. And, you know, uh, I'm not like on Twitter.

Myke Hurley: Like they, they said that, you know, I mean, I don't know if it really means anything specifically, but they did, they did apologize. Uh, but it's one of those, like, we're sorry you got offended type of apologies.

Tiff Arment: I'm sorry. You feel bad.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So it was an interesting day on the Twitters yesterday, but you know, I mean, what are you going to, I'm, I'm not going to not say something after we've just talked about that. I mean, that was, that was too far. Like, okay, Montblanc's marketing the pen towards women. It's silly. It's dumb. It's ridiculous. It's unnecessary. This took it to a different place, which I was like super not comfortable with.

Tiff Arment: I mean, with any pen though, like why even have gender specific marketing? Like all you need to do is have different styles of pens and it's like people will gravitate towards the one that they are attracted to. And by putting a gender on it in the marketing, it's making one side feel bad that they can't, that they shouldn't want that pen because it's for somebody else or make someone else feel, you know what I mean? It's, it's, it's, it's making it, it's, it's separating it in a way that shouldn't have been separated in the first place because it's a pen. Like again, put a flower behind it, have it be a color and whoever likes that color or that style will go to it. It doesn't have to be about being a man or being a woman to have this type of pen. Like that's, what's ridiculous about it. And again, the same with like an all black, like cement looking brutalist masculine pen too. Like, you know what I mean? You don't have to have like a football behind it or something in order to show that this is for the dudes, you know? You just have to have it out there. And if a woman likes that style, she's going to buy that pen. If a man likes that style, he's going to buy that pen. It has nothing to do with, you know, what's in your, under your bra. Right.

Myke Hurley: Like it was, you know, like with the, what I said last time with the copy, like the copy, he talks about adding glamour and luxury to your life, which you could just, you can still say that.

Brad Dowdy: I think talismanic was one of the words, but yeah, you could totally say all these things without invoking any gender.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's like, I like to add glamour and luxury to my life, you know?

Myke Hurley: Why not? But it's, it's. My son's favorite color is pink sparkles.

Tiff Arment: No, purple sparkles. That's right.

Myke Hurley: It's just, it's just strange. It is just strange. And, you know, I didn't know if I wanted to get, go down this road again today, but I feel like it's worth, it's just worth talking about. Cause it's worth mentioning that we kind of gave Applebaum a pass on this and they kind of screwed the pooch on this one. I think I don't really think they did a good job of all of this. I hope that they learn from it. Like it's just not necessary. It's just not necessary. Right. Right. It didn't do anything. All of their other Montblanc pens are taken on top of notebooks or tables, you know, on their Instagram account. Like they made a specific choice with this one and they needn't have. Yep. Let's talk about a company that, that keeps their underwear and their pens separate. And that's pen chalet. We love pen chalet because they have all of the pens that you're looking for, all of the brands that you want and are an authorized dealer. You know, I'm going to keep my eye on pen chalet to see if they're going to get this platinum 3776 in at some point. Because they, I know I'm going to get great customer service. I'm going to get great shipping rates. And I'm also going to get a discount as well because I listened to this show. I don't know if you're aware of that. They have a super great customer service, very fast, very reliable. They do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the United States. They also sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. They have lots of accessories and refills and inks and converters and stuff like that as well. They're always doing great discounts. They're doing closeout specials every couple of weeks. Pen chalet has a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their high quality pens that they sell at low prices. As always, go to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password penaddict for this week's special offer. And to get the code that you want to save 10% on anything at pen chalet, that's where you want to go. So you want to use that password penaddict to get into the special secret penaddict listener area. And you'll get the code that you need to save anything. Save 10% on anything over at pen chalet. Now this week's offer is 50% on all of the Jin Hao pens that pen chalet have in stock. What do you think about this one?

Brad Dowdy: So I don't know the different levels. Like there's an X450, X750, 159. I don't know what each of the different model numbers dictate. But what I do know is that people buy these Jin Hao's by the bucket full. Because they're really good quality for a really low price. People who I've read about them, I have not used them. I've read all the reviews about them. They're like, wow, this is a surprisingly great pen for less than $5, you know, in some cases. It's a wonderful way to test out different inks. You might be scared about trying an Iron Gall ink and another pen. Put it in this pen to see how it works. Because it's not going to, you're not going to lose anything. I know people who buy, like I said, buy these by the handful to work on nibs themselves. Because it's a cheap way to get a quality pen. And you're not worried about doing damage to it. But you can manipulate it and have fun. That's what I think of when I think of like Jin Hao. It's like a bulk pen while it still remains a quality writing instrument. It just allows you to play around a little bit more. And not have to worry necessarily about ruining your $200 pen. If you want to put that crazy ink in it. Or you want to mix inks and see, you know, what happens. This is the kind of pen for that. And when you're shopping, it's kind of a no-brainer at this price point. To add like one or three to your cart. And just have them laying around the house to mess around with. So they're very cool for that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, talking price, right? You've got three different ones here. One's $4.46, one's $5.03, and one's $5.64. Yep, these are super cheap. These are super, super cheap. So you can go check them out today. Go to penchalet.com. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Thank you so much to Penchalet for their continued support of this show. And Relay FM. We love them. They're the best.

Philadelphia Pen Show

Myke Hurley: So, Tiff, you were at the Philadelphia Pen Show this past weekend. What made you want to go to the Philly show?

Tiff Arment: Well, it's really close by. So I felt like I should go check it out, right? Because, I mean, I might not be able to get to Atlanta. I know. I know. So I was, like, feeling a little sad about that. And I decided to go check out the Philly show since there was no snow this year. And it's only a quick hour and 15 minute train ride away. So I decided to go for it. I only went on Friday because I ended up having some family obligations that we had to go take Adam upstate with, you know, see my parents. And so, yeah. I only went on Friday. But still super glad I went. And, I mean, why wouldn't you? It's so close. So I think I'm also going to go to the Long Island one, too, because that one's about the same distance.

