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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, A production

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Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hello and Happy Friday. I'm Tracy V.

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Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. We talked about pens this week.

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Speaker 1: Is the thing that this reminds me the most of

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Speaker 1: in terms of inspiration for an episode is the one

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Speaker 1: where we talked about poison control.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: That literally came about because I was reading the back

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Speaker 1: of the cats, flea and tick prevention medicine that said

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Speaker 1: if you ingested it, to call poison control.

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Speaker 2: And I was like, huh, how did we get.

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Speaker 1: A system in which there's poison control to the point

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Speaker 1: that it's printed on the box, Like that's the thing

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Speaker 1: that the people who made this can take for granted

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Speaker 1: that the people reading it would have access to poison control.

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Speaker 2: How do we get to that?

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Speaker 1: In this case, We're just sitting around the table, just

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Speaker 1: kind of chatting as we are preparing to start and

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Speaker 1: something ish process of signing paperwork, and I thought, hah,

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Speaker 1: who thought of pens like this? They also were retractable,

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Speaker 1: and we did not talk about retractable pens at all.

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Speaker 1: I don't know when somebody came up with how to

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Speaker 1: retract them? But you know, we're clicking on the retractable pens,

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Speaker 1: and I went, huh, pens, let's talk about that.

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Speaker 2: On the show.

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Speaker 1: People feel very strongly about pens. I feel incredibly strongly

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Speaker 1: about pens me too. I've never felt more seen. I

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Speaker 1: will once again invoke Bob's Burger's. But there was an

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Speaker 1: episode where someone needed a pen and their daughter Tina.

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Speaker 1: I think it's Linda that needs a pen. Their daughter

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Speaker 1: Tina hands it to her and says, this is my

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Speaker 1: third favorite pen. And then she doesn't hand it back

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Speaker 1: right away. And Tina's like, can I have it back, because,

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Speaker 1: like I said, it's my third favorite pen. And I

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Speaker 1: was like, Tina, I see you and I feel you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So so the part of the episode where we read

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Speaker 1: the thing that was about the person saying that they

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Speaker 1: did not think that this fountain pen would really take

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Speaker 1: off because it felt so much better to write with

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Speaker 1: a quill. I have never written with a quill. However,

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Speaker 1: that really resonated with me, because if I don't like

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Speaker 1: the sensation of writing with a pen, forget it.

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Speaker 2: I'm never using that pen again.

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Speaker 1: I not that long ago impulse bought some gel pens

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Speaker 1: at the drug store took one out to write with

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Speaker 1: it the first time, and it felt scratchy, and I

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Speaker 1: was like, nope, no, that is the worst sensation. I

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Speaker 1: hate it, especially if it's a pen like a gel

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Speaker 1: pen that normally, like a decent gel pen, has such

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Speaker 1: a smooth hand. Yeah, if it doesn't, if for some

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Speaker 1: reason it's cheaply made and the roller ball that conveys

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Speaker 1: the gel does not smoothly do its job.

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Speaker 2: It's like nails on a chalkboard. It's awful. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And the fact that you're not expecting it, because you

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Speaker 1: expect the gel pen to have that smooth feel, was

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Speaker 1: incredibly jarring. I've only written with a fountain pen one time.

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Speaker 1: It is possible that there are fountain pins that I

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Speaker 1: would like, but that one fountain pen, I was like, Nope,

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Speaker 1: feels too scratchy on the page. Many years ago, I

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Speaker 1: was someplace I don't even know where, but the sort

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Speaker 1: of place that sells gifts.

