Editing The Pen Addict 163/transcript (section)

== Pelican ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah. No biggie. No biggie. We did get a very nice correction from last week. We were talking about one of the latest Pelican models, the Gustav. I called it the Stressman, which is very wrong, and Lars emailed to correct me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I assume it should have been Stressman, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it's Stressman.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, really? It was spelled out like that? Interesting.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so he sent the link to Gustav Stresman's Wikipedia page, and it's got the pronunciation thing. You know, you click the little name, and it plays the actual pronunciation, so I appreciate you sending that, because that's one of those words where I didn't really look at it close enough. It just kind of runs together, and you're just thinking Stressman, and it didn't really hit me that I was way, way wrong on that one, so I appreciate it from Lars with the correction. We always love our pronunciation corrections, right, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I mean, how long were we saying Kaweco for?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so we've got German, French, and Japanese listeners that correct us all the time, and there will be plenty more as well.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And we really need them. Oh my gosh, we really do need them. Between the boy from Atlanta and the boy from East London, we definitely need the pronunciation corrections.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So yeah, these are not things that offend us in the least. It's like, please correct us, and we will apologize and do a better job next time. You know, it's stuff we've got to work on, especially some of the stuff we talk about. It's from all over the world. And when you're on the internet, like we are, you don't actually get to hear these things said out loud, right? You're just reading it, and you don't know the actual pronunciation of it. So yeah, that was perfect. Nakaya, right? Nakaya? That's still hard for me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I still feel like I'm not getting it completely, but I think it's Nakaya.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I think that sounds right. I'm not even going to try, though. All right, we got another reader email from Alan. I wanted to read this one. This one, I didn't share it in here because I wanted to spring this one on you because you're going to enjoy this one. This is kind of a two-parter email, but it was so good. I asked Alan if I could share it on the podcast, and he said yes, so let me get into this. He says, Anyway, the point of this email is just to let you know that my casual listening has now been converted into actual spending. It's a small start, but who knows where it might lead. And whilst listening on my iPhone to your discussion of the Retro 51 Tornado Popper Liftoff Special Edition, I was curious enough to switch over to Safari and hunt one down. I landed on the Anderson Pins site and promptly ordered one to be shipped to the UK. Just one week later, it arrived, and I'm absolutely delighted with the Apollo Saturn V-inspired design. And I was also pleasantly surprised at the lovely dark ink and smooth writing experience. Yay, we're happy about the Retro 51, love. The service from Anderson Pins was great, too. They shipped the pen instantly, and the calling card and mint included in the pack were a nice touch. All right, so that's part one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I've seen this email.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, did he send it to you?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I've seen this email, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, so we're going to let you fire off right here. All right, so that part was for both of us. Now this part is for you.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I don't have it in front of me, but I read it. And when I read it, I was like, as much as I love you, Alan, I can't help you, and I can't talk about this. Alan was very upset because of the customs charge that he received. And I kind of read it. I kind of glossed over it. Like, I glanced it, and I was like, this is just making me mad. I can't even continue. So that, my understanding is he, from my memory of reading this, was he wasn't blaming anyone. No, no. Which was just really annoyed. And, buddy, I am so there with you. Like, I can't. Let's be like, I'm so angry reading the email. I couldn't even, I had to close the email. Because every time I think about it, and it's like, you spend this money, and then you get this huge random customs charge. Because that's the worst part about it, is they're random. Like, I've bought $50 pens, and I've bought $200 pens, and the $200 pens got them through. Like, it just feels like it's completely random.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so if you're a long-time listener of the show, you know customs in the UK is a huge, huge issue. And if you live there, it just stinks for all kinds of reasons. But I did want to drop this on you, because I didn't realize you were copied in on the mail. But let me just read the, it's one little short paragraph, just for those who aren't aware of what we're talking about and how crazy it is. Alan says, I paid US $35 for the pen, plus $15 for shipping to the UK. After currency conversions, the total came to about 32 pounds. Pretty good. Annoyingly, UK customs folks then decided to charge me another 12 pounds. And then another 4 pounds for the vat. And then another 8 pounds for handling fee.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's the bit that bites me the most, by the way.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's like, I didn't ask you to handle it. Why are you charging me? Right. You decided to do this. See what's happening to me already? That's why I can't read these emails. That's why I wanted to read it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So his approximately 23 pound pen ended up costing about 45 pounds, which is just about double the original price. So he says, still a lovely pen. I'm glad that I own it. But he had to give me the customs rant that I knew you would appreciate.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, I'm still waiting to get mine for my liftoff. Oh, really? Yeah. I'm confident that I'm going to get one. I always expect I'm going to get one now for every pen that I buy.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. That stinks.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That stinks. I have to say, though, Alan, you are a special breed of human. And I love you. Because just because you listen to the show. I can't even understand why someone would listen to this show, let alone it go to the top of their list if they're not really interested in pens. And I'm happy that you're buying some stuff, you know, because you will get endless more enjoyment out of this show once you start buying and enjoying the fine things that we talk about. But that is a very, very interesting and fantastic thing to me that somebody could enjoy this having not really too much of an interest in pens. I feel like there can't be many people in the world that listen to this show with that sort of persuasion.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We've actually gotten that a few times. Like, you know, people just say, this is really interesting. I'm not totally, like, deep into it like you guys are. But just, you know, I enjoy listening to the conversation.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Usually those emails, though, are like, oh, I started listening about too much and then I listened to five episodes and now I have 65 bottles of ink and 400 fountain pens, right? But, like, it seems like Alan is, like, he's way deeper into the show and with way more money still left in his pockets.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Yes. So, good move, Alan. So, we appreciate the email and sorry about your customs issues.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I'm very, trust me, I'm very sorry.