Myke Hurley: So what is, how does it compare? Brad, you've never been to the Philly show, right? Or have you?

Brad Dowdy: I have not. This is, like, kind of the second year of the reboot of the Philly Pen Show. So before, I don't even know that it really registered with me, but now that Franklin Kristoff and Eric Orozco are running it, it has become way more of a thing. And it's way more out there, you know, in the in the in the penosphere. And, like, we know what's going on, you know, around Philly and people are sharing things to Philly and people are making a destination show because it's been months and months and months since they've been able to get out. So it looks like it's really well set up, really well run and lots of really good vendors there and lots of cool people there.

Tiff Arment: No, it seemed like a lot of the crowd. I recognized a lot of people who I first saw in Atlanta. And again, Atlanta was my first pen show. So this will this was my second. And it's basically set up. They had a hallway and then a ballroom filled with tables. And it very nicely spread out like the the width of the aisles. You couldn't walk around a lot. And then they had some nice tables right in the middle where you could kind of like sit and write and hang out with people or grab something to eat. If, you know, some of the vendors were getting food in and like having getting to eat there. So I love it was a really nice setup. And of course, Susan Worth was there and like her usual spot with her usual banners. Like nobody else had any banners like hung up on the walls. And everyone's like, how'd you get that? And she's like, I just did it.

Tiff Arment: It was great.

Brad Dowdy: That's pretty much her life motto.

Tiff Arment: Yeah, she was just delightful to see. And she was running around in her stocking feet looking for the internet password. And I just I you just fall in love with her.

Brad Dowdy: She's totally she is your picture with her was wonderful.

Tiff Arment: I know. I like stocked her. I'm like, you remember Brad? I totally name dropped you. I'm like, let's take a picture for Brad.

Brad Dowdy: That's hilarious.

Tiff Arment: No, but she actually spent a lot of time with me convincing me not to buy the pen I thought I wanted to buy and instead selling me two pens that I didn't know I wanted to buy, but I did want to buy. So but yeah, and I'm not familiar with all the names of everybody yet. But I did see a lot of familiar faces and everything was really well set up. I saw a whole bunch of internet people, Instagram pen people that I recognized murder draws and Dan Don and I don't know, I got intimidated about saying hi, I felt I felt weird. I felt like everyone was kind of doing their own thing, especially on Friday, because it was a little bit more quiet from the videos I saw from the Saturday and Sunday, it was a lot busier. But I actually preferred it on the quiet day because I did get the chance to sit down with Susan and she helped me with some my handwriting and you had more time talking to the vendors because it wasn't so crowded. So that was really good. And yeah, I was excited to see all the new Franklin Kristoff, the prototype pens that they had out. And it was a good time. I wish I knew more people there. I think I would have had more fun, you know, especially with the when you sit around and you do all the ink stuff and taking out paper and pens and hanging out with each other like people do in Atlanta. That was much nicer, I think, because I knew you guys. So I had a grounding. So I definitely let my little shyness get to me at the pen show this time. So I didn't I kind of kept to myself, which was a different way to do it. And it let me kind of look at more pens on my own than being extremely social.

Myke Hurley: So flying under the radar, making sure you get those purchases in, you know, I did let anyone get in front.

Tiff Arment: Exactly. Now, I should have said hello, but I got I don't know. I felt like everyone was kind of doing their own thing in their own groups. And I know they would have been super friendly if I did say hi and was like, hey, I know you from Instagram.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah. Hey, I was getting I was getting texts.

Tiff Arment: It's like, I just saw Tiff Arman here. Oh, shut it. You did not.

Brad Dowdy: I promise you I did. I promise you.

Tiff Arment: One person came up and said hi. And he was very, very nice and asked if Marco was there. And I was like, no, he's watching our kids. So I could be here. But no, he was very nice. He was from New Jersey. He like dipped on over to the pen show while his kid was in school. And he had to say, I had to go back to New Jersey to pick up my kid.

Tiff Arment: Nice. Nice. Yeah. So it was good.

Franklin Kristoff

Brad Dowdy: So what'd you buy?

Tiff Arment: Well, I got two Franklin Kristoffs. I got I got one of their. Let me take it out here. I got one of their Italian ice pen. So it has like that purple sheen to it, which is kind of neat. And I got it filled with the Philly pen orange. I didn't buy a bottle, but I do get this tremendous model 66 filled with that eyedropper. So I have a lot of it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's a huge pen like the big 66. I have one of those two. It's really cool. Not in the Italian ice, though, which I think is my favorite that I don't own that that tent. I don't know how they do it, but it looks so cool.

Tiff Arment: I know. But I can't. You have to get it in the right light to get that. Totally. Then once you do, especially with the orange in there, it looks really cool. And I got another one of their. Oh, don't roll away. Okay. Get back here. And I got another one of their. I think it's a 45. And it's kind of like I was into the red. All of a sudden the show, everything I bought had some red in it. And it's kind of like a pearled sheen to it in their one of their model 45s. Again, it was like a prototype. So nab that up because it seems like if there's one, then there's none.

Brad Dowdy: So that was one of my pen pity party pens. I bought one in Chicago last year. That baby came out for my pity party.

Brad Dowdy: I was like, oh, look at the little IPO on the cap.

Tiff Arment: Hey, guys.

Tiff Arment: Oh, if I were a cartoonist, I would draw such a funny cartoon of like you and your pen. Oh, my goodness.

Myke Hurley: They're all set around the table. You know, they've got little bottles of ink in front of them.

Tiff Arment: Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Like the little sample bottles, like each one has like a little one.

Myke Hurley: Like the table is super small. Like it's like a little kid's table.

Brad Dowdy: Brad's sitting at it. Yeah. My knee scrunched up.

Myke Hurley: So how was the Franklin Kristoff arrangement? Was it similar to what you'd seen in Atlanta? Like they had like a big table and you could go and try everything out?