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Speaker 2: And knickknacks for your home.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and it was a glass dip pen that came

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Speaker 1: with a well of ink, and I was like, that

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Speaker 1: is beautiful and I want to own it, and I

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Speaker 1: bought it for myself. And the first time that I

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Speaker 1: actually tried to write with it. It was a glass

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Speaker 1: like a handmade glass pen that you would dip into

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Speaker 1: the well, and the very first time I tried to

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Speaker 1: write with it, it felt so awful to me that

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Speaker 1: that then became just a desk decoration. I have a

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Speaker 1: mixed like Tina, I have different kinds that I like,

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Speaker 1: and I will tell you I am the person who

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Speaker 1: buys the old school Bic crystal ballpoint with purple ink

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Speaker 1: in bulk. I'm like, send me that bulk thing. I

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Speaker 1: want my purple ink. I like the way a big

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Speaker 1: ballpoint rolls. They're pretty consistent. Those are my scribblers.

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Speaker 2: And then.

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Speaker 1: My next thing is so specific and odd. I have

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Speaker 1: passed through as I'm sure you have many pens over

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Speaker 1: the years where I'm like, this is my current favorite.

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Speaker 1: Right for a long time, I like the pilot thick

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Speaker 1: ink rollerball great, but right now.

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Speaker 2: It's so silly.

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Speaker 1: And it's been this for a little over like a

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Speaker 1: year and a half. Now. I think there is a pen.

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Speaker 1: I don't know who manufactures it, but it is a

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Speaker 1: Lego Okay light Saber Jel pen that is the one.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it is smooth as silk.

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Speaker 1: I have many colors. Anytime I'm in a situation where

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Speaker 1: I can buy one, I buy.

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Speaker 2: Five like I love them so much.

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Speaker 1: My only criticism is that there's a little screw top

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Speaker 1: on the end of the barrel where the actual like

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Speaker 1: ink stick is inserted, and the threads on that can

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Speaker 1: fail and it can crack, and that makes me bananas.

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Speaker 1: You will find around my house many bodged together pens

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Speaker 1: because I cannot give the pen up even though it

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Speaker 1: has had a structural failure. Oh the Obsession. One of

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Speaker 1: the favorite pens that I had that has now run

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Speaker 1: out of ink.

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Speaker 2: One.

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Speaker 1: I think the last trip that I took prior to

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Speaker 1: the start of the pandem, not the cruise that I

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Speaker 1: was on when the pandemic started. I've told that story

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Speaker 1: on the show many times, But you and I and

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Speaker 1: several of our coworkers all went on a trip not

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Speaker 1: long before that that was related to an advertiser and

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Speaker 1: the pen that they gave us for free with our

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Speaker 1: little packet of materials. I loved it, wrote really beautifully,

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Speaker 1: It felt.

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Speaker 2: Really good in my hands.

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Speaker 1: I was very into it, and when it ran out

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Speaker 1: of ink, if I'm remembering correctly, I sat there studying

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Speaker 1: it trying to figure out, like, what is the source

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Speaker 1: of this pen? Where can I get another one? And

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Speaker 1: I did not figure it out. I was unsuccessful. Did

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Speaker 1: you ever consider and I know this is crazy, but

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Speaker 1: it's the kind of thing I would do reaching out

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Speaker 1: to that advertiser and being like, yo, I got this

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Speaker 1: pen on this little adventure. Do I have a warehouse

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Speaker 1: full of them somewhere? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: I did not do that. I did not. I bet

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Speaker 2: they do.

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Speaker 1: There is somewhere an admin assessment assistant with the key

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Speaker 1: to the premium's closet who is like, man, let me

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Speaker 1: hook you up. Yeah, I might confirm that I am

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Speaker 1: not conflating it with a different source of pen. This

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Speaker 1: is where I remember that when coming from. But it's

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Speaker 1: always possible to be wrong, to remember things incorrectly after.

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Speaker 2: That many years.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, anyway, I really like it when a random

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Speaker 1: thing in the world sparks my interest, whether it is

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Speaker 1: pens or the poison control system or a random person

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Speaker 1: who's who you know. I stumble across a historical marker

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Speaker 1: or one little sign in a museum or something like that,

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Speaker 1: and I go, what is that about? And it becomes

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Speaker 1: a whole episode. It's one of my favorite things to

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Speaker 1: happen on the show.

