The Pen Addict 37/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	37
Title:	Off The Deep End
Release Date:	January 8th, 2013
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 37
Audio File:	Audio Episode 37
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 37
Length:	5050 min <br />0.833 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to episode 37 of The Pen Addict podcast, your weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and all the analogue tools that we love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined, as always, by your host and mine, the cosmonaut of pen aficionados, Mr. Brad Dowdy. Hello, sir. How are you?

Brad Dowdy: How are you, Myke?

Space Pen

Myke Hurley: I am very well. I am very well. I have a space pen in front of me, in case you wouldn't have been able to guess.

Brad Dowdy: I figured that. I figured that. But, you know, I did, I don't know if you caught my tweet in the wee hours of this morning. I did find a new dream job title that you could have worked in there.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, what was that?

Brad Dowdy: Did you catch that one? One of my friends, Patrick Ng, who writes the description blog, who is one of my absolute most favourite people in the world. He has the coolest stuff before everyone else does. He had an interview with a gentleman whose job title, he referred, Patrick referred to this gentleman as a stationary commentator. And I was like, mm-hmm, I think that's my dream job right there.

Brad Dowdy: Brad Dowdy, stationary commentator. You could just say.

Myke Hurley: You could just put that on there anyway.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. Let's do it. I thought that was pretty cool. So, yeah. But, hey, I'll take cosmonaut. That's pretty strong as well. I don't know if my stomach could handle that as well as stationary commentator, though.

Myke Hurley: These things, they get us. Never mind.

Myke Hurley: So, what's on the docket today?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, we have quite a bit of follow-up from some things we've talked about in the past two or three episodes that I wanted to check in on and you wanted to discuss. And then we have a short little topic that our friend on Twitter, if you can't tell, we're active on Twitter and app.net very much. We'll give you those names later. But our friend Joe Libos sent you and I an interesting little dinosaur picture. And we're going to discuss that kind of weird and odd pens today. And, you know, I tracked down some pretty normal, funny pens and I tracked down some really weird stuff. So, I thought we'd just, you know, break it up a little bit. You know, we've got some good follow-up. We'll talk about a lot of our usual things that we've been covering for a while and then we'll just take a short little diversion to talk about some fun and funny type of stuff that we've never covered on the podcast.

Myke Hurley: Sounds great, Brad. So, where are we going to kick off today?

Brad Dowdy: I think let's start off with the follow-up of an email I got from a listener on the Platinum fountain pens that we kind of ended on last week where both of us were kind of – we didn't really know a whole lot about it.

Platinum Pens

Myke Hurley: Yeah, we've had a bunch of – I've had a bunch of tweets this week from people saying that they were actually quite popular in the UK in the 80s. They were a big brand then and they used – they were used in schools and things like that. And I've had some people as well also contact me and say that they've tried them out or they've got them on the way. So, yeah, they are on my list. I mean they're on my mental list. I've not yet transferred it to the pen list but I'm going to do that right now.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think it's – just kind of looking at it, I think it's one of those things that happened where the brand had been around since the early, mid-1900s and then just kind of petered out towards the end of the century. And it's kind of getting a refresh now as you can tell. I mean both you and I just all of a sudden started seeing these Platinum pens when we hadn't really seen them before. And it just kind of looks like it's a brand refresh. Kaweco did kind of the same thing back many years ago where they were a long, existing, respected brand and then just kind of had a down period for 10 or 20 years before they got a refresh and kind of a reboot of the line. And so this pen is interesting because a lot of people that – like you said, we got a lot of feedback just on that little blurb of us saying, yeah, we really don't know a lot about this. And we got a lot of feedback, most of them calling you a youngster, which I quite enjoyed those comments.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because obviously they're – we mentioned they were a UK brand. So the fact that I wasn't aware of them was telling of my age because they were used in the 80s in schools.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. And then I got an email from a reader or a listener named Hugh. And let me just read a little bit of it because he delved into some of the whys of why Platinum exists and why it's popular and what things it's used for. So let me read this real quick. It said, Hi, Brad. He mentions the brand by name. And then Hugh mentions that you can find – we'll put these links in the show notes. You can find more information and some instructional material and even watch Mr. Reynolds' TV shows from the Reese College website. Hugh goes on to say, I'm studying Mr. Reynolds' teachings through both this TV show – his TV show recordings and the textbook he used for his classes and the TV shows. I hope this helps fill in some of the information on Platinum with some interesting history. So I thought that was cool to kind of have someone who had been there and done that, if you will. He grew up with it and is now revisiting, learning about handwriting from this Mr. Reynolds gentleman who was apparently a Platinum fan and a professor. And I think that's pretty cool. I guess he had some TV shows where he was showing off his handwriting and how to write in italics and things like that. So that's the kind of feedback that blows my mind when we do a show like this, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, just those little bits, those little nuggets of information.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that someone – a listener like Hugh would take the time and send Myke and I this type of information. Just – we really, really appreciate these kind of things because I wouldn't have dug this up on my own. I've looked through the history of Platinum, but to really have this anecdotal type of email saying, I've used that. I'm a fan of this. And it's really cool. So we definitely appreciate that kind of feedback and it was an educational experience as always. And that's what it's all about a lot of times.

