Fooling Around

We considered some kind of really fun prank for April Fool’s Day. Perhaps news that we were going to start printing our weekly issues on scrolls. Or a story about how our new website will offer an app to diffuse new car smell as you browse our Auto category. In the end, however, we decided against it; while we like to have some fun here and on Twitter and Facebook, we do take your ads very seriously.

There’s also the chance that people will take us at our word, too. It may sound far-fetched, but it has happened before. In 1957, England’s BBC ran a current affairs report that did exactly that. A three-minute segment showed a Swiss family collecting a bumper crop of pasta, and the report resulted in hundreds of calls to the network requesting tips on how to grow spaghetti in the home garden. Amused reps from the BBC reportedly suggested would-be gardeners give it a shot by placing a “sprig” of spaghetti in a can of tomato sauce. You can check out the original segment here, though it could be said that the folks in the video are impastas (Sorry. We couldn’t resist).

Noodle jokes aside, we hope it’s been a day full of fun and surprises for you. And don’t forget to download our New Car Smell app!

 

Ahoy!

We had to say it. Had to. And there’s probably no better day to do so than on the 138th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell receiving a patent for a nifty little invention he chose to call the telephone.

While Bell’s catchy name for the device stuck, his recommended greeting when using the newfangled apparatus didn’t fare nearly as well. Some early users answered their telephones with a hearty “Ahoy!”, but it didn’t really stick for long. By the turn of the century, most folks used “Hello?”,  a greeting suggested by Thomas Edison. Interestingly, there are still a few references to that “ahoy” in pop culture; most interestingly on The Simpsons, where Montgomery Burns answers his phone with an old-timey “Ahoy-hoy!”

We’ve got a soft spot for that seafaring salutation, but we won’t be adopting it in our office anytime soon. So when you call with questions or help (which we encourage you to do), we’ll answer with our first names so that you’ll know who you’re speaking with. Bear in mind, however, that you’re perfectly welcome to hit us with a cheery “Ahoy!” – it would probably make our day.

True to Type

You’re reading this, so chances are you’re more than a little familiar with a keyboard. Even if you belong to the hunt-and-peck school of typistry, you probably know your way around those keys (you just do it at a more leisurely pace, right? Right!). If you’re past a certain age there’s a strong possibility that you spent some time in a typing class. Using a typewriter. Remember those? Some of us got lucky and learned on an electric one, but the sturdy-fingered among us did their time on a manual.

It’s astonishing to realize how quickly the typewriter has become obsolete – just two decades ago it wasn’t unusual to see one in any office, yet these days they’re a bit of an oddity. However, the mighty typewriter still has some adherents, and we’re proud to tell you that we’ve got a number of them listed in our Office Equipment category.

The keyboard we all know and love uses what’s called the QUERTY format; it’s a rather apt name, considering that the five letters that comprise it are the five that are to the upper left of the keyboard. Though we’re used to it now, it does seem rather counterintuitive to use such a layout. What’s up with that?

The QUERTY layout was designed in 1872 specifically for manual typewriters. As anyone who’s ever used a manual typewriter can tell you, the hammers that activate to print the typed letters had a rather cumbersome habit of jamming together if the user didn’t apply just the right amount of finesse. By placing the most commonly used letters on different parts of the keyboard, the chances of those hammer jams was lessened: the awkwardness of the placement was designed to slow down the typist just enough that the hammers wouldn’t need to move virtually at once. And, as a rule, it worked pretty well. Most of the time.

We’re delighted when you use our website to place ads, but if you’re feeling a little QWERTY fatigue, we understand. That’s why we’ve got live customer service associates ready to take your ads, answer your questions, and assist you in any way we can.

Putting a Stop to It!

On this day in 1951, the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. And if, like us, you need a little refresher, we’re happy to accommodate you: that amendment limited all future presidents to two terms in office.

Aside from the pure joy of injecting a little history into your day, we do have a reason for bringing up ol’ Amendment 22, and that reason is pretty cool. If you’re a user of Paper Shop, you know that we’ve always run your classified ad for 4 issues (that’s 4 weeks), and then we’d contact you to see if you’d like to continue advertising.

Well, we’ve decided to simplify. Why not, right?