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Speaker 2: I feel like that's life. Yeah, do you know what

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Speaker 2: I mean? Like I don't. I'm never not going like

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Speaker 2: where did that come from? What is that? Maya?

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Speaker 1: My almost it would be a peeve if it had

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Speaker 1: not become so funny among my friend group. Is when

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Speaker 1: you know you'll be out somewhere and someone will be like, huh,

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Speaker 1: I wonder who invented this style of cheese slicer? And

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Speaker 1: I'm always like, if only there were a magic box

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Speaker 1: in our pocket.

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Speaker 2: That can tell us so like I I never want to.

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Speaker 1: I never have the I wonder if and look off

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Speaker 1: into space I'm away, was like looking it up, looking

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Speaker 1: it up. When people think I'm walking and texting, I'm

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Speaker 1: probably looking up like what style of flower is that?

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Speaker 1: What kind of thing is this? Who designed this building?

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Speaker 1: Like I'm such an information hound. I never stop looking

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Speaker 1: things up. I've started having this while watching TikTok. People

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Speaker 1: will either reference a thing and I'm like, I don't

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Speaker 1: know what that's about, or there will be mentioned. It

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Speaker 1: will be you know, somebody who's made a video about

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Speaker 1: the history of something, and I don't know if they

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Speaker 1: are correct or not, And I will close TikTok and

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Speaker 1: go start looking stuff up for myself. Yeah yeah, I'm

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Speaker 1: always laughing at giant ostrich plume quills. I mean they're fun,

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Speaker 1: they are very fun. They would be challenging to write

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Speaker 1: with if you were trying to do that because of

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Speaker 1: the air resistance against the big flufy plumage. Yeah yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think we had one of those at our wedding

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Speaker 1: for the guest book.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, sure, sure, as too many people.

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Speaker 1: But it is also like a mythology that is perpetuated

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Speaker 1: by a lot of period film and television where yeah,

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Speaker 1: someone's like, I must sign my name and they whip

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Speaker 1: out a quill pen that's gigantic pill feather plumage, like

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Speaker 1: as far as the eye can see.

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Speaker 2: It makes me giggle. But yeah.

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Speaker 1: We talked about Edwin Armstrong this week, yep, which ended

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Speaker 1: on a sad note, but also, he's pretty cool. He's

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Speaker 1: gotten so much recognition posthumously within the science community and

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Speaker 1: specifically engineering, even if a lot of lay people don't

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Speaker 1: really know much about him, which is nice to know

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Speaker 1: his colleagues all recognized his brilliance. We didn't talk a

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Speaker 1: lot about one of the things that I thought was

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Speaker 1: really charming about him. We mentioned in the nineteen twenties

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Speaker 1: that he suddenly made a boatload of money, which he

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Speaker 1: spent largely reinvesting in science. But one of the things

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Speaker 1: he did as an indulgence was he went to Europe

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Speaker 1: and bought fast cars, okay, because he really liked cars,

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Speaker 1: And that was just one of the things where he

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Speaker 1: was like, I'm must spend some money on this, and

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Speaker 1: I'm like, I respect it. Yeah, I respect it. This

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Speaker 1: episode and thinking about FM and AM gave me so

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Speaker 1: many memories to growing up when streaming didn't exist.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mostly had one memory, which is when I

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Speaker 1: was in elementary school, I acquired at what was effectively

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Speaker 1: a yard sale, a toy plush dog that had a

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Speaker 1: radio in its belly and also came with a little brush.

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Speaker 1: Because it was kind of a long haired dog, you

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Speaker 1: can brush the dog's hair. So if you brushed the

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Speaker 1: dog's hair while listening to the AM radio, it was

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Speaker 1: impeded in its belly. It would just make ongoing static

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Speaker 1: in time with the brush strokes of brushing. And there

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Speaker 1: was a true in our backyard that had it had

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Speaker 1: kind of grown out in an angle and it had

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Speaker 1: a place that I like to go up there and sit,

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Speaker 1: and I would go up there and sit with my

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Speaker 1: radio dog and listen to the AM radio and brush

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Speaker 1: its fur with the brush. Okay, because I can't stop myself,

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Speaker 1: I immediately looked up dog plush AM radio. Yeah, there

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Speaker 1: were different breeds you could buy. Oh really, and I'm

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Speaker 1: real tempted to buy a poodle. Okay, Okay, Will I

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Speaker 1: ever listen to the radio on it? Probably not? But

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Speaker 1: oh I like that they're not super pricey either. Pretty exciting. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's very funny though, the idea that you're inadvertently like changing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, creating more static.