Myke Hurley: I'm on their website at the moment, Platinum's website, trying to find the pronunciation. They don't have it on their website from what I can see.

Brad Dowdy: So last night I had the same question when I was putting together the show notes. What is the correct pronunciation? And I did just some Google searches. I ended up on a post on Fountain Pen Network. It was really the only thing I could come up with. And it was pretty much a fight over whether it's just supposed to be Platinum. And that was already kind of taken and you just pronounce it with a silent G. And the other option was Plat-tig-num, which is really hard to say even though you see it. It just – it doesn't roll off the tongue. You want to call it Platinum. But it's – the emphasis seems to be on the TIG on that second syllable there as best as I could find. But I wouldn't profess that to be accurate. It was not on Platinum's website. I can tell you that because I dug through there. It's not a – it's a nice website. It's not a very deep website.

Myke Hurley: I also thought potentially it could be Platinum.

Myke Hurley: That might be stretching it a bit too far. But I think Platinum sounds better than Platignum. That's not a good brand name. Right. Although Platinum is not easy to spell by vocalizing. But they've been around for a very, very long time.

Brad Dowdy: Well, maybe I can email Hugh back or if Hugh's listening, since he's heard Mr. Reynolds mention the brand by name, he can tell us how it was pronounced.

Myke Hurley: That's a good idea. Yeah. That would be good. Or if anybody else like who has used them, you know, we've had a bunch of people that have used them. But obviously we have not heard them say it. We've just seen them type it. So if anybody has, you know, not just an idea but like some sort of information as to why it's called such and such way, we'd love to know. But I guess the amount that we're talking about, one of us has got to get one, right?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. You know, it's on the radar. It's not near the top of my list to be honest with you right now. I've got a lot of other things I want. But it's only – just the base level pins are about $25. So I'll get one eventually. I'm not going to rush out and get one. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: You'd think that I should be able to come buy one quite easily though really, wouldn't you?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I think it's part of just this whole reset of the brand. They're probably just not pushed in the normal places. You might run across them, you know, on a daily basis. But I bet, you know, maybe by the end of the year you'll start seeing them more.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I'm looking at the where to buy to see if there's – I don't know. Find out where to buy. It's just a contact form.

Brad Dowdy: It's no good. Yeah. Like I was saying, it's not a fully fleshed out deep website. It's got minimal information.

Myke Hurley: And they have British quotes on there, which is nice. Mm-hmm. So there you go.

Myke Hurley: So is that all we've got on Platygnum?

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yes. That is it.

Myke Hurley: So I have some follow-up myself this week. Okay. So I've got a couple of purchases have arrived. I was a bit bummed out last week. I was having a bad day. And I said on Twitter that there's only one thing that can – there was only one thing that can change my mood that day, and that was to go and buy a new pen. And I was on the lookout for something very specific. I was going to go look for a Lamy AL Star. Is it AL Star? Is it AL Star?

Brad Dowdy: I mean, I could call it AL Star just because AL Star sounds stupid, and it doesn't have a second L to make it all star. But, I mean, it's AL for aluminum, right? Yeah. Or aluminum.

Myke Hurley: Exactly. Aluminium. So that's –

Brad Dowdy: I call it AL Star just for that purposes. There's another one. We've talked about this in a few episodes. We read and see all these things and have these personal conversations in our head about what some of this – how to pronounce some of these things. And then when you have to say them out loud for the first time, you're like, is that really correct? Is that accurate? So, yeah. I go with AL Star, but I'm willing to be dissuaded from that.

Myke Hurley: Because Cueco have the AL Sport, don't they? Right. Also an aluminum pen. Which I think is all sport because that just sounds like it would be. Yeah. But anyway. You go with that. All star, though, isn't it? All sports and all – I mean, they're terms that people use. Anyway, so I've got an AL Star. I went and picked one up.

Myke Hurley: It's relatively cheap.

Myke Hurley: I went and picked it up like in a physical store. And I bought the – I guess it's silver.

Myke Hurley: I found out through later looking at these that there aren't actually many different colors of the AL Star. They have like a graphite, aluminum body, which is why I've got a red and a blue. I think that's kind of it. I think there might be a black one as well. But there aren't many colors of this at all that I've been able to find when searching around online. And it's the Safari that then has the many, many, many colors because they're kind of the same pen, right?

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah. Same overall design, different barrel materials.

