Editing The Pen Addict 381/transcript (section)

== Spooky Time Introduction ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Tis the spooky time, and when we're in the spooky time, we speak about pen horror stories. If you- We're in the spooky time. If you are unfamiliar and want a refresher, you can go to stationery.wiki. The URL's too difficult to read, because it's a Wikipedia, like a wiki-type URL. There'll be a link in our show notes, which are at relay.fm.com slash 381, to the archive of previous horror stories. So the episodes that we have had horror stories time, and also who has sent in their stories, and whether we deemed the story so horrific that it will go into the pen addict hall of fame, of which somebody receives a free pen addict t-shirt, is my understanding, Brad? Is that still the case?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's right, that's right. So I think we have four- Four entrants? Okay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We have four entrants into the hall of fame. We have had many more horror stories read out than that. Oh, yeah. We- In our first- This is the fourth time we've done the horror stories. The first episode, there were no horror stories awarded. In the second episode, episode 336, we honored David, David's blue foot.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Emile's violet palm, where Emile- Oh, that one. That's probably still my favorite. That one still gives me nightmares. I can- Injected ink into their hand with a syringe by accident. Yeah. We had Anthony, who had the wild story of the legal client and the graffiti on legal documents. Yes. And then we had Rollins' Hulk hands, the green hands, the ink everywhere, all in the grout, kitchen cabinets, suit, all of that stuff. Mm-hmm. So a precedent has been set. Mm-hmm.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' A precedent has been set. A lot of- In common with a lot of these stories, but they're all horrific in their own ways. Mm-hmm. Right? So we have a fresh batch to share today. And I'm excited. Like, I told Myke that I accept all these horror stories in my inbox, but I try not to read them. Like, I'll give them a quick glance, you know, just to make sure, okay, are we on, like, is this, like, really a horror story type thing? But I don't read them thoroughly. So I have not necessarily seen any of these. Myke certainly hasn't seen them. Nope. So we're gonna read them live, um, on the show for the first time. Yep. And, uh, we'll see if we have any new entrance into the Horror Story Hall of Fame.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And let's see if David can weave a wonderful and weird tale worthy enough of the Horror Story Hall of Fame. David goes on to say, I have a still raw story to share for your Horror Stories Hall of Fame episodes. Uh, David missed the last, uh, deadline, but here we have it here. So, a few days ago, I poured out my black-on-black Namisu Nova, figuring it had been a while since it had been inked up. When I opened the cap, clumps of telltale orange crust made it clear. I had not yet cleaned the ancient copper ink out of it quite thoroughly enough when I last put it away. The ink wasn't made of copper and super old. It was a color. It's a color, ancient copper. The ancient copper ink from my grandfather. Anyway. That was a rare metals pen. Out came the nib and feed into a tumbler of water in the kitchen. Yeah, we've all been there. We've done that. There's a good preface here. Now, I love my in-laws.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They're wonderful people. When they visit, they like to help out, whether it's hanging out with the kids, to give my wife and me a few minutes away, pitching in with the yard work, or even washing dishes. With a one and five-year-old boy, uh, they have two kids, but boys one and five, to keep up with Kelly and I will take all the help that we can get. So, when she told me they'd be visiting on short notice yesterday, I felt a barely conscious ping like a vibrating phone you can hear at the bottom of a laundry basket. There was something I needed to mention. No matter, I confirmed what we'd all eat for dinner and went on my work day. Then, this morning, I figured I'd ink up my Nova. There was one problem. The glass, the water, the nib and the feed weren't where I'd left them. I checked the study, the usual collecting place for pen detritus, looked around the kitchen in the cabinets. Then I noticed ominously that all the tumblers were not just present, they were clean. My eyes slowly panned over the sink. At least three meals' worth of dishes had passed through it since I'd last seen the nib. A few still lingered around the inlet to the disposal, having missed the last dishwasher run that a night. Nah, that's impossible. They wouldn't have, I thought. Still, the nib and feed were nowhere to be found. After one last pass through the kitchen, I pulled the rubber skirt out of the waste disposal drain and took the plunge. After groping through what seemed like an absurd amount of squishy green glop, struggling to discern any free-flowing bits from the steel grinder blades of the disposal, the tip of my finger landed on what could only be described as the mangled tines of a fountain pen nib. A minute later, I've managed to extricate what was left of the nib and feed from the machine. The feed housing nowhere to be found, probably long since shredded, and sent down the drain pipe. Fortunately, this was just a steel box nib, easily replaced. But the sight of it still makes me cringe, almost as much as those mangled nib photos you see on Mark Packers' Instagram. Okay. I love this story. I love the way it's written. I like when people can allow me to weave a tail, and David definitely did that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I have a big problem with this story. Okay. I have sink PTSD from this past Christmas where I reached my hand into a clogged sink, and I'm getting flashbacks where I slice my finger open. Oh, yeah. And I like have chills like anytime, like I can't stick my hand in my sink anymore. So this is like freaking me out. Like I literally got chills when you read that part about him sticking his hand in the dish disposal. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So this one affects me like physically, like I feel super weird about it. It is it is not a Hall of Famer for me. And even though it's quite an amazing story, and I hope Dave has kept that nib permanently displayed on a shelf to say, this is what happens when I leave my fountain pen ephemera laying around for others to do who knows what with in there. But man, what a story. Like I can totally picture this. Unfortunately, I can picture it too well based on personal experience. And yeah, I need like I like I need a moment, Myke. I'm like,