Editing The Pen Addict 552/transcript (section)

== Overview of the cocktail-themed pen set ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, yeah, this is actually, this is a new set to actually seal the deal on this. This is the cocktail exclusive. Shake it up this season again. I like that there's at least an again here. Five colorful tequila-based cocktails to choose from, which they've done tequila drinks before, but whatever. So, we have, I also enjoyed the naming of these, Myke. So, we have Mexican Screwdriver. We have Cyclamen. Then we just get into Lavender Margarita, Blue Margarita. And then the, it's like, come on, man. And then the last, the green one's called Mockingbird. It's like, we could have just called them Orange Margarita, Pink Margarita, Lavender Margarita.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm going to take some serious umbrage here, Brad. All right. To me or to this. There is no just Margarita. Where's the Margarita version?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Right? Yeah. We could have done something with the green one and at least, you know, but some mixture of the Cyclamen and the Mockingbird could have been Margarita, right? Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They're nice colors, right? Like, they look nice. They're attractive. Like, it's fine.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's literally what I was getting into. These are awesome looking, right? I mean, they look great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They just don't have to make it like such a thing. Don't make it such a thing. It doesn't need to be a thing. It's fine.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I literally, like, you had to go decipher if this was new or old. I really did. I was like, I'm pretty sure this Cyclamen is giving it away that it's new. But all of these other ones, I'm like, okay, Sailor. I see you, Sailor. This just, like, come on.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This just, like, to me really, like, speaks to that idea that someone just goes down to the basement and just, like, oh, gets this part and this part and this part and just puts them together. Like, this isn't particularly... No, it's not. It isn't exciting to me. And this isn't particularly creative. I feel like just doing now, like, a different cocktail, a different, like, alcohol base for all of your cocktails. It's like, whatever, man. Like, fine. Whatever. So, what's...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. So, in that vein, what's next? So, they've done gin recently, tequila.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They can't really do much with vodka.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, they do vodka and they're all demonstrators. They do whiskey and they're all brown.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like, I'm trying to figure out, like, what else they could do here. They've done, like, all the, like, the tropical type of cocktails. Yeah. I don't know. It'll probably just be... They'll probably just do the Hall of Fame cocktail series to bring back the five most popular of the five previous cocktail series ones and just sell them all again. I think that's the move next, Sailor. I think that's your move is just bring back the Hall of Fame cocktail series. So, there you go. All right. Are we ready to play Brad Becomes a Hypocrite?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I've seen this in the show notes. It says Brad Becomes a Hypocrite and there's a link to an Instagram image. And I've looked at the image. I've read those words and I, as of yet, cannot work out where this is going.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. So, I found this link in my Instagram feed from Ink House Hong Kong. And it is a... For everything that I can find, this is a store exclusive to Ink House, which is a shop in Hong Kong of a matte green...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Brad, can I just interrupt you for one moment? Of course. Just because it will tie into our previous conversation before we go on the next one. So, I've opened this image here. And it's got suggested posts from Ink House Hong Kong. And there is a Sailor pen here, which is stunning. It's stunning. It's part of their four-season series. It's called Snowy Flurry. And it is just a blue demonstrator with white... Like a white finial, silver furniture, and it's got snowflakes printed all over the body. They're like a good-looking pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, this shop gets a lot of those store exclusives. They get to work with a lot of manufacturers. They got the Pokemon stuff. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So, they're a big enough deal to get their own Lamy Safari, right? Their own in-house Lamy Safari. As best as I can tell, this is not any type of universal release outside of Ink House Hong Kong, which we've talked like a month ago. Like a Toya, like the biggest stationary retailer in Japan, has their own all-star, right? Like it was this very neat-looking item. But this just popped up. It's a matte green Lamy Safari. And I mean like I want it. I love it. Okay. And it makes me a complete hypocrite about everything I just said about the Sailor Cocktails. It's like this has been done like a thousand times before. It's like two shades of green different than the Savannah Green that they just released two years ago.