Myke Hurley: So I have some observations. The Lamy logo is kind of stamped into the aluminum. And I don't think it looks as good as the way it's stamped into the Safari. Obviously, they can't stamp it deep because it's thin aluminum. So that kind of leaves it to me looking a little peculiar. Like it hasn't been fully stamped. It kind of looks a bit stressed. Gotcha. And that's just because, obviously, of the machining process. The pen is nice and light. The aluminum's got a nice texture to it. So it feels nice in the hand. And it's as light as the Safari, which is excellent considering, you know, that it's obviously made of metal. But I know aluminum is very light anyway.

Myke Hurley: So we are, you know, you've mentioned the nibs are the same pretty much. But I found that this has taken a lot more breaking in than the Safaris that I've previously owned. Okay.

Nib Size

Brad Dowdy: So what nib size?

Myke Hurley: Medium, yeah. Okay. It just hasn't initially hasn't been as smooth and has been a bit shaky at points. Still good. But I was taken aback that it wasn't perfect initially. As I've always found Lamy Pens to be, I've owned about three or four Safaris. And it surprised me.

Brad Dowdy: So you went with the stock ink cartridge blue?

Myke Hurley: Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Medium nib. You think, is it writing kind of, it's like drier and skipping, just not smooth?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, skipping and at points was quite scratchy and felt maybe more like a fine than medium. Medium. Huh. It has kind of, after giving it some pressure, seems to have opened the nib up a little. Okay. And it's now writing more like the Safari. Because I was testing the Safari that I have and the All-Star against each other to sort of see the way that they feel. And the All-Star is definitely harder to, was harder to write with. It has got better. I've been using it for a few days. And the situation has improved. But it just, I thought it was worth mentioning.

Brad Dowdy: But it could just be a one-off. Yeah. That sounds like it's pretty noticeable though.

Myke Hurley: It was, yeah. I was a little bit disappointed initially. But it's come into its own again and I'm happy.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, I think I've got three Safaris, a Vista, which uses the same nib, and a Nex, Lamy Nex, which uses the same nib. And they're all, I haven't had any noticeable issues with any of those nibs. And I think I've got EF, F, and M nibs. So three different sizes. I've definitely never had them, none of my Lamy's right, dry, or really skip. They're not the smoothest nib on the page. There's a little bit of feedback on there. But I've never not had a consistent line with them. And they're always fast starters and smooth writers. And they put down a good bit of ink on the page compared to some other pens. So, yeah, that's interesting. So maybe it'll work itself out. But, yeah, I'm not sure.

Myke Hurley: The Nex always intrigues me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's pretty good. I go back and forth on that one. I liked it a lot when I got it. And then I don't know what it was. I don't know if it was something. I don't know what about it made me stop using it. I just like, oh, I just maybe I went back to the Safari like it a little bit better. But I like the barrel. I don't like the cap a lot. It's a little bit of a larger size cap. It doesn't make the pin unbalanced when you post the cap or anything like that. It's just a little bit larger visually. Maybe so that's what didn't appeal to me. But the grip is nice because it's the same, you know, built-in, you know, grip design. With the, you know, the notches where your fingers go. But it's a rubber-based grip instead of just, you know, built into the plastic like on the Safari and AL Star. So I do like that. And the barrel is probably the same aluminum as the AL Star. Just a little bit different design.

Brad Dowdy: It's a good pin. I mean, it's definitely worth having one. That's not one like the Safari where, you know, if a new cool color comes out, I wouldn't rush out and get it. But it's definitely worth having one. And I keep a handful of fountain pens uninked. And I'm always picking that one up going, you know, I really should ink this one up and use it again. Because it's interesting enough. But I've never just fallen head over heels with it.

Myke Hurley: The Vista that you mentioned, I think that was the first Lamy that I owned. I didn't know it because I didn't really pay attention to the name then. They're looking at it because it's the clear one, isn't it? Yes.

Brad Dowdy: It's essentially the Safari, but it's clear.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I've owned one of those. It's peculiar that they broke that out into its own product.

Brad Dowdy: I thought that was very odd too. You would think it would just be called the Safari and just be, you know, the...

Myke Hurley: The clear one.

Brad Dowdy: Translution, yeah. The clear Safari.

Myke Hurley: Like if they only had one color. Like if the Safari was green and that was all. Then you would kind of, okay, they name every color or whatever. Yeah. It was just, it's very peculiar to me that they... I didn't know that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I refer to it as my Safari Vista all the time, but that's not really the actual name of it. It's just the Vista.

Myke Hurley: That's kind of what it is though. Right. Do you know what I mean? Like it really... I mean, where the AL Star is like the Safari aluminium, right? Mm-hmm. But it is a product line. There are different colors. But the Vista, or the Vista, however you say, I don't, you know.

Myke Hurley: The Vista is very much just a Safari with clear plastic. Yep. Which hasn't been painted.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly.

Myke Hurley: Very peculiar. Very peculiar indeed.