Tiff Arment: Oh, yeah. It was exactly the same. Exactly the same. They are like a machine. I have to tell you. Like they you see they have all the prototypes right in the front. So it doesn't clog up any of the workings of testing nibs and everything a little bit further down the line. And then they have, you know, you can test out the nibs. You can test out the ink before you decide which one you want to fill with. And then they have a name doing the work, the nib work at the end. Oh, Jim. Jim. Yes. Yeah. And then he's doing the nib work at the end. He doesn't have a goatee beard anymore. Oh.

Brad Dowdy: Clean shave Jim. Wow. Yeah. So their table's like it's got that bug zapper effect, right? I mean, the door's open and everyone's just like right over there. And their wallets get zapped. And they're the first table too.

Tiff Arment: So it was like, bam. It was right there. Especially since they were pretty much sponsoring the majority of the show. Yeah. But yeah. And then they held, they kept, I heard that they held back a lot of their prototype stuff to put out during each day, each morning. Yeah. They started doing that last year. So that was nice. And yeah. So, and that's, it was, it was just really good. They had a lot of stuff. They had a lot of cases. Um, the ink, the new, the Philly orange ink was really popular. People were grabbing that up real fast in their notebooks. Also, they had a couple of notebooks and things for, for Philly specific. And, um, yeah, I, I'd spent, I, and then once you got their pens, um, they put them in a bag and they said, you know, wait for your name to be called to get the nib work done. And so it was, it was quite a long wait because people were picking up like two, three, four pens. Like, yeah, that's what I heard.

Brad Dowdy: That's what everyone was saying.

Pen Prototypes

Tiff Arment: Yeah. It was like a run on Frank and Kristoff.

Myke Hurley: So, so what's the deal with these prototypes then? Like, are they just like one-offs that they're making or like stuff that they're going to put into production later? Like, what is, what is that all about?

Tiff Arment: I'm not sure. It's, it seems like it's a one-off.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's, it's more of like a few off thing. Like if it's be, there'd be some different material that's not in their stock lineup in a pin, barrel model that, you know, it just doesn't come up for like a full production run. So they'll make several of one color in one style and break them out, sell them just for that. Sometimes they'll introduce new pin models. Like the 45 was one they introduced last year to see, you know, what the feedback is like to see if it becomes a production model pin. And so, yeah, I think they've just mostly play around with a lot of different materials, a lot of different combinations of materials, you know, different color finials with different color barrels that don't make just their standard lineup. And it just, and like in the past couple of years, it just became a thing like, okay, what are you bringing this time? So now they're, they're like fully committed to having to, they kind of have to do it now. So now they're probably like planning where before I don't, I think it was more almost like play test overrun type stuff. Now I think they're probably into like more of a planning thing on what they bring as far as the prototypes go, because like Tiff said, they do purposefully hold stuff back for every day. Like what comes out Friday morning is it for Friday, but Saturdays and Sundays is already pulled back and it's separate from those.

Tiff Arment: It seemed like too, they were, they were trickling out throughout the day, a couple more here and there that they had, I think more stock of because some people got in at eight o'clock for having a weekend pass. And let me tell you that crew, they would have like wiped it clean. And I'm pretty sure that they've, they were trickling some out throughout the day. So people had more of a chance. There was even one that had a Brooks material, I believe that I think I saw on Instagram. And then there was this one awesome one. I wish I got a chance to see it. I only saw it on Instagram because someone bought it pretty much at eight o'clock in the morning. Uh, they called it the snow and it's kind of like, I don't know, it looks like white and sparkly. And I just, I wanted to touch it, but I didn't have any more.

Brad Dowdy: It was gone.

Tiff Arment: And I asked about it too. I'm like, do you have just one back there? I'm like, I don't, I don't need to buy it. I just, I just want to touch it. And they're like, no, we didn't even see it. It was gone so fast. So, um, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And to give you an example of what hits on that table, Myke, in Atlanta, you know, I did the, I have the pen addict model O2 that I sell and then I stock in the store. They did, we had like probably three other samples and prototypes that I didn't choose. So they got those back and they had those out at the Atlanta show and they were bought up immediately, you know, that kind of thing. So like they worked on a bunch of pens for me, you know, so that ends up going back into the stash to be sold at a pen show.

Tiff Arment: Yeah. And they had a cut out a couple of those antique glass ones.

Myke Hurley: Right. Yep. So it seems like it's a combo of stuff that they've made and haven't sold. Plus maybe a little bit of like show exclusives. Yep. Interesting. Huh. So that's, that's kind of cool. Right. I mean, I see why they do it. If they have people lining up at 8am to buy them. Absolutely.

Tiff Arment: And let me tell you, it definitely makes, it gives you the FOMO. Like you're like, oh man, I'm not sure about this pen, but I have to buy it because it's not going to be here anymore. And then you buy it and you're like, okay. Yeah. Because you know what I mean? Because if you hesitate, then you can talk yourself out of it. If after you go walk around the whole show and see some other things, but because it's like someone else is going to pick this up immediately and then you're going to see it on Instagram two hours later and be like, no, that's what I was going to buy. Then. Yeah. So it's a great way to sell pens. It's genius.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yes. Yes. Tell me about this nib holder that's in your picture. It looks really nice.

Tiff Arment: Oh yeah. I picked this up from someone who, uh, Nicola Pang. He had a whole bunch out. Um, he doesn't make them. He has them made. Um, and he sources them from different places. I believe he has a website. Uh, let me see if I can get this right. Uh, no, he has an email address. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I'm, I'm, I know I've met him before.

Nib Holders

Tiff Arment: Possibly Nick, Nick, N I K P on Instagram. Possibly underscore N I K P. Anyway, I'll give you guys a link. Um, so I was just, they just look so beautiful. He had some of them with like wood and resin combinations with like some gold leafing on it and stuff. I was just intrigued by them. And this particular one that I picked up, I could not walk away from cause it's made from a pine cone, which is awesome. Like they poured this, the acrylic resin onto the pine cone and then turned it and it makes this cool pattern. And it was just really, really neat. And I'm like, I could try that. So, you know, I picked that up and he threw in some nibs and he was showing me a couple of things. Like he wrote my name out and he was showing me a couple of things that you could do with it. And it's just more of, it's a, it's a nib holder for, for dipping and you can't just use any ink. You need like a more thicker, a thicker ink. You can't use a very liquid, I don't know, viscose, which, which way is that? Is that thick or thin?

