Editing The Pen Addict 655/transcript (section)

== Discussion of the TV show "Severance" ==

* Let's talk about TV, Dan. Um, I have a very interesting subject that was absolutely going to be talked on this show, talked about on this show. So I'm a fan of Apple TV's severance show. Uh, turns out you are too.
* And we'll, we'll try to avoid as much spoilers as we can for the most recent episode. This was season two, episode seven. Um, I didn't write down the name and I'm not going to pretend to, I'm not going to pull that one out of thin air because there's no way I will get that right. Um, in the pronunciation, I can't even pronounce your name right. Um, no, I agree. I would, I would also ruin the pronunciation of this episode. So I'm not even going to go to episode seven is good enough. So I'm not even going to go look it up. Um, but we'll, I'll put a link in the show notes. But what happened is, is what happens at a lot of TV shows, all of a sudden it'll just be the most, you know, innocuous, non stationery related type of show. And then someone will break out a pen or a piece of paper or an ink. And then all of a sudden it's like, what are they using? What, what is that? What is what's going on? So what did you think? So you told me before the show that you just recently watched this episode. What did you think when you saw, um, a fountain pen come out in this episode? So I, I had, uh, and I'm also a big, like no spoilers, especially for a show like this, where there's so many great reveals throughout the show. Uh, but I think we can safely talk specifically about this pen, uh, without it. I had seen your notes that apparently there was a fountain, but like, uh, like, so like just the slightest bit of chatter that, Hey, there's going to be a fountain pen at this episode. And we were, we were one episode behind. So we had not yet watched episode six and then we, and seven dropped. And then I heard this little bit about fountain pen. So I said, okay, uh, clearly we need to watch these two episodes and we watch, this is a show we watch as a family. All three of us are into it. And so we watched them last night. And, uh, so I knew that there was going to be a scene that a fountain pen was in, but I had no idea what scene or who or whatever. And we'll leave the character part out of it and leave it anonymous. But, uh, um, I saw a little bit where, where somebody, I think you, your note to me said the guess online is that it's a watcher, uh, a Rushi pen. And I was like, Oh, well, I hope it is because we have one of those. And, um, cause it would let me like pause and do direct comparison. Right. And I wholly agree with that, that guess online because, um, we don't have the exact color that was in the episode. We have a red one, whereas I think it was a green one in the, uh, in the episode, but it is absolutely the watcher dream pen, uh, true Rushi version. Yeah.
* It looks like the, the black version. So I'll, I'll put a link in the show notes to, to my friend, friend of the show, uh, Cheryl Lindo Jones, who wrote this post, um, about a fountain pen being in severance. And they were going through their thought process as they saw this pen doing exactly what Dan and I are doing right now is trying to figure out what it was. They first thought it was a platinum, a Zumo, which was like a good shape guess. But the pen, uh, the Zumo actually has some contour in the barrel. And the more you saw the pen, the pen was never in crystal clear view, right? You couldn't see nib stamping. You couldn't see just full barrel clarity. Uh, the threading was, you know, it was just never like a primary focus in the shot, despite like closeups of handwriting, uh, aggressive handwriting, mind you. So, uh, that, that was a whole talking very aggressive. Yes.
* It was a very disturbingly aggressive. I was going to say for a fountain pen user, very painful to watch if you're a fountain pen user, but I digress a little bit in trying to sort this pen out. But Cheryl did some great screen grabs. And then of all people, I looked at the update. I was, I was still following this along and trying to see what it was. So my first, my first inclination was this was like a large, a large Ebonite pen, um, like, uh, one of the Enzo pens, uh, even like on this launcher shape, large traditional cigar shape. But a couple of telling points, which makes you think that it's probably the launcher. And I would certainly lean this way is the threading looks slightly different, uh, than say like a, uh, Nakaya threading where a lot of the Nakaya threadings, not all of them are a rush sheet as well. Where in the launcher, they're not so there, or they're a rush sheet in black, not in the color of the pen. Um, so it takes on a different tone, right? And Cheryl has some great screenshots here and it kind of looks like the section of that pen and the general shape, but it could be a generic shape, right? It's a pretty, it's not basic at all. It's a large pen. It's a little bit shiny, like, which makes you think it's got some Arushi. So I think y'all are right. I think, I think you're on it. And, you know, given your description, like we don't have all the details. Maybe this is one of those times where I should just email somebody. Let me see if I can figure out how, how to get in touch with somebody to say, Hey, what pen is this? Um, I think if it was a platinum, um, Azumo, um, I think our, our friends at luxury brands would be on that already. Don't you? Yeah. It sure seems like they would. Yeah. Somebody would be out there taking credit for it. Right. But it's having not the, not that I've ever worked in television or movies, but like, you know, being a big fan and watching enough behind the scenes stuff and seeing interviews with production designers, the prop folks, they're so often just finding what's available. Um, and kind of meeting the, uh, you know, the, the needs of the, of the script with just whatever they can put their hands on. It seems much more likely that it wasn't any kind of, uh, purposeful, you know, product placement or anything like that. Yeah. They literally