Fountain Pens

Brad Dowdy: Well, I hope the All Star works out for you. Because that's a cool pen. That's actually one pen I do not, one fountain pen I do not have. I have that in a rollerball. I think it's the same color as yours, but I never use it because I hate that refill.

Myke Hurley: There you go.

Myke Hurley: So also, I had a patent level package arrive today that I've been waiting on for some time, and I was actually concerned it was never going to arrive. And that is my Field Notes. So my Field Notes Expedition Edition and my Field Notes Space Pen. Nice. They have both arrived today. Now, you have the Expedition. You did not have the Space Pen because you already have a Space Pen. Correct. Correct. Yes, I thought so.

Myke Hurley: So, yes, so the Expedition Edition has arrived. I did probably what everybody else did. Tried to rip it. So I opened the Expedition Notebooks, tried to rip them, and was pleasantly surprised at how tough the paper is.

Myke Hurley: So, yes, the Expedition Edition, for anybody that doesn't know, is the really, really strong paper of the Field Notes. So this is the – we spoke about it a couple of weeks ago, didn't we, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: Yes, yes. And it's essentially plastic paper, if you will.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's kind of – it's interesting as the notebooks have a funny smell to them. Yeah, they do. Which is not normal. Basically, a lot of this is not normal for Field Notes. The front covers feel weird because, obviously, they're using the same paper. What's the name of the paper, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, you put me on the spot. I want to call it UGO.

Myke Hurley: But it's not – Yupo. Yupo Synthetic Paper. See, I was close. You were very close. Yeah, so the cover – the covers, yeah, I think they are made of the same stuff. So they feel weird because you're used to the kind of textured card. So that's weird. And kind of when I picked it up, I was like, these feel cheaper because of it?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I can see that in a way. They do.

Myke Hurley: But the paper is very impressive in that I can't rip it.

Myke Hurley: I'm trying right now. All it's doing is just sort of creasing and folding. Like I can't – it won't – no, it's impossible. Well, I'm sure. For me, it's impossible. Anyway, I'm not being – I'm not able to just rip one page here very easily.

Brad Dowdy: Light it on fire real quick.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, okay. I'll do that. I'm sure nothing will go wrong. But yeah, see, the funny thing is like you sort of open the book and there is a strange plastic smell. So that's not as – I don't know. It's not as nice as usual, you know, because you just don't usually get that in any way. But the space pen comes in a nice little package. So it's in a clear plastic box and you open it and the space pen is held in place by a foam, gray foam, which is made to look like the moon. So there are like divots and stuff in the foam. I don't know if this is a usual thing for space pen packaging.

Brad Dowdy: It is. It is. It's like little craters of the moon.

Space Pen

Myke Hurley: Yeah, which I thought was pretty cool. The space pen itself is actually a very nice pen.

Brad Dowdy: It's a really good pen. I'm a big proponent of the space pen.

Myke Hurley: So it's nice and light and it feels extremely strong. It's got good weighting. It's a sort of – what I really like about this pen is that I can comfortably put the cap on. Now most regular listeners will know that I do not like to put caps on my pens. But because the pen is so heavily weighted in the actual barrel and the pen itself, the cap is just hollow plastic or whatever material it is this is made out of. So when you put the cap on the end of the pen, it gives the pen a good size, which is a sort of regular pen size, but doesn't add any weight whatsoever. So it doesn't feel like – it just feels like this is part of the pen barrel and the weight distribution is good. On the – I actually love the way it writes on this paper. Right. Because it's very smooth. Now obviously as most people may – any sort of pen aficionado would have worked out that I obviously would like smooth writing experiences because of the types of pen sizes that I get. So I typically like fountain pens and go for broads and mediums and then get like points sevens and point fives in gel pens and stuff. Like, you know, because I like good ink flow and for the – for it to just to float across the page without any scratching and a little friction. So the ballpoint on this plastic paper is very, very comfortable indeed.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it writes really, really well. And like I commented originally, there's – it's clear why they released this pen at the time they released this paper.

Myke Hurley: Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: Because they want these things to go hand in hand because your options are really limited otherwise.

Myke Hurley: So I haven't tried this yet, Pat. Pat? Brad? Yeah. You can be Pat if you want to. Hello, Michael. That is Brad's Patrick Rowan impression of the Enough podcast on 17 decibels. It was good. It was very good. So I now have the Lamy Ale star in my hand and I have in front of me the Field Notes Expedition.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Do you need a drum roll?

Myke Hurley: Maybe. I'm going to see what happens here. Okay.

Myke Hurley: So it feels very comfortable.

Myke Hurley: But – so it's nice to write with. But I feel like none of the ink is being kept on the page. So I'm now going to – I've written down hello there. Oh, dear. Well, I just smudged it. And basically there's no word left.

Brad Dowdy: So it turns – what happens is – so you have letters and they look pretty and they look wet. They're obviously not going to dry. So when you run your finger across it, there's no more lettering. It turns it into like a black block or whatever ink color you have in there, blue.