Brad Dowdy: A viscous would be thicker. Thick. Okay. That's the one. More, more viscous.

Tiff Arment: There you go.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Tiff Arment: To attach to the nib. The viscous meniscus. Yeah. Okay.

Tiff Arment: So, yeah. So it was, that's a new thing for, to try out because now I have this beautiful holder and I am a big fan of obviously buying things and having gear and especially having attractive gear. I don't like to try something new with something ugly. So I like to get something pretty because then it encourages me to try the thing with the new beautiful piece of gear that I have for it. So there we go.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I like having those nib. I don't have, I keep looking for like a fancy nib holder like this one. I have just like some of the basic, they call them comic nib holders, you know, just the very, very generic mass manufactured nib holders, but they're fun to just throw in one of those nibs and play around with. I really enjoy just having them around. It's such a different feel than writing with a traditional fountain pen. I quite enjoy it.

Tiff Arment: Yeah. I'm excited to start playing around with it. And then I spent a lot of time with Susan Wirth, which was great. I thought I was going to go get a flex, another flex nib pen. And she's like, you don't want that. She's like, everyone thinks that the flex is all sexy and it's not. And she's like, what you want is an italic. And I was like, okay. And then, so she started showing me a couple and having me write things. And then I bought two italic nib pens. So nice. Thanks, Susan. And they're pretty great. And she gave me a really very nice deal on them.

Brad Dowdy: And I really like that Parker with the red cap on it. That's, I've never seen like that color matchup is pretty cool.

Parker Pens

Tiff Arment: Yeah. I was, like I said, I was big into the red. It was actually, I was debating between two Parkers, both with red caps at her table. So, and it writes lovely. And I'm very attracted to the Parkers. I just, I think it's that arrow clip that I really like. All of my vintage, I have three vintage pens. No, four now. And three of them are Parkers. So, I think that's my thing.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I think we should get into that, Myke. What Tiffany has actually gotten into besides at this pen show, right? I mean, this is kind of. Everything. Kind of wild.

Tiff Arment: I'm a monster. Sure.

Myke Hurley: Let's take a break. And then we've got to dive into that because this, we've got, we've got a whole year to cover. And for TIFF, it seems like it's been quite the year. This week's episode is brought to you by Harry's. For decades, big razor companies have relentlessly increased their profits at the expense of their customers. So, Jeff and Andy started Harry's to fix this. They knew that there was only one way that they could ensure the quality of their blades and keep the prices at a level that they were happy with. So, they bought their own factory. And then by selling directly online, Harry's can offer their blades at about half the price of the big brands that you're used to. Harry's razors include everything that you need for a close, comfortable shave. They have a weighted ergonomic handle, five precision engineered blades of a lubricating strip and trimmer blade, and a travel blade cover as well. They have all the extras that you're going to need, like amazing shave gel or cream. Harry's believes so much in the quality of their razors that they guarantee that quality. You will get a full refund if for any reason you are not happy with your Harry's products. A man that I know is very happy with his Harry's products is Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Well, they keep me out of jail for one. I didn't have to go to the grocery store this week because I had blue apron. So, therefore, I didn't get on the camera on the razor aisle like I accidentally did a couple weeks ago. So, where they think I'm stealing because Harry's just gets delivered straight to my door and the blades just come automatically and my handle never goes out of style or has any problems. So, I just swap in the blades and I'm good to go and I am not under arrest.

Myke Hurley: Which is always a good thing. We like to keep you on the show and out of the clink. Harry's is so confident in the quality of their blades that they want you to try their shave set for free. Just go to harrys.com right now. Enter the code PENADDICT to check out and you will claim your free trial set. And because you're a listener of this show, you'll also get a bonus post-shave balm added to your order for free. All you need to do is just pay for the shipping. That's harrys.com, the code PENADDICT to get your free trial set and free post-shave balm. Thank you so much to Harry's for their support of this show and RelayFM. All right. All right. About a year ago, I spent some time at the Armant's house. It was out in December. And me and Tiff got to talking about pens and art stuff and art supplies. And I decided that I was going to send Tiff just a small package of some pens, some fountain pens that I thought might get her into our world. So I sent a TWSBI Eco and a Pilot Metropolitan. And I think I got the Pop one because it was in teal. So I know how to go straight, like straight for the bullseye. And I think I got you some like teal colored ink as well. Maybe like an Hiroshizuku ink or something. Yep. Little did I know that we would be sitting here a year later. And Tiff has a far greater collection of pens than I do at this point.

Tiff Arment: You're like Dr. Frankenstein, I think. What have I done? It's out of control. It's eating the villagers.

Myke Hurley: So we spoke about this. We spoke about your kind of your deep dives a little bit, I think, when you were on the show last time after Atlanta. You know, and we spoke about some of the stuff that you bought there, like your Newton pen that you bought at the show, which I thought was hilarious that you kind of went straight for a Newton. And the Brooks pen, which you convinced me to buy, the Sky at Night. And we spoke about that a little bit. But since then, you've gone even further and you've purchased an Akaya.

Tiff Arment: Yep.

Tiff Arment: That's a reason. It's a recent. I didn't like just come home from Atlanta and purchase one. I waited a couple months.

Myke Hurley: Uh-huh.

Brad Dowdy: Which one did you go? You researched it well. Yeah, you did good research. You were digging into this pretty hard. I mean, you were asking us questions too and looking at a bunch of different things.

Tiff Arment: I did. And I almost bought one. I almost bought a used one, but the nib wasn't what I wanted. It was the exact same pen and model and everything, but the nib wasn't right. So I decided to just go for it myself. But I got the art model feathers and I got the pink gold plated nib with, and it's the double broad, extra broad. Sorry, they call it extra broad.