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Speaker 1: It looked a lot like this one that just came

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Speaker 1: up on eBay with like kind of wild hair.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, AM radio is still around.

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Speaker 1: There are still people listening to it working for iheartme that.

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Speaker 1: Like when we get newsletters about stuff, sometimes we get

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Speaker 1: newsletters about things that are related to radio, and I

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Speaker 1: remember getting one that was about the requirement for AM

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Speaker 1: radios still to be in new vehicles. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: in part because AM radio is one of the ways

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Speaker 1: that you can get here in the United States broadcasts

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Speaker 1: from the Emergency Broadcast system when there is some kind

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Speaker 1: of emergency and that stuck in my head.

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Speaker 2: It was not that long ago.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we've gotten a kajillion emails about it, which you're

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Speaker 1: probably filtering some of because it is a significant amount.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of emails. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: My memories about AM radio and FM radio and radio

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Speaker 1: listening in general are all very tied to my youth, right,

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Speaker 1: Like I remember. The big one is that I remember,

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Speaker 1: for a long time my dad was really into classic cars,

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Speaker 1: so we did not have modern vehicles, which meant all

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Speaker 1: of the radios in the vehicles, and I he would

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Speaker 1: drive me to ballet, initially twice a week and then

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Speaker 1: six days a week because some of us become obsessive,

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Speaker 1: and I remember we would have to be like tuning

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Speaker 1: into AM stations. And when I started ballet at the

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Speaker 1: age of nine, I pretty much let him make those decisions.

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Speaker 1: And as I hit my early teen years, and I

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Speaker 1: had an FM radio at home and I knew what

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Speaker 1: was available musically, I wanted the music that I was into,

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Speaker 1: and I remember trying to tune around all the time

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Speaker 1: and being frustrated as I'll get out at having to

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Speaker 1: like find the AM station that would play contemporary. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: charting music, and I just I it's such a distinct

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Speaker 1: part of my youth that I remember sitting in That's

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Speaker 1: sixty seven Pontiac LeMans futzing with the radio NonStop.

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Speaker 2: It's like ingrained in my soul. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Arguing about the songs, Yeah, I think probably would have

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Speaker 1: been tricky because it seems like AM radio is more

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Speaker 1: focused on like talk radio, because it's clearer.

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Speaker 2: With spoken voices than music.

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Speaker 1: Right, music does not play great on AM nowadays. It's

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Speaker 1: better than it certainly was when Armstrong was doing his work,

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Speaker 1: But yeah, FM is a clearer sharper that's usually considered

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Speaker 1: the high fidelity. My dad's car had a CBE radio

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Speaker 1: in there, and my grandfather's car. His dad's car also

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Speaker 1: a CBE radio. I never really learned to use the

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Speaker 1: CBE radio. I never really learned much about the like

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Speaker 1: CB slang and lingo and etiquette. But what I do

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Speaker 1: remember is whenever we were on road trips, we would

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Speaker 1: hear the truckers warning each other about where the speed

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Speaker 1: traps were over. That CBEE radio not exactly the same

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Speaker 1: thing as a radio station to listen to. The Other

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Speaker 1: thing I thought about while working on this episode was

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Speaker 1: DeForest as an example of someone who just stumbled into

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Speaker 1: success and then believed himself to be at the same

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Speaker 1: level as people in his field who clearly knew a

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Speaker 1: lot more than him. Yeah, and how infuriating I would

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Speaker 1: have found that to deal with.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I found the Supreme Court case frustrating. Yeah, for obvious reasons.