Myke Hurley: I will put a picture in our show notes of how that has turned out.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, if you didn't smear it, it would probably still be wet tomorrow.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's a shame because you are just writing on plastic, aren't you?

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: So you'll get a lot more use out of your space pen than you will your expedition editions unless you're traveling to the Antarctic.

Myke Hurley: Very true, which I don't plan to. You sure?

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Okay.

Myke Hurley: Oh, dear. Poor, poor. Lamy. It didn't need that treatment in the notebook.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. What a shame. But, yeah, in the end, and I've covered it on the blog, if you have your field notes, Expedition Edition, hybrid ballpoint inks work great in it. You know, your Jet Streams and your Acro Balls and your Space Pens, not a hybrid, but, you know, traditional ballpoints and hybrid ballpoint inks is what you want to stick with for that. And don't even bother with anything else. It's even pencil. Pencil's fine. It smears, though. The ballpoints hold up pretty well in this paper, and that's what they're made for. You know, this is not a knock on field notes. They made this for a very specific purpose. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: If this was how they made the books, they would not be as popular as they are. Yes. And these are a standard book now, though, aren't they?

Brad Dowdy: This is going to be a stock edition. Yes, they will continue to make this. This is not a limited edition. They did allude to the fact that the price might go up. Which makes sense. I think that was it.

Myke Hurley: Because it probably will be more expensive for them to make them or to stock them, to keep them, et cetera, et cetera. I would expect.

Brad Dowdy: I would absolutely expect it. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And that cost will probably increase over time.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So they will be added to my now growing field notes collection.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And I will probably never use them. But I like that I have them. I mean, we are inherently, I believe, I personally believe that all stationary aficionados are inherently collectors. Because we wouldn't buy more than one pen at a time if we weren't amassing some sort of collection. Because the average human being will take one pen and they will use it until it dries out or they lose it. We do not do that. We are collectors. So my field notes expedition edition will be added to my notebook collection.

Brad Dowdy: I think that's a very accurate statement.

Myke Hurley: And do you remember last week we were talking about some resolutions and I said about how I'm going to use my notebooks. I have already done that. So I believe I mentioned this. So I was coming to the end of my Rodia, my work Rodia journal. Right. And I wanted to buy another one. But instead I've used one of the Moleskines that I have on my shelf here. Because rather than me just buying another one, I need to use up what I've actually got. Right.

Myke Hurley: So I did that. Right. I think we should take a quick break because we're actually running quite long. We're at half an hour already today.

Second Topic

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Which is good. That's kind of how I anticipated this episode would go. We had more follow-up than we do a major topic. So yeah, let's do our advertiser. And then we'll – I really only have probably a few minutes left to talk about. But it should be fun and kind of funny to talk about the few things I have.

Myke Hurley: Excellent. I've seen the notes and it's going to be a good second topic today. I'm sure of that. So I would like to take a quick break to thank our sponsor this week. And of course that is those fine folks over at squarespace.com who give you everything you need to make an amazing website. Squarespace is a fully hosted, completely managed environment for creating and maintaining a beautiful website, blog, or portfolio. It doesn't matter how experienced you are when it comes to building websites. You can put something amazing together in minutes. You don't have to worry about hosting, scaling, integration with social services like Twitter and Facebook. You don't have to worry about getting a designer. You don't have to worry about finding a geeky friend who can help you fix something when it all goes wrong. You don't need to worry about secondary analytics projects or finding an app in the app store to post to your blog. All of those things are built into the Squarespace package. So let me break those down for you very quickly. Hosting. So Squarespace comes with rock solid hosting built right in. My sites never go down. It doesn't matter who links to them. Sites never stutter. They're always really fast. Scaling. Same thing. It doesn't matter how many people come to visit my site. It doesn't mean if they all come at once, you would never even notice it. Because the Squarespace site loads just as fast if there's one person on it or a thousand people on it. It does not make a difference at all. Integration with social services. So you can have Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Flickr. You can have all of those feeds display on your page using Layout Engine. You can add these blocks in so you can have them all displayed as well as text and other photos, videos and other media content. So you can have all your status updates and stuff posted there. Or every time you post to your site, you can have it tweet out or post to Facebook and things like that for you. You don't need to worry about designers. They have fantastic templates that are built right in to Squarespace. They feature responsive web design. They're really stunning. They have 24-7 award-winning customer support. They all respond in minutes. They have fantastic iOS and Android apps that allow you to post on the go and view your built-in analytics and statistics that are built right in to Squarespace. You can view them from the app and you can view them on the website too. Everything you need. I want you to go and try all this out. Go to squarespace.com forward slash 70 decimals and you can start your free trial. This also helps support us so Squarespace will know you've found out about them through us. If you want to sign up for a plan after this point, and I'm sure you will, Squarespace starts at $10 a month for the standard plan and $20 a month for an unlimited plan. If you sign up for a year, you will automatically get 20% off. And if you sign up for two years, you'll get 25% off that price. If you decide to purchase, make sure you click enter on offer code below the pricing information checkout and use the code 70decibels1. Again, that also helps to support us as well as the free trial, but it gives you an additional 10% off on top of your first order. So if you pay for a month to month, you'll get 10% off the first month. If you pay up front for a year or two, you'll get another 10% off. So it'll be 30% and 35% off the price, which is an absolute bargain. So go check out Squarespace now. They give you everything you need to make an amazing website. There we go. So, Mr. Dowdy. Oh, there you are.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I hit mute sometimes so I can take a drink and refresh. I forgot to come out of the mute that time. I know, because this is what I heard. Sorry. Sorry. I kind of surprised myself there. Sorry. Sorry about that. The first time for everything. I try to be pretty good with that. But you know, you know why it was so long coming out of that mute? Go on. I was looking at this stupid dinosaur pen.