Myke Hurley: And this is just flat out one of the most beautiful Nakayas that are available.

Tiff Arment: It's so bright and colorful, right? Like it's.

Brad Dowdy: And it's so different from all of their other pens. Like it's real, real standout to me. I love it.

Tiff Arment: Yeah. I'm a big fan. I like it a lot. The feathers are sparkly. And as Myke said, I think last time on the show, you were describing it because you were over at our house recently and got to see it and use it. It's kind of raised the texture, but it's not makey, right? Is that how you say that? I only read things.

Brad Dowdy: I'll get killed for this maki'i.

Tiff Arment: Maki'i? Okay. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I keep changing my pronunciation.

Myke Hurley: Eventually you'll get it right, right? You just keep saying it in different ways.

Tiff Arment: Yeah. It's like one of those things you're only at home by yourself reading it, right? And so how do you, you know, I don't know anyone, a native Japanese speaker to teach me.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I'll get emails. I'll tell you tomorrow.

Tiff Arment: Okay, good. But it's not that because it's painted with acrylic. So that's why it's not as expensive as some of their other models, but it is just as beautiful. Let me tell you.

Brad Dowdy: I want to know what Myke thought getting his hands on a Nakaya again, because it doesn't happen all the time.

Myke Hurley: No. Outside of pen shows, this is the only time that I ever got to handle them. And I was just so, I'm like, I wanted that one, but like, I don't want to buy it because Tiff has it, right? Like, I want to have my own one. It's nothing to do with you. It's like, I don't want to just buy what you have, you know? I want to get my own Nakaya one that I have. And I found that one where they inverted the, is it Naguru? Yeah. But this is my thing with all Nakayas. As soon as I, I want to buy the one that I touched last. Yeah. Yeah. Because they're just all so incredible.

Nakaya Pens

Tiff Arment: Yeah. But see, I got a, I got a mimic of the Brooks pen. So I bought what you bought.

Myke Hurley: We're going to get to that.

Tiff Arment: But I'm saying, it's not, it's not totally weird to do that.

Myke Hurley: I know. But I've, now I'm like, I have my eye on this one for so long, like the one that I want. So I figure I'm going to get it. But there's nothing to say that a man cannot own two. That's right. And the thing that really blew me away with this one, like as Tiff mentioned, is the fact that it's raised because it's as if they found tiny feathers from a mythical colorful bird and just stuck them on and like lacquered over it. And that is just, it's, it's so cool. And I just wonder like, cause I am, every time I go to Nakaya's website, I just am incredibly intimidated by it. Uh, and, and I noticed that you bought directly from Nakaya.org, right? I did. And what was that experience like?

Tiff Arment: Um, well, I filled out the form like months before I pushed the button to go. Like I looked at it, I went through everything. I, I filled everything out. I took the writing, the little like writing test that they give you towards the end. And then I just, I would stop and I wouldn't push the button because you know what? But the thing is you don't give them any money when you push that button on their website. You go through the whole ordering process and everything. So like, even if you do go as far as like to push the button, you still have to wait for them to send you the invoice and everything. And even at that point, you could be like, nope, nope, nope. I can't do it. You know what I mean? So there, there is that little fail safe, which is really nice. And, but I mean, just going through all of them and their pictures are really good. I think for what you're getting, you're not, especially because you can't really see it in person. Um, I think that their pictures are really telling and that's what it feels a little bit better and nice. Um, and they really do step you through the process through the order. I had a good time doing it. It was a lot of fun. And, and I would recommend anyone using their website and after they, after you do it, they, once you do push the button after months of debating whether to push the button or not, then they send you a very nice email about it. And they give you kind of like a little written out invoice and they tell you to send them money and you say, okay, and you send them the money and then they, they give you follow-ups on how it's going, you know, like, oh, or this, um, let me see if I can jump into my email and see, yeah. Okay. Um, yeah, I've looked for status updates, emails from them, um, being like, oh, you know, we appreciate your order. We just want to let you know that here's the estimated delivery. And then they send you the thing and then they let you know when it was shipped and they give you the, um, Japanese postal tracking number and they are very transparent. Like if you need to email them, they'll, and it's, it's all in English, you know, you can totally communicate. A couple of the words might be a little bit off, but I mean, the majority of us are able to communicate with each other with a couple of words flipped here and there and it's completely fine. You know exactly what they mean. So it was, it was great. And I felt like I was in control of the ordering process, which was really nice because they were communicating directly with me. I wasn't going through another party, um, where like another, like you could miscommunicate something that you wanted, but yeah, I'd highly recommend it. It was good.

Brad Dowdy: So how's it been? How's it been using it? You've been, you, you did good.

Tiff Arment: Oh, it's like butter. I just, I love it. I love it. It's so smooth and beautiful. I'm still a little bit, I'm very much babying it. And I know I shouldn't because of, you know, I feel like what I spent on it, I should really, really be using it, but I don't take it with me anywhere. It stays at home. Um, I still haven't found the right ink to put in it. It's not, it, I have to find the right, the right thing. So I'm still working on that.

Brad Dowdy: What have you been going through? What have you, what have you, uh, fired already? Like, have you like, Oh, I think this is good, but it didn't work out. Like, what have you been trying?

Tiff Arment: Oh, let me get my little notebook here. Um, I had in it, uh, the J. Herbin Ombre de Bray, I don't know. Yeah, no, that's what it's called.

Myke Hurley: We have a video for that. Yep. I'll put it in the shots. It's a J. Herbin.

Tiff Arment: J. Herbin Ombre de Bray. Perfect.

Myke Hurley: There you go.

Tiff Arment: Je suis parler français. Um, so I tried that. It's kind of like a yellowy gold color. I thought maybe that might be nice because I don't want to put anything sparkly in there and mess things up. So I tried that and it's just like, eh. And I thought about, you know, now I'm, now I'm in the thinking phases, which, you know, you get stuck in, in the thinking loop. Yeah. Yep. Do I put a teal in there? Because that's what I like the best. And it's like, Oh, I have so many pens that are teal and it matches better. Do I put a pink in there? I don't know. Like, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Sounds completely familiar.