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Let me tell you why I think this is different to what we were just talking about. Okay. They have just called this the matte green Lamy Safari. They're not making a big thing out of it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right? Right? It's not like Lamy Safari Matcha Green series. And here's all the different matcha desserts that we're emulating. You know what I mean? Like I'd be down for that too. Yeah, but then if they do it one time, like, oh, but then they're like, and here's the Yuzu series. Like, you know, it would just be like that. I think that's the issue with the Sailor Cocktail thing of just like, well, we're just doing Greatest Hits now. Like what is going on? Like, right. You know, but this Lamy Safari, it's like, well, we expect colors in the same way that we expect colors from Sailor. But like here, like the snowy one that I just showed you, that feels to me more like the kind of thing I want to see and expect to see. And you get it. Like the North America exclusives, you know, they'll do one every few months. And it's like, like, you know, like the Habanero one or whatever it was called. Like, it was just like, oh, this is fun and interesting. And it's different.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Which I happily own. So not to be a complete hypocrite.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And you're going down like a creative route with it. But there's just something about that. And like, you know, like obviously those cocktail ones are not for us, right? They have obviously been very successful for them. So they keep doing them. But we still can just take a critical eye on the product offering and be like, this is not exciting. Where this matte green Safari, it's kind of like, well, this is what we expect. There's the one pen. They do these colors every now and again. It's a nice color. And they're not over-hyping it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. It's just a very like, hey, this is the house Lamy Safari, which is pretty neat because not a lot of people get it. And I think that's why I'm more attracted to something like this. Because this isn't the North American exclusive release, right? This is not the wide release. This is the in-house for Ink House. They're releasing. It's more, I don't know, it's more interesting to me than like another wide releasing cocktail series that we've seen for probably going on a decade now of different options of the cocktail series. So, okay. So I'm not completely crazy. And like, I love the Sailors. Like, don't get me wrong. I think they're just beautiful. I'm just not interested in it where I'm completely interested in this option. And I felt kind of weird like saying one, like I'm talking out of both sides out of my mouth here. Maybe I am a little bit, but I don't know. I found like the juxtaposition of those two product releases like very interesting to think about from like a stationary fan perspective. So, yeah. Yeah. It made me also think when I was trying to sort out this Matt Green, are they telling me this is their store brand or is this what we're getting for the 2023 Safari release, Myke? Because we haven't seen it yet. No. I've seen unconfirmed pictures of pastel safaris, but they're not worth linking to because I don't, I didn't feel like the sources were that good. And like if they're these pastels that I see out there in these teased images, which I think have already been like, I don't know, like discounted is not real, but I'm not sure. I will be super sad because they've done that a lot, right? That would be the cocktail series of the Lamy Safari. If I will go and state it now and I will go on record that if Lamy comes out with three pastel Lamy Safaris, I will put them in the same category as the Sailor Cocktail Series. Try harder, Lamy.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Are you thinking like Easter colors or whatever?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Okay. Because it's always this time of year, right? This early spring in the Northern Hemisphere type of year. And it tends to be like the, sometimes, you know, the brighter pastels, which they've done before. And Lamy is not above reissuing, you know, similar colors that they've done in the past. Just like I gave them a real hard time late in 2022. They did the blue with the red clip and the white with the black clip as a, it was kind of their follow up to the success of the re-release of the Terracotta and Savannah Green. It's like, oh, people really like those. It's like, yeah, we did love those. That was the first Lamy and no one gets to own, no one has ever owned those before, you know, that are modern Lamy lovers. So, okay, let's re-release these. We did in the 90s and it's the same exact blue barrel that they use currently and the same exact white barrel that they use currently. They just changed the clips on them and it's just like a big womp womp. I was like, come on, like, that's, that's bad. So, I will go on record. I will, I will take the loss for Lamy Safari if they come out with pastels this year and it'll be the same, same feeling I have about the Cocktail Sillers series. They're perfectly fine. They're beautiful, but man, do something different. Try harder.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like the Pilot Juice, Myke. What do you think about the Pilot Juice sweet milk? I am just really having a tough time with this.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The name. I can't do it. I can't do it. Like, split it in half and we're good. Right. Pilot Juice, fine. Sweet milk, fine. Juice sweet milk, can't do it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Juice sweet milk. Pilot is on one right now. They are on one right now.