Myke Hurley: Okay. Tell us about the stupid dinosaur pen. This dinosaur pen, this was sent in by Mr. Lebo. I'm correct in saying this? Yes. Yes. And he sent it along to us and also, I believe, suggested this topic that we have here.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So while you were reading, I was reading about the dinosaur pen and I got distracted.

Myke Hurley: So tell us about it. It's Tyrannosaurus pen.

Brad Dowdy: Tyrannosaurus pen. I don't even know what the – I don't know if Joe just sent it to us out of the blue. You had been on a dinosaur kick recently, I think is what it was. Yeah, I am. And Joe said, hey, you know, you need one of these basically. And it's this cool little – it's actually a pretty neat little pen. It's a Tyrannosaurus Rex, just a little model of a Tyrannosaurus Rex like you keep on your desk or something. You know, like someone would keep Star Wars figures or whatever. You know, people keep different tchotchkes on their desk. It looks just like a little three or four-inch figure. But the dinosaur's tail pulls off and it's a pen. And so I thought that was pretty cool and that's like, you know, Myke definitely needs one of these. I'm pretty sure I do. But then Joe said – once we started laughing about it on Twitter, he goes, well, there you go. There's a show topic for you. And I was like, you know what? I think I'll do it. So, you know, this isn't a realm I have much experience in. So I went digging around the internet and you can find all kinds of weird things. I found a lot of things that I expected to find like Lego pens. You know, I see those in stores. I keep one to get my son, you know, like one of the Star Wars Lego pens or, you know, I've linked to a Star Wars lightsaber pen. I mean those are kind of no-brainers for a pen. But, I mean, they're not exactly cheap and I know my son will lose it. So I haven't gone there yet but I have looked at those type of things like, you know, the Ninjago Lego retractable pen is pretty cool. It's got a little Lego body with a ninja head and the ballpoint pen kind of pops out from his head. You know, those kind of things. I haven't bought any yet but I have seen this type of stuff before. And then like the Angry Bird pen, you know, my kids are into Angry Birds. And they – this is in the show notes. And they did a good job with this Angry Bird pen but the fatal flaw is the birds don't shoot from the slingshot. I mean that's part of being a kid and going to class and, you know, getting your rubber band and shooting your paper clips or your spitballs across the room. And they have these birds tied into the slingshots that they don't actually fire. So I was kind of disappointed in that one. And I think we've probably all modified our own Angry Birds pens when we were in elementary school and things like that.

Myke Hurley: I was hoping when I saw this link to just see like a wooden slingshot looking thing, like a full slingshot.

Brad Dowdy: There is – I think I did run across one and I forgot to link it. But I think there is a pen that was just a standard, like a wide, like a full-size, you know, handheld slingshot pen. And I missed grabbing that link but I think they do make them. I mean that would have been perfect for me in elementary school.

Myke Hurley: I found one that's like a pencil, which I'll put in the show notes, which does look silly enough.

Unicorn Pencil Sharpener

Brad Dowdy: One of the ones I like the most, which I hadn't seen before, which in looking at it now makes complete logical sense, is the Unicorn Pencil Sharpener. I mean that thing is sweet.

Myke Hurley: Let me go and look at this thing. So I've not opened any of the links.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, there's one you definitely shouldn't open. But this one you can open. You know, it's just your regular white unicorn head and, you know, it's got the pencil sticking out where the unicorn's horn would go. I thought that was pretty funny. My daughter would get a kick out of that. You know, she's at the age where, you know, unicorns and rainbows would be right up her alley. If I saw that before Christmas time, I probably would have ordered that because it's pretty funny. So I found those are the things that you would kind of, you know, you could probably assume, you know, you'd find those type of things. Then there's a couple other things that, you know, when Joe mentioned this topic, the first, there was one thing that popped into my head because I had some conversation with someone right when I started the Pen Attic blog years ago. And that was about floaty pens. Now, if I say floaty pen, you looked at it now. But did you know what I meant originally when I said floaty pen, Myke?