Tiff Arment: Yeah. Now I'm just, I'm stuck in the thinking ink loop. And I feel like once I get the right one in there, I'm going to use it all the time.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. You'll figure it out. I think so.

Tiff Arment: But I love it. And I definitely know I made the right choice.

Myke Hurley: One of the things that is so intimidating about this process is the form that you fill out. Like, I get really, like, uncomfortable with filling out an invoice form as opposed to just clicking buy. You know?

Tiff Arment: Well, there's so many choices, though. Like, what do you, like, you know, the new choices and stuff?

Myke Hurley: I've been sitting here clicking it. Clicking away. And now I'm at, like, a writing style questionnaire. And I'm scared I'm going to, like, because if I fill out this questionnaire and I kind of don't answer it right, like, I made the mistake, you know? Like, it was me. I made the mistake. And, like, I don't know how heavy my writing pressure is.

Tiff Arment: It doesn't seem like they change it that drastically compared to your answers. I think they think about your answers, but it doesn't seem like it's, I mean, because you wrote with my pen, right? Like, it doesn't seem like, oh, wow, it's so personal to you that I can't write with it, right? Yeah. I don't think you thought that. But I was just intimidated about picking the right nib. I was scared about the pink gold because I'm like, oh, maybe if it's weird, but it's what I really want. And I'm like, but I'm so glad that I did it that way. And then I was afraid about the extra bod. I was worried that it was going to be too broad, which for me, that isn't really a thing. But I still, I was getting afraid to talk myself out of it. And I'm really glad I went with that, too, because it ended up being perfect for me. But yeah, I don't know. It's I don't I don't think that they I think they think about those answers to those questions, but I don't think that they're changing the nib so dramatically that you would feel like you have no course of reversal with a, you know, with a with a nib master who wants to who can fix it up for you or something. Isn't that right, Brad? Like, don't you?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. No, that's what I was going to say is like, you just stay completely moderate, like on your answers, right? You don't press too firm. You don't press too hard. You don't press too soft. You know, you just everything kind of you keep it in the middle range. It'll be as close to stock as possible. Just, you know, figure out which size you want. And then everything else will be essentially standard. Like Tiff's saying, they might just tune it up a little bit. And then, you know, if there is something you need to change, you can take that up afterwards.

Myke Hurley: Like, here's my thing, though. I do write weirdly, right? Like, I don't hold pens in the regular way. So, like, you know, we have we spoke about it so many times on the show that, like, I'll pick up a pen that everybody loves and I just can't use it because it's uncomfortable. And so I'm like, I don't know, like, should I tell them about, like, the fact that I hold the pen at a weird angle? Or, you know, like, will it make it better? Will it make it work? Like, it's just it's all a very intimidating process. But I agree, like, I can get it worked on. But then I'm like, oh, man, like, I screwed it up. You know, I don't know. It's just also because I'm looking at the total of the shopping cart. Right. Right. And like that is right there. And currently it's at $1,000. And I really when that thing arrives, I want it to be perfect. Right. And because it's an obscene amount of money, it's just such a I can see how if you were like, just filled it out and then just left it. It's like, yeah, like threw a grenade and then just ran away. Like, it's such a and I guess it's part of the fun and the excitement and the whole thing about it is like is because it should be a big deal because they're so expensive and they are so incredible. Like, it should feel like a big deal. But I think that that adds to like just the overall like of it all.

Tiff Arment: Well, I did. I definitely filled out that writing section part like four times. I was like, wait a minute. Maybe I'm like, wait. And I'm like, let me go back and write something on a piece of paper while I'm taking this test to like look at every little detail of how I'm holding my pen. And when I started answering everything, like kind of like, oh, like kind of in the middle. Oh, kind of in the middle. Oh, kind of in the middle. I was like, oh, right. It's a little bit. But do they they give you little diagrams on some of them to show you? So I feel like maybe like your writing angle, if it is more broad, like steep or or I don't know, acute.

Myke Hurley: But then it's like the diagrams make it worse for me because the diagrams look nothing like my hand. Right. Like it's a right.

Tiff Arment: They ask you about left about being left handed.

Myke Hurley: They do. But then I like I'm like a like an overhook. Like it's all, you know, it's all a big thing. And I don't know. It's just it's intimidating. But anyway, let's not make this all about Nakaya because there are other there are other things at play here. So you bought a Newton pen. Go on.

Tiff Arment: Yes. But first I need to tell you, are you going to get the little converter with the fish on it? Because it's adorable.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Tiff Arment: I'm going to do it. Just making sure. Because it looks like a tiny fish tank inside of your pen and it's adorable.

Brad Dowdy: It's like it's like a whole extra. That's the one one regret I have is I don't have one of those. I just need to buy one separately. Yeah. I totally get that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. This isn't all about Nakaya, right? Let's let's talk about some of the other stuff that's going on here. So you bought the Newton pen from Sean Newton himself in Atlanta. This is the only Newton you own, right?

Tiff Arment: No, I have another one. Yeah, I have two. It's his Orville model. It's black and white. I could think Invisivu. I think that's what the material is called. And it has a black nib. And I saw it on his Instagram. He had just it was one of the ones that he made and was like, it's for sale. Who wants it? And I was like, I do. So it was one of the first black, like all black and white kind of pens that I really, really liked. It looked kind of neat. I don't know. It's I'll send you a link so you can show a picture of it. He had it on his Instagram. And yeah, I think I bought that in June. So it was one of his his stock, his stock pens. So I have two. I have two Newton pens. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And the one you bought in Atlanta was a case in, right?

Tiff Arment: Yeah. Yeah. An antique case in actually. And it is the fussiest bus pop pen ever. Why is that?

Brad Dowdy: It's pretty though.

Tiff Arment: It's she's she's very pretty, but she's kind of a bee. Yeah.