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Speaker 1: And you know, because of parallels to more recent cases

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Speaker 1: where you know, there has been an expert, many experts

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Speaker 1: have written amicus briefs on something, and then the decision

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Speaker 1: goes in the opposite way of those expert opinions. And

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Speaker 1: that was sort of what that reminded me of. And

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Speaker 1: we got to the part about him trying to return

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Speaker 1: his award and everybody like refusing to take the award back.

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Speaker 1: Part of me was like, did you had those people

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Speaker 1: written amicus briefs on his behalf for the Supreme Court cases?

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Speaker 1: How did they feel about that? If so, probably angry,

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Speaker 1: I don't know.

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Speaker 2: I do know they were giving There were a lot of.

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Speaker 1: People giving statements like to the press about we all

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Speaker 1: know he invented this, we all know listen to the testimony.

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Speaker 1: I mean it really is like, no, the audion is

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Speaker 1: a magical wonder. We haven't figured out what it can

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Speaker 1: do and how it works yet, and then somebody who's like, yes,

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Speaker 1: we can, here's how, here's the circuitry that I had

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Speaker 1: published two years ago about it, here's everything like it. Yah.

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Speaker 1: At that point, it's one of those things where like

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Speaker 1: you shouldn't even need an amicus brief. One of these

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Speaker 1: men understand this science. And one of these men kind

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Speaker 1: of comes off as a ding dong who's like, I

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Speaker 1: don't know you touched the wires together, Like it's really.

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Speaker 2: The fact that.

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Speaker 1: He describes it as having, you know, this phenomena, as

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Speaker 1: being a wonder that can't be understood, is like, hmm,

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Speaker 1: do you think ghosts are doing this?

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Speaker 2: Like what? It's so weird?

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Speaker 1: It's the small creatures living in the radio set kind of.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it does feel like that sort of level

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Speaker 1: of like I just don't know, we can never understand.

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Speaker 2: It's the unknowable. And it's like, no, we know, we

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Speaker 2: all know. We all know. This guy figured it out,

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Speaker 2: we've tested it, we know, we know.

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Speaker 1: And then again, the justice is going do we though

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Speaker 1: I don't think we do know. I think he put

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Speaker 1: the wires in the light bulb first it's his and

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Speaker 1: it's like, oh, so I can understand how they were

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Speaker 1: all super frustrated.

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Speaker 2: I do like, though, that the.

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Speaker 1: Entire field rallied around him and it didn't in that

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Speaker 1: moment impact his standing. Uh. It certainly, you know, meant

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Speaker 1: that he got cheated out of some money, but he

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Speaker 1: was still very wealthy at that point, so it probably

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Speaker 1: didn't feel as painful other than just his pride.

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Speaker 2: Radio. Now, I just keep thinking about alviscostello songs.

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Speaker 1: Just what we do anyway, if you're coming up on

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Speaker 1: your weekend, whether you listen to the radio or some

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Speaker 1: other form of entertainment, or maybe you don't get to

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Speaker 1: do any of that, and I'm sorry, but if you

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Speaker 1: do get to do some things for yourself, I hope

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Speaker 1: they are so delightful, super enjoyable, leave you feeling relaxed, rejuvenated, recharged,

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Speaker 1: at peace as much as possible in our very very

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Speaker 1: wild world right now. If you don't have time off,

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Speaker 1: I still hope you get to do something fun and

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Speaker 1: maybe listen to something that you enjoy as you commute,

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Speaker 1: if you commute, or just you know, wherever you can,

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Speaker 1: and that I hope everyone eats something delicious. I hope

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Speaker 1: everyone that loves cake has cake this weekend. That's my

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Speaker 1: wish for the world, and that we all are as

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Speaker 1: kind to each other as we can possibly manage. We

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Speaker 1: will be right back here tomorrow with a classic episode,

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Speaker 1: and then on Monday we will have something brand new.

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Speaker 1: Stuff you missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.