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But these pens, though, look amazing to me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They are awesome. I will get these pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Brad, I just had a mind-blown moment. Sorry, I keep interrupting you today and I can only apologize, but these things keep happening to me and I have to share them with you. So I'm in Safari, right? I'm using Safari. And I've used the translate button. And it's translating some of the text in the images.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. It started to do that with whatever new OS we're on. What's it called?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I've seen that before. Like, I used the images. Sorry, I used the translation for just, like, to get the text, right? But, like, some of the color names are being translated on the boxes in the imagery. How cool is that?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So, like, I'm looking at one of the boxes. It says, I'm happy. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I can see, on Sunday, I'm happy.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It says. Yeah. One of them says, Saturday is something. I don't get read.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The sun on Saturdays and Sundays. I mean, that must be the name of the collection of colors, right? Because they're clearly going for, like, vibes with these ones. Yeah. But Juice Sweet Milk is not. Yeah. It's not for me, man. Although, these look fun.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, where Pilot loses me a little bit, and, you know, I sing the praises constantly of them, just like all these other brands we talk about, is that they have the I Love Me, I Love You series, right? That I bang on. And, like, how is this different? Like, to me, it's not, right? This should be all kind of together. This looks like either part of that series or that series looks like part of this release. Yeah. And there's just, like, this, like, they're, like, very much, like, Venn diagramming, like, 100% right here between, like, the two product lineups. And I'm wondering, is, like, that, like, do these people, do these groups talk to each other about what they're releasing and things like that? I also had to make my Bantha Milk joke because that's what these pastel colors look like. They're really hard to use. And that's the first thing I thought of was Luke drinking the milk, you know, from Uncle Owen and what Ann Beru or whatever her name is, like, you know, in Star Wars. That's, like, a defining thing in young Brad's life is seeing Luke Skywalker drinking that nasty blue milk. And that's all I can think of with this sweet milk and these blue pastelly inks. And, like, I'm going to have a hard time not seeing that, but also at the same, by the same token like you, I think these are just fascinating looking. I think these look fantastic.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I've had blue milk.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes, because you are a big Disney Star Wars go to the parks and do all the things and they have the blue milk and the green milk at the parks. How was it? How was it?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I genuinely don't remember, which means it was probably just fine.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It was probably like, I'm really doing this. Oh, nice. And you have the picture here in the show. I'll put a picture.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I'll put it in the show notes. It's me and Adina inside of the cantina. I've got my lightsaber on the desk. Yep. On the table. That is. Actually, I think that might be David's lightsaber. I made my lightsaber later on that day. That was a big day.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So that is the color of these. These pens remind me of, like, instantly that's the color I saw out of these. And so, like, they're just not going to be usable for, like, a lot of handwriting, but for, like, drawing, artwork, you know, different things like that. They're going to be fun. I'm totally getting them. I also saw, and I didn't follow up to go get the link to this, which I need to add, Uniball 1, which is a gel ink pen that I've reviewed in the past. And it's Uniball's newish, highly saturated gel ink. They're also doing, like, a pastel series of ink. So pastel is big hot right now. Mm-hmm. So I'll be, you know, like, I'll get them. I'll try them. And, you know, maybe I'll have my mind changed. That's kind of one of the reasons why I like testing out some of these products, like the Juice Sweet Milk, right? Maybe my initial reaction is different from the actual, you know, performance of the pen when I get them in hand. So I love proving myself wrong on things like this. So it's going to be fun. I will be looking forward to testing them out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. Do you want to take a break? Yeah, let's do that. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Pen Chalet. They sell the products you're looking for from the brands that you love. Pen Chalet believe in fast and reliable customer service and the best prices around, which is why they run special discounts twice a month, closeout specials every two weeks. And they're always adding new stuff, too. Every month, you'll be able to go to Pen Chalet and find all of the things that you're looking for. Whether you want a new fountain pen, a new rollerball, mechanical pencil, maybe you're looking for some ink or you want some accessories. You know, you want some pen holders, some cartridge converters, all that kind of stuff. Maybe you're going to a pen show and you want a nice case to put your pens in. It doesn't matter what it is, whether it's the pens themselves or everything else, the accoutrement that goes with them. Pen Chalet's got it and they give the best quality pens