Tiff Arment: Yeah. It's just it has the piston filler on the back. So I can't ever open it because I'm very intimidated by that because I've already broken it and sent it back to Sean and he fixed it because I forgot what I was doing and just untwisted it. And when you do that, just like if you're going to refill another pen to have the, you know, use the converter, you just open it up. But with this, the bladder and everything is kind of glued in. So if you twist it open, it undoes it. And so I made a big mess of it and he fixed it for me. Very embarrassed, but we made it work. I didn't irreversibly break it. And it also can't get the case and can't get wet because it is old. And very delicate material. So I can't do that. And so it's it's finicky. Beautiful, beautiful. And I love writing with it when I do have it filled. But she's finicky. Do you guys have any finicky pens that are beautiful, but finicky? Yeah. And frightening. Yeah. But you keep them because they're pretty.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And because it cost me so much money. Yeah.

Tiff Arment: Why do they cost so much extra money?

Myke Hurley: The beautiful finicky pens. My big finicky pen right now is my custom Edison. So I had the Menlo. I was going to say the same thing. And just every now and then just ink starts pouring out the back of it. I'm like, what is going on? Why is this happening?

Brad Dowdy: So I was totally going to say my Edison Menlo, which I absolutely adore. But it's finicky. It's a challenge.

Tiff Arment: Yeah. They're not everyday writers.

Brad Dowdy: And I've had to send it back to Brian Gray before. You know, it's just so the story sounds familiar.

Tiff Arment: That makes me feel better. But it is on a beautiful, it's on a Brooks stand on my desk. And I look at it every day. It's definitely one of the ones that stays out all the time. But Tiffany Pen, you are tricky.

Myke Hurley: You mentioned Brooks. So Jonathan Brooks, Carolina Pen Company. You bought a Sky at Night.

Tiff Arment: I did. I said I want it to look just like Myke's because I wanted to buy it and he bought it. I was like, I already spent too much money in Atlanta. And I talked myself out of that pen. And then Myke bought it, which was so much for the better because you love that pen so much. I do. But it just made me keep thinking about it. And then so he made me one. And I even think he made the resin. He remade a cast for mine because I was like, I want it to be like Myke's where there's big areas of it being dark and then the swirl. Because I seen him do some newer ones with the Sky at Night material. And it's all very bright, which is also gorgeous. But it wasn't quite what I was looking for. So he made me one specifically like that. And it took a... He's backed up. He has a lot of work. He does a lot of stuff. So I ended up getting two from him. That one and this other one, it's kind of like a white resin. It was another one that I saw a picture of on his Instagram. And I'm like, I need one of those. And he just changed the clip for me and did something a little bit different. And it's like a white... It kind of looks like a wood grain white acrylic. And then it has bands of kind of like an aqua minty teal color. It's very pretty.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I haven't seen that. I don't want to check that one out.

Tiff Arment: Yeah. And on the Sky at Night, I got the... How do you pronounce it? The Fude nib? Yeah, Fude. Yeah. Fude.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, which then made me go and buy one, which I love. I love my Fude nib. It's one of the weirdest things that I have. But I absolutely love it.

Tiff Arment: It's so fun. I took it out at the pen show. And someone was like, whoa, that one's broken. And I was like, nope.

Myke Hurley: Little do you know, gather around.

Tiff Arment: Let me show you.

Tiff Arment: They're like, what did you do for that?

Myke Hurley: I made it better.

Tiff Arment: Yeah.

Tiff Arment: They're like, I've never seen one that bad. Do you drop it? Yeah, I was like, no.

Myke Hurley: So where right now, like, what are your preferences for a good pen? Like, what do you look for now?

Tiff Arment: I think now it's mainly style. I like a lot of these more handmade, artist-inspired pens, I guess you would say. What would you call them? I mean...

Brad Dowdy: No, I think that's very accurate. Yeah. I mean, it's definitely more of a custom. You know, it's very different than, like, stock models. Yeah. No, it's just that uniqueness of their style and creativity. It's essentially art, right? So...

Tiff Arment: Yeah, exactly. Like, I'm more drawn... Figuring out what fits you. Yeah, I'm more drawn now to, like, the Nakayas, the Brooks, the Newtons, because... And now the... What is it? The... What's the Hawaiian one? I'm very excited. Oh, Canalea. Canalea. Yeah. I'm very looking forward to getting my hands on one of those. Yeah. That's what I like now. And if I... A more modern pen, like one of the regular standard company pens, I... It has to be, like, a really kind of cool, different edition for me to buy it.

Lamy

Tiff Arment: But I am looking forward to that new Lamy with the blue. Their new blue for 2017.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's a good color. And we haven't put that in the show yet. We should do that, Myke. They're starting to release their... This was the AL Star color for 2017. They're starting to release some of their limited stuff. Yeah.

Tiff Arment: Yeah. Definitely going to grab one of those. I also got one of the black guillotine vanishing points.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Tiff Arment: I got one of the... I like that a lot. I like the texture of it. Again, it has to be something, like, unique and kind of a little bit weird. And that's what I like.

Brad Dowdy: I like it. That's a good way to put it. And, yeah, that's kind of what I'm feeling these days as well. You know, you just know, like, a person was behind this. Not that a person didn't make these other pens, but, you know, a lot of them maybe just came off a machine production line, which is great. And I have some lovely pens that I use every day that are made that way. But you know these were... There's something a little bit extra, something a little bit more special that you know. It's like someone was really involved in it.

Myke Hurley: When it looks weird or there's a crazy color or there's a bonkers material or something, it's like this didn't just come from a machine. Like, somebody had an idea to this. It looks designed, and I like that. Right. It's like I look right now at what sits on my desk, and the pens that sit on my desk now are so different from the pens that sat on my desk, like, 18 months ago. Like, they tend to be bright and vivid, and they tend to be acrylics rather than, you know, metals. And they've got swirls in them, and I have stands for them. I think I've just... This is just where I am now. And I think I've been speaking about this a little bit maybe over the last six months. It's just like I really like my pens to be pieces of art now. Mm-hmm. Because I've really kind of, like, I have found what I like to use. Like, I know what I like to use now. Like, I just like to use fountain pens, really. I love to collect Retro 51s for, like, the everyday stuff or, like, if I need to throw a pen in my bag, and I just like having those. But everything else is just, like, it's just fountain pens. I had a brief flirtation of mechanical pencils that was mostly passed. And I just like things to be big and bold. And that's kind of where I am right now. And this is what is interesting to me. And it's why, you know, it's why I've put in an order for my first Newton, and it's why I'm now looking at the Gaia. Like, this is kind of just where I am in my pen addict-ness.