Myke Hurley: When you called it a floaty pen, no. But I do actually know what you mean.

Myke Hurley: And this is, you got to tell people.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's essentially a pen and it's a used, it's not a standard pen that you'd find at a store. It's more used as a marketing tool or, you know, for products, for tourist areas, for things like that. And it's basically a ballpoint pen where the bottom half is the pen barrel and the top half is usually a clear liquid filled compartment. Like on the backside of the compartment will have like the advertisement or, you know, the hotel name or a palm tree. And you can turn the pen upside down and things move in that floaty section. So, you know, if you have a, you know, a palm tree, you know, a coconut could be at the top of the pen. Then when you hold it down to right, the coconut, you know, like falls out of the tree and falls down to the bottom of the pen. And a lot of them were made at the time were like nudie pens where, you know, you held it in one direction. The girl was in her bathing suit and then you put it in the writing position and she would disrobe, if you will. So those are the types of pens. But there's apparently, there's a huge, I won't say huge, but there's a big, there's people that collect these like religiously, you know, have hundreds. You know, it's like if you go on a trip, someone brings you back a t-shirt, you know, these people are getting floaty pens from everywhere. And there's a link I put in the, in the show notes for floatypens.org. If you want to see some crazy, crazy stuff, click on the links in this, in this website. And it is just, it's amazing how many different things that they have captured over the years. And they have some old ones. I mean, they have everything you can think of. It's fascinating. You'll get, you can get lost in this website for an hour or two. But, you know, we've all probably seen them just hanging around at someone's house or your grandparents' house. You've stumbled, everyone's probably stumbled across a floaty pen at some point in time. But the quantity and diversity of what they have in these pens is just fascinating. And, yeah, you can, you can lose a lot of time bouncing around floatypens.org. But that was the, when, when Joe said you need to do a show on, on weird and interesting pens, this was the, the first thing that popped into my mind.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think as a kid, I remember there being one at home, which was a ship in, like, just, it would just sort of float up and down. So it was like swimming.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think the ship ones are hugely popular for obvious reasons. I mean, the boats look good and the, I don't know if it's water in there or what the solution is in there. But, yeah, the ship, you know, sailing back and forth, you know, across your pen is, would capture your mind for hours, I'm sure.

Myke Hurley: It's funny to see the ones that have the censored logo over them. And there's one from the Red Light District in Amsterdam. It says, too saucy for this page. The red curtain floats to reveal two peep shows. Very naughty. And it's got a censored.

Brad Dowdy: So that was pretty good. So y'all take a look at this site. And it's kind of mind boggling, everything that they have on this site. It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. So I knew what I was getting into with floaty pens. And then when I started searching for more, let me see what other things I can find that are weird or interesting. I ran across a really creepy pen. And I don't know if you've opened this link yet.

Myke Hurley: I've just opened it now.

Brad Dowdy: So there was a pen a guy made a few years ago. You hear in movies or just in general conversation or I guess just from historic times or other things where people joke about or signing their name in blood as like a pact and things like that for different reasons that we'll never know. But this pen, this guy created a pen. But this pen, this guy created a pen that essentially, I won't say it, it uses your blood in a pen nib. So there's like a two-part contraption here. There's like a syringe of blood that fills a nib pen. And you write with this nib pen and you're writing in your own blood. And I saw this. I was like, that is just really, really messed up. But I had to link it because I was kind of taken aback by it. I was like, I can't believe, one, I hadn't seen this before. And two, that it actually exists.

Myke Hurley: It's a terrifying contraption. There's all these gears and little things. And then there's the needle which drips the blood. It's disgusting.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's a very large mechanical contraption looking thing. But it's essentially, think of it kind of like a fountain pen dip pen nib with a syringe. And it made me think, one of my sidebar real quick, and I put this actually in the show notes because it reminded me of it. But one of my favorite movies of all time is a movie called Control. And I'm a big music fan. And this is about, this is a story about Joy Division and Ian Curtis. And there's a part in the movie where Tony Wilson owns a record company called Factory Records, which was huge back in the 70s and 80s in Britain. And he wanted to sign Joy Division so badly, he basically told the band that he would sign his name in blood on their contract. And that's what made me think about it. There's a scene in the movie where he's passed out from actually signing his name in blood on the contract. And that made me think this pen would have come in a lot handy for him instead of having to drink more orange juice, I guess.

Myke Hurley: I assume that's true. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Actually, it is. I mean, Tony Wilson's done interviews where he said that that is a true, true story about signing Joy Division, that he did sign his name in blood. So, yeah.

Myke Hurley: It's a great film. Yeah. Really great movie.

