Editing The Pen Addict 719/transcript (section)

== Gifting pens for graduation and recommendations ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Gregory writes in and says it's graduation season. If Brad has to gift a pen to a new graduate, what does he gift? For fun, it would be nice to hear a choice from classic gift brands like Parker, Cross, and Waterman. Based on those brands' websites, they lean into pens as gifts hard in their marketing. So this is a two... There is a... This is like a 2.5 questions from Gregory. So I'll give you one and a half. There's one more question, but we'll come to that in a minute. So if you had to give a gift to a new graduate, there was a graduate in your life and you wanted to give them a gift, what would you give them? And would you... And is there any world in which you would give something from one of the classic brands?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' There is a world. It's... There is a world. But like, if you don't have to, it's okay. Yep. That would be okay. Parker's done some modern variations. I want... Let's... Let me rephrase that. Potter... I can't speak. Parker. I was going to say plotter. Because I'm reading... Plotter. Well, I'm looking at Parker Jotter. Yes. And I said... That will move to plotter. Yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I accept that completely.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, Parker has done a nice job modernizing some of their classics. Like, they've done... I don't really see them right now, but they've updated the dual fold and made a $200 or $300 dual fold and they've done some nice jobs. I would not hesitate to buy a Parker fountain pen. They've all seemed like in good quality. Waterman's the same way. And I think Schaefer's the same way. While I don't have any personal, like, individual, you know, one product from that line, you can get a classic like the Waterman Corrine. I don't even know if that's how you say it. It's just like a classic inlaid nib.

'''Myke Hurley:''' In the UK, the Parker Jotter would be a good gift for someone. Because it's classic.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The Parker Jotter's a ballpoint. It is, but it's a ballpoint.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, they also do a mechanical pencil, but yes. Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But I was looking at fountain pens. I know. I'm just... I was just looking on their website and was like... The Jotter's awesome.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, they do a Jotter fountain pen, but it's not what they want. Yeah. It's not the same style. No. It doesn't... No, no, no. Yeah, okay. No, no. It has the same kind of clip and stuff. Like, it's taking design cues from the Jotter, but it's not as cool as the Jotter.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Gotcha.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Gotcha, gotcha.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The Waterman Corrine is probably the best out of those Parker Schaefer Waterman list. But...

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think the Parker Jotter was in a Bond movie.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The ballpoint?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think so. I think it was...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Probably.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think it was Goldeneye.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They probably shot something out of it. Yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It was a dart from a pen. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, that was probably a fountain pen. Hmm. We'll have to look now. I have... We've actually... We've talked about this before. It rings a little bit of a bell. So, if I'm going with those brands, I'm looking for the ones who keep up to the modern you know, like...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. ...types of products. It was the Parker Jotter ballpoint. Interesting. I... And I can see here. I found a webpage at Bond Lifestyle. James Bond Lifestyle.com. They released a Goldeneye version of the pen, which I owned. Like, seeing this packaging, it's like, yes, I remember this. I remember buying this. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm completely derailing us from something we're not even supposed to be talking about.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Nah. So, Gregory listed Parker, Cross, and Waterman. I'm probably starting with Waterman, looking there. And then I'm probably going to Schaefer. And they do some currently up-to-date products. Then I'm looking at Parker. And then Cross is probably last. I don't think Parker and Cross are doing as much as Waterman and Schaefer are in, like, the good fountain pen gift range for, like, say, like $100 to $200. I think you want to look at Waterman and Schaefer. So, that is my gift.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I believe that the Parker Jotter was an explosive. And it was, if you clicked it enough times, it would blow up. And there was a- Nice. One of the villains had a bit of a, like, a pen twirling habit. Yeah. That'd be a problem. And that was how he ended up getting them to explode.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I think we'd have a lot less listeners if that was a real product.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Part two. Now, Brad can gift any pen based on his vast stationery knowledge. What does he choose and why?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Pilot 823.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That is just, that could be someone's one and only pen for the rest of their life with, you know, proper care. It's, like, $400 and something dollars now. It's definitely gone up in price. It's got a great filling system. It's got a great nib.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' As a gift, it's cool and it's safe, right? Like, someone's going to, no one's going to go, oh, yeah, I really don't like this one. Like, it's a pretty, you have a pretty high hit rate with, if you gave an 823, someone's going to be pretty happy about it, right? Whereas, you know, you could pick a million different just random color pens and random styles of pens and who knows if you're going to like it. I think the 823 is pretty classic looking.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Trying to think if there's another option I would jump straight to. Pelican 600 is probably the second option. It's a good mid-size. I want to say mid-price. It's very, it's expensive as well. But compared to Sailor's other offerings, it's a good size. And you can get some classic colors. It's a classic.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think that's probably my top two. The Pelican 600 might actually be number one. That actually might even be a safer pen than the 823. Just from a style perspective. If you, I'm thinking about this as someone who's not that experienced with fountain pens, that the Pelican might be a safer bet. Like a Pelican 600 in one of many, many colors or styles.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. It comes in many, many, many, many. It's the M600, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' M600, yeah. Or 605, whichever. The M6 series of Pelican I think is the best gift range. But you're going to spend a lot of money on that. That's, you know, again, $400 or $500, $400 or $500 probably.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, I figured that was the point of the question.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah. Like I'm not going, like I could say, you know, some crazy Nakaya or some wild Montblanc or a pen with abs or something like that. But I'm trying to be, like, realistic and think about gift giving to someone who would appreciate a wonderful writing instrument but doesn't know a lot about it. Like the Pelican 600 might be.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a little bit more classic looking than the 823.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I also think Pelicans are really beautiful, nice, great pens that you might not necessarily buy for yourself.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Also, buy them an extra fine nib because it's going to write very, very wet. Don't buy, like, a medium nib. It's going to be, like, a marker and they might not like it. I will definitely go down. You want to know what you're doing if you're getting a Sailor medium or broad nib because it's going to write, like, a Sharpie if you don't. You're not careful. An extra fine. Did you mean Pelican when you said Sailor? Pelican, Pelican. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Too many brands. Like, I have a disco to attend, so. Of course.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, I'm going to let you go do that. If you would like to send in any follow-up or questions for a future episode of the show, go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can send those in. I would like to thank Factor and Pen Chalet for the support of this episode. If you would like to find Brad online, go to spokedesign.com, penchalet.com. You can find Brad's Dreaming Live at twitch.tv slash penaddict. For me right now, I would say go to designed.fm and check out the Designed in California Kickstarter campaign. I won't be here next week. I'll be in California attending Apple's WWDC conference. Brad will have another wonderful guest. I promise to come back after that. I'm not going anywhere for a while.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Not for long. Well, I am.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Actually, there might have to be another guest, but this is my fault.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, two guests in June is the plan. So, we'll see.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of The Pen Addict. Until next time, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]