Tiff Arment: It's a nice place to be. It happens. It happens. One of my favorite new pens from the year that I got was one of the Pelican M400, the white tortoiseshell. But the one from Bung Box with the Makai, the cherry blossoms painted on the cap. Yeah. It is so pretty. I just, I love this pen. I just eat it up. And again, it's a regular company pen. You know, it's a Pelican, but it just has that extra touch to it. It has the artist's signature on it. And I freakishly got it from Amazon. And because if you go to the Bung Box site, there's a little button on top that says, like, see our American store. And you click it, and it's like a link to like one pen through Amazon. And they only put like one thing up here and there. And they happened to put this up. And I was like, give it to me. And now they don't have it anymore.

Brad Dowdy: Telling all the secrets.

Tiff Arment: Oh, sorry.

Brad Dowdy: No, I'm just kidding.

Tiff Arment: I was like, wait, what is that crazy noise?

Brad Dowdy: Got to leave them all for us.

Tiff Arment: I thought Skype was making a strange noise. That was my shush. What is leaking?

Brad Dowdy: No, it was funny. When I wanted the Love Pink back in the spring, and I'd been emailing them a bunch. And they finally emailed me. They like, go to the Amazon store now and press the button, and then we'll package it. I'm like, okay.

Tiff Arment: Oh, that's good to know, too. So they'll put something up there?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, I didn't know you did this.

Tiff Arment: You can't navigate it unless you... Yeah. I was like, nope, can't read any of this. I'm just clicking buttons here, hoping a picture pops up, because otherwise I don't know what's going on.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So they do that from time to time, which is pretty cool. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because even the translation, like Google can only do so much. You know? Yeah. Right. It can only go so far. And like, I've clicked the translate button right now, and it's... There's a lot of images on this page, right? As opposed to just text. Like, images that have text within them, and obviously they can't be translated. So yeah, that's interesting. But like, you know, it doesn't help me, because it's still the US store. I think I can still order from the Amazon store. Like, they've got something up there right now, like it's called the Demoda Fountain Pen. Looks kind of cool, but it isn't either of the ones that you have, either of you, which I'm so jealous of both of you. You got the Sailor, right, Brad? The Pink Glove Sailor and Tiff. I've seen the Pelican that Tiff has, and oh my God. My God. Oh yeah. It's fantastic. It's stunning. Absolutely stunning.

Tiff Arment: Yeah, Myke, you do have friends. So where will we be in a year? Oh, where will I be in a year?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. When you come back on in a year's time, what's going to happen? Like, maybe by then, like, you and Brad are hosting the show together or something, and I just get pushed out.

Tiff Arment: Or if I've just transformed into, like, Leopold. Oh yeah. And I have binders full of Nakaias.

Tiff Arment: I feel like I'm slowly morphing into her. Like, I see her Instagram stuff, and I'm like, I can buy that. It's okay now. Because she has like 30. I have one. Right. It's fine. And then I'm like, I have two. It's fine. She has like 40, right? My wish list is pretty much her feed. Yeah. Yeah, I know. I know, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Leia has some just, just, oh my God. Yep. I remember in Atlanta when she just grabbed, like, just got hold of her Nakaias out, and just me and Tiff were just passing them backwards and forwards to each other, just marveling at them all.

Nakaya

Tiff Arment: Yeah, we were kind of just making a puddle of drool.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I don't know if everyone knows this, and it's not a secret, but she is going to be at the Chicago Pen Show this year, I know for sure. So anyone who's considering going to that show, you might want to make extra special. I think she's even going to do a class there. I'll have to go back and look at the site and see what the class is on, but I know she will be in Chicago this year.

Tiff Arment: Pronounce her name for me again, because I think I'm always saying it wrong.

Brad Dowdy: Leia.

Tiff Arment: Leia. I always say Leia. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Leia. Apologies. I love you. Yep. We all love her. I want to be you.

Brad Dowdy: Oh my gosh, we all do. She's the best. She's the best.

Tiff Arment: You're my, like, pen fairy godmother.

Brad Dowdy: That's perfect.

Myke Hurley: Tiff, if people want to find you online, where should they go?

Tiff Arment: Uh, probably Twitter and Instagram. Um, Tiff Arment or Tiffany Arment. I'm out there. I have a snarky face cartoon and that's me.

Myke Hurley: And of course, if you, if you want to hear more Tiff, you should go to relay.fm slash top four.

Tiff Arment: Oh yeah. The podcast I do.

Myke Hurley: Uh, Tiff is also a frequent contributor to, uh, The Incomparable, um, and especially Low Definition, which is a hilarious podcast that you should listen to. How would you describe Low Def?

Tiff Arment: Um, it is, hmm.

Tiff Arment: It's not like a game that people might know. it's totally different than something that might be called boulder dash totally different but but if you like boulder dash you will love low definition so people should go check it out i'll

Myke Hurley: put a link in the show notes to a recent to to low def so people can go check that out too it is hilarious you think is it funny is it interesting to listen to people play a board game on a podcast the answer is yes yeah if you want to find our show notes this week which include lots and lots of links to lots of beautiful pens go to relay.fm slash pen addict slash 240 thanks again to our sponsors this week for supporting the show pen chalet blue apron and harry's you should support them because it helps support us if you want to find brad online he's over at penaddict.com and knock.co he is dowdyism on twitter and penaddict on instagram i am i mike i am yke uh thanks so much for listening we'll be back next time until then say goodbye bread and tiff goodbye yes