and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on the low prices that they offer. They sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. And if you're in the US, you'll get free shipping on orders of over $75. So don't delay. Go to Pen Chalet. Oh, that was nice. I was starting to giggle. You can add that one, Ron. That's a free one for you. Don't delay. Go to PenCalet.com and 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 need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So this list does not end. Like I was just barely getting to the bottom of the list as you were wrapping up the ad because we don't look at this beforehand. So I can kind of investigate what we have going on here. The very first thing, number one, there are a bunch of gift sets ready to roll this year. So if you are thinking about like upcoming events like graduation in a couple months or things like that, there are a bunch of pen and ink gift sets. There's a Monteverde Ritma gift set. Right now there's a Diplomat gift set with the Elox rings. There's a Diplomat Aero set that are all just like extraordinarily priced. Like way less than just the pen itself. Oh, yeah. And you get things like a carrying case and a bottle of ink. Like the Ritma, I'm trying to decide. It looks like it comes with like some different like parts you can interchange into the different pen barrels, which I haven't explored that set at all right now. And it's very, very reasonably priced. So if you're looking for those type of purchases and want to plan ahead, there's a several that Ron has listed this week. Aside from that, the standard Diplomat Traveler is just one of those basic fountain pens. That's a really good entry level tester pen for a lot of people.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's like less than 40 bucks. And it's just kind of a good aluminum barrel. You know, not too wide, not too thin. A very classic fountain pen for someone wanting to try a fountain pen. That's a great choice. And then as I continue to scroll in here, there's something that caught my eye personally that I don't know if I could pull the trigger on, but I'm kind of fascinated, Myke. And it's a rollerball. And I say this all the time with the ballpoints and rollerballs. The Visconti Opera Demo Carousel rollerball pen is like crazy cool. It's this blue demonstrator or there's a blue one and there's a red one. And they're these demonstrators that I haven't seen them do the rollerball version. I mean, obviously they do and they probably do it for a lot of pens. I've just never noticed them. And this one has caught my eye. So that's pretty neat. So there's a ton of other inks. There's a ton of other pens. This is a very, very lengthy list of awesomeness over at Pen Chalet. So go check these out. You, I am, I'm still kind of, I'm still kind of taking it all in. There's so much listed on here. So yeah, this is fantastic. Thank you, Ron, for putting this together.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Something I wanted to call attention to, like I went to the page and there's a really nice new Winnie the Pooh Retro 51. I don't know if you've seen this. I think Winnie the Pooh just came out of copyright. There's all kinds of stuff flying all over the place. Are you aware of this? I am. I am. That's why there's a Winnie the Pooh horror movie coming. Oh, no. Have you heard about this?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I saw that. I think I saw like just maybe like the headline or maybe like a meme image of like Winnie the Pooh, like in an evil type of sense. So no, but I didn't realize that was like a thing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's called Blood and Honey, which is just like fantastic. I bet it's disgusting because I think that's kind of the point. Not like in a despicable way, but in like a really gory, like that's what they're going for. Yeah. But yeah, there's like the keycap set recently that's made a big splash, which I think called like 100 Acres. Yeah. So there's a lot of Winnie the Pooh stuff flying around now. Not the Disney version though. The A.M. Milne version. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I know Kimberly picked up some of the Winnie the Pooh stuff at the California pen show. Retro 51 was there and I know she came home with that. And, you know, they're doing a few things. They have like a pen and a pencil set, which is really cool. One random thing since we're going through like the header images now, the Lamy Zivo is a pen that I've reviewed in the past. And this is not something Ron asked me to ask us to cover at all, which he never asked us to cover anything. But the Lamy Zivo, they came out with this basic ballpoint pen design last year and I reviewed the first model and I loved it. So now they have, honestly, I guess it's gone well enough for Lamy that they've come out with a second version. So now they have a blue and like a burgundy one. And they're like, they're eight bucks, right? Like it's just, it's Lamy's entry level ballpoint pen. If you're ever looking for like a cart filler or like a shipping filler, get the Zivo. You won't be disappointed. It does have a triangular grip shape. It's not like a fully molded, but it is a triangular grip shape. But we'll put a link in the show notes to my initial review. I found it to be just an excellent, excellent pen. And now they're coming out with some new colors, which I'm glad to see, which means it's gone well for them. So there you go.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You can get 80 cents off of Zivo.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If you just buy that on its own. So maybe add some other things to your cart at pensolet.com. Our thanks to Pensolet for the support of this show.