Zestful Blog Post #272
OK, this isn’t writing advice, but perhaps somehow this post
might help you make your writing life easier and therefore more zestful. It’s
about analogue tools. I’ve been thinking about such because I recently turned
in an article to Writer’s Digest on using old-school tools. I believe it’s
going to run in November-December. I had a great time with it, and I’ll be sure
to let you know when it’s available.
Pretty much everybody has a desk cup. Whenever I visit somebody’s
house, especially another writer’s, I try to get a look at their desk cup, because
I’m always interested in people’s tools and how they organize them. I keep
refining the contents of my own desk cup, which is fairly small. Here is the
story of my desk cup and what I keep in it.
The cup itself was a gift from the Peninsula Singers, a
choral group based in Port Angeles, Washington. They had special mugs handmade
as a souvenir for everyone who sang or played in a special performance of the
Brahms Requiem back in 2005. If
you’re not familiar with the piece, it is considered one of Brahms’s
masterworks. It’s his longest and biggest as well, involving full chorus and
orchestra, with soloists, in seven movements. It takes about an hour or more to
perform. [Boast alert!:] I played the timpani, and was gratified to see this
email to our conductor from an audience member who appreciated fortissimo:
Dated 12/15/2005 "Dear
Dewey, Merry Christmas! Thank you so much for your gifts to
me & the community via music. I always enjoy the P.T. Orchestra
but this year I attended the Brahms 'Requiem'. It was an epiphany of
renewal of faith for me! I was in tears (two handkerchiefs) through most
of it, but especially the 2nd movement.
Please give my especial thanks to
the lady timpanist for her verve and emotion in playing. The ff timpani
was the renaissance of my faith.
…
I will say I did a good job. [Boast alert all-clear.] Sadly,
the concert was not recorded, and my sole reminder is the mug. It contains all
my most-used implements, and here are photos, followed by the what-and-why.
And now the catalogue:
-
No-brand plastic scissors with metal blades, a
giveaway at a trade show when I worked for Borders. The blades have stayed
sharp forever; wish I knew the manufacturer.
-
Six-inch steel ruler engraved in inches and
millimeters that used to be in my dad’s tool box. This thing comes in so handy,
so often, for measuring little things and sometimes scraping a label or
carefully prying something.
-
Purple make-up brush, with which I dust off my
computer and keyboard every morning. Purple was on sale. One of these also
lives in my briefcase, along with a cleaning cloth.
-
Small screwdriver that can be reversed from slot
to Phillips.
-
Another trade-show freebie, a snap-off razor cutter
for opening packages and slashing pictures of my enemies. [Just wanted to see
if you’re paying attention.]
-
Fine-point black Sharpie for addressing packages
and drawing mustaches on portraits in museums. [Ditto.]
-
Two ultra-fine-point Sharpies, blue and black,
for writing in shiny-coated greeting cards that reject ordinary ballpoint ink.
-
Orange highlighter. I use this most often when
prepping my music for the various groups I play with. I prefer pink, because it
splits the difference between visible-enough and obtrusive. But my pink one ran
out.
-
Faber-Castell TK Fine Vario .7 mechanical
pencil, because my sister uses one and I like to be like her.
-
Red Pilot G-2 07 pen, because sometimes you just
want the emphasis of red.
-
The same pen in black, for general use.
-
Pilot Hi-Tec-C Maica 0.4 in blue-black, for
finer work or just to change things up. The ink in these fine point Japanese
pens lasts and lasts and lasts.
-
Ivory Parker Jotter with a strange
pale-green-check graphic on it. This model is one of the older ones, with a
metal cap and—important for durability—metal ring around the tip. I’ve
customized this with a broad-point blue refill by Monteverde. Lovely to write
with.
-
Soft-graphite wood-cased pencil such as the
Blackwing original or the Faber-Castell 4B. Often it’s a Blackwing 602, which
is the hardest Blackwing, but still on the soft side.
-
Fountain pens stay on standby in a drawer; I
don’t like to store them vertically in a cup.
You’ll notice there are no multiples of anything. When you
have like six pencil stubs, plus four cheap gimme pens from wherever, they
crowd up the cup and stuff gets jammed. So, my point today is, you can save
yourself a bunch of scrambling around if you just keep a few little things
handy, buffered by a bit of empty space.
What indispensables are found in your desk cup? To post, click below where it says, 'No Comments,'
or '2 Comments,' or whatever.
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