just like, Oh, this, we need a pen. That's this color to match like the mood of the scene or whatever. So, uh, yeah, they probably just went and found it, but yeah, I, I took my own screenshots, uh, just this morning as a matter of fact, uh, cause I had to do my own side by side as best I could. And you're right. It's, it's rarely in focus. Uh, but I did manage to get one shot where it's laying on the table, um, in front of the person using it, uh, and they, they've set it down. And so you get the kind of the perfect profile of the uncapped pen body and yeah, it's the, the threads are the giveaway because, and even among the watchers like in the, in the dream pen, they have an ebonite version that the, where the threads actually look different. Okay. Um, and then, and then this one, it's a very much, it's, it's, it looks like a pretty good, uh, pretty good match. And I saw a Reddit post too, where somebody was speculating, oh, that's probably just like a gin how like a, like they, they got like a really cheap pen. And, and, but the moment you look at a picture of those, like the whole section is black. Yeah. Um, as opposed to this one where it's not. So. Yeah. Yeah. So this is, this is always a highlight to, to try to sort this out, especially when it's unclear. And, you know, I've had the great fortune of, you know, working with people who have supplied, you know, stationery to do films and TV and, and had to answer some questions around that. And this is, this would be great if I could figure out how the, the, it could just be random. Like you said, you know, maybe they just, I don't know. It's kind of hard to just pick up a launcher. Um, you know, a Rushi, but so like, maybe it was someone's pen that they had. And, you know, they're, they're, you never know with severance, but in this particular scene, it did seem dated, like say maybe like 50 years ago or something like that. I don't know. Like just the idea, but that doesn't really necessarily mean that it was from that timeframe. Well, so much of the show is in this look of kind of mid-century modern and all of that. The, um, I, I could see a scenario where somebody went to a pen shop and said, okay, we need a pen that looks a certain way. Uh, because they knew they were going to do closeups on the, on the handwriting and all that. So, um, that it would have been worth their time to say, okay, yeah, this classic cigar profile is right. Let's go with this one. Yeah. It's a, it's, and it's definitely, uh, I would say it's definitely a YOWO nib in it. Uh, there is a closeup where you can see the kind of the, the, the new YOWO design that doesn't have all the scroll work on it. And they might've swapped it out just to, uh, for the person to abuse it, not my pen, not my pen.
* I mean, I'm glad it wasn't the 18 karat gold nib that's in my, uh, launcher pen. Let's put it that way. So if y'all have any more feedback or we get any more clarity on this, I'll send it, send it my way. Relay pen addict feedback, um, dot com, uh, at relay dot relay, excuse me, pen addict feedback.com. Uh, I get that, uh, all mixed up with our new, newer URL, or you can just email me. Hello at pen act.com. I'd love to hear what y'all think. And if we know definitively and who put this pen in their hands, uh, we will definitely let you know, but, uh, keep the theories coming. Um, yeah, you should use the, uh, you should use the relay connection to Jason Snell to get the Apple PR, uh, question in. Oh, we can try the official channel, right? We can a hundred percent. Like, I'm not joking. I wouldn't be sending off. I would be sending off a specific email. Like I don't have a person, but I know enough people to where I think I could get around the block and get, there's a chance, you know, a 1% chance. It wouldn't just be, uh, you know, firing something off into the ether. I think, uh, we, we might can come up with something. So we'll see. Speaking of coming up with something, if you have any ideas, one place to put them out on the internet is with our good friends over at Squarespace. So this episode of the pen addict is brought to you by Squarespace. This is the all in one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just starting out or managing a growing brand, you can stand out with a beautiful website, engage with your audience and sell anything. Your products, services, and even the content you create. Squarespace has everything you need all in one place, all on your terms. With Squarespace, you can make, uh, make the most of design intelligence. Comes with two decades of industry leading design expertise. Those two decades, I think I've been around for most of them. Um, and it makes my website look great. They use cutting edge AI technology to unlock your strongest creative potential. Design intelligence empowers anyone to build a beautiful, more personalized website tailored to their unique needs and craft a bespoke digital identity to use across one's entire online presence. They also allow you to collect payments easily with Squarespace invoicing. So from my perspective, I could set up not only like a retail shop, I could set up a paid newsletter. I could send invoices on products or any type of client work that I was doing. So you can spend more time focusing on growing your business, invoicing clients, invoicing clients, and getting paid for your services. This, uh, this turns leads into clients with proposals, estimates, and contracts, plus simplify your workflow and manage your service business all on one platform. And their SEO tools are great, right? I use this every time I post. I really don't have to do too much to integrate them with my website. So because every Squarespace website is optimized to be indexed with meta descriptions, auto-generated sitemap, and more. So you show up more often to more people in global search engine results. Now, Dan and I didn't plan this, and I only realized this, I don't know, maybe in the last month, just randomly. Enigma Stationery runs on Squarespace. Do you mind giving a little bit of your experience using Squarespace as a commerce platform?