Brad Dowdy: I watch it, I don't know, five, six, seven times a year. I watch it all the time. That's one of my favorites. It's probably top two or three movie for me. It's a black and white. Black and white movie. Yeah. Really well done. Anton Corbin shot it. And I got to know Anton Corbin's work. I'm a huge Morrissey fan. And he was a rock and roll photographer basically for years before he got into movies. And I always enjoyed his Morrissey photography. And he shot some of the most famous people in the world. And he's gotten into movies later. And it's a real visual, very simplistic, beautiful style. And this one was in black and white. He did a fantastic job. So, anyway, I know that's a complete sidebar there. But that's something I really, really enjoy. And I watch that movie all the time. And then I think I saved the best one for last. You know, we'll end it on a high note after the blood pen. And I think probably some people have seen this before. Because I think I've actually linked it on my website before. But there got to be a review. This happens with other products on Amazon where people will find a weird or funny product. And then just really go crazy in the review section. You know, almost like making up these complete novel-length fiction stories about these products. And one that got a lot of press back when it happened was Bic came out. Bic has a product called Bic Crystal for Her Ball Pen. Oh, God. So, you're just asking for trouble when you come out with a product like that and name it like that. And I forget the count right now. I don't know if you're on the page. But it's already got like 850 maybe reviews on it. And it's people just coming in and just basically telling these fascinating made-up stories. And I copied the most highly rated story. I'll read it real quick for those who you can go and read all these 800 and something reviews later on your own time. But I'll read this one. This is from Tracy for her Bic Crystal for Her Ball Pen. She says, Someone has answered my gentle prayers and finally designed a pen that I can use all month long. I use it when I'm swimming, riding a horse, walking on the beach, and doing yoga. It's comfortable, leak-proof, non-slip, and it makes me feel so feminine and pretty. Since I've begun using these pens, men have found me more attractive and approachable. It has given me soft skin and manageable hair. And it has really given me the self-esteem I needed to start a book club and flirt with the bag boy at my local market. My drawings of kittens and ponies have improved. And now that I'm writing my last name hyphenated with the Robert Pattinson's last name, I really believe he may someday marry me. I'm positively giddy. Those smart men in marketing have come up with a pen that my lady parts can really identify with.

Brad Dowdy: And this goes on for pages and pages, you know, 800 times over. And it is just hilarious. I mean, I remember seeing this when it came out, and I was just dying laughing. And it's just one of those things that kind of takes on a life of its own, I guess is what I was trying to say earlier. Or, you know, like with some of the other funny products, you see people talking about like horsehead masks and three wolf t-shirts and all those other pop culture type things. For some reason, this big crystal pen on Amazon really struck a nerve with people. And they've kind of gone off the deep end on that. And I think I've kind of gone off the deep end on this show, Myke.

Bit Crystal for Her Pens

Myke Hurley: I want to read just the second most popular review. So the title is Ideal for a Variety of Feminine Writing Tasks. I love Bit Crystal for Her. The delicate shape and pretty pastel colours make it perfect for writing recipe cards, checks to my psychologist. I'm seeing him for a case of the hysterics and tracking my monthly cycle. Obviously, I don't use it for vulgar endeavours like math or filling out a voter application. But Bit Crystal for Her is a lovely little writing utensil all the same. Ask your husband for some extra pod kit money so you can buy one today.

Myke Hurley: That's great. They're excellent. They're really great. Because obviously they are mocking Bic for their ridiculousness in sending women back to the dark ages. Oh, there's images as well. Oh, no. I haven't seen that. So, you know people can upload their own images.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I didn't even look at that.

Myke Hurley: So there's a few. There's one of Eve handing one to Adam.

Myke Hurley: There's one of Rosie the Riveter holding the pen. Yep. There's one which is a lady's hand with butterfly plasters all over it and a little cut on her hand saying, I found the packaging difficult. And then there's one of just, there's just one picture of just unicorns. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I like the Rosie the Riveter one. They did a good job there.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's really great.

Brad Dowdy: That's funny. Too funny. I didn't, I missed that. That's really good.

Myke Hurley: So there you go. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: There you go. All right. So I think we'll end it on that note. We could, you know, new podcast out of your mic where we just read the Big Crystal reviews. And we'll just have the Big Crystal review podcast and we'll read like the, we'll read 10 every week and that'll last us a few years. Yeah, 805 current reviews.

Myke Hurley: I'm sure it goes up all the time.

Myke Hurley: Okay, buddy. So people can find you online. They can go to penaddict.com. They can find you on Twitter. You are dowdyism. D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M and D-O-W-D-Y on app.net. I'm iMike. I-M-Y-K-E. You can get in touch with us. You can email Brad at thepenaddict at gmail.com. Or you can go to 70decibels.com forward slash contact and fill out the contact form. We love getting your topic suggestions, feedback. We love to hear what you're using. All sorts. It's what we enjoy. It's one of the things that we love most about the show. So thank you very much for listening to this week's episode. I am Myke and he is Brad. And until next time, bye-bye.

Brad Dowdy: Bye-bye.