We’d like to let you know that we’ll be happy to continue to run your ads until you’d like us to stop them. We don’t care if it’s one week or ten – we’ll keep those ads in print and online until you tell us otherwise. We think it’s a far more efficient way to keep your items for sale, and you never need to worry about your ads expiring and losing exposure. Of course, when you stop your ads there’s no charge at all – it doesn’t matter if you stop because you’ve sold the items or for some other reason. Just let us know, and we’ll deep six them right then and there.

In short: we’ve eliminated term limits on ads. You can place ads, stop ads, or even *ahem* amend them on our website anytime you’d like.

It’s about time!

With our weekly deadline, we’re all about the countdowns here. So we’d like to think we’re rather well-rehearsed for the biggest deadline of the year: midnight on December 31.

While it’s an exciting time no matter where you are, the most famous of New Year’s Eve parties is, of course, in the Big Apple. And if you’re among the estimated billion worldwide watchers (not to mention the approximately one million folks live in Times Square), you already know you’re part of one of the most exciting annual traditions. But here are some pretty neat factoids you might not already know about that famous glittery ball and its yearly voyage:

• The inaugural drop was in 1907 and the first ball to be lowered was made of wood, iron and one hundred 25-watt light bulbs. It was 5 feet in diameter and weighed in at 700 pounds!
• The ball has dropped every year since with only two exceptions: blackout restrictions due to World War II prevented it happening in 1942 & 1943
• There have been a number of different balls used throughout the years, but a fifth ball design, lit by LED, was introduced for the celebration’s centennial in 2007.
• The current ball design – the sixth – was introduced in 2009. It clocks in at 11,875 pounds and has a diameter of 12 feet. It’s made up of 2,688 Waterford crystal panels.
• In over a century of celebrating, there have only been 7 white New Years Eves – the most recent snowy celebration was in 2009.

Forward, arch!

On this day in 1965, construction was completed on the St. Louis Arch. Not only is it included on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, it’s also a pretty impressive illusion: despite appearing taller than it is wide, the arch is precisely 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide. It is, in fact, the world’s largest man-made optical illusion.

Here’s something else rather interesting about the construction of the Gateway Arch: there are 16 small windows on each side of the observation deck at the top. And when we say small, we really mean quite tiny – each window measures only 7″x 27″. The reason for the petite windows? It all comes down to pressure: it took over 500 tons of pressure to jack the north and south legs of the arch apart so that the final top piece could be placed. Windows that were any larger simply couldn’t have handled that kind of pressure.

Speaking of pressure, don’t let it be your arch-enemy! If you’d placed an ad with us and you’d like to change the wording, add more information or lower the price, we’re happy to help you do that. Just use “Change or Correct Ad” on thepapershop.com or give us a call at 1-800-537-9377.

How about them Apples?

On this day in 2001, Apple unveiled the iPod. That first iPod had 5GB of storage and, in the words of Steve Jobs, “put 1000 songs in your pocket”.

While the iPod was certainly revolutionary, those of us of *ahem* a certain age fondly (or not so fondly) remember another portable music player that changed everything: Sony’s Walkman.

The idea for a lightweight music player was the brainchild of Sony engineer Akio Morita. Because of the nature of his job, Morita spent plenty of time on trans-Atlantic flights, during which he enjoyed listening to opera music on a small cassette player. While he enjoyed the arias, he found his listening device rather cumbersome, and he wondered if it could be made more practical by removing the recording mechanism and creating a cassette player that simply played music and didn’t record it. And with this brainstorm, the Walkman – one of the quintessential symbols of the 1980’s – was born.

Remember that we’ve got cassette decks, MP3 players and Apples of all sorts in our Musical Merchandise and Computers categories.

 

Word up!

Did you know that English has the largest vocabulary of any language on earth? it’s estimated that our language contains around 800,000 words, and the average English speaker uses about 60,000 of those words. That may seem like a rather puny percentage, but when you think about it, it’s actually pretty impressive: many of those 800,000 words are specific scientific and trade terms or even expressions that are fading into obsolescence and no longer see much traffic.

Here’s some more interesting information about our language:

• More English words start with the letter T than with any other letter. It’s no surprise, then, that any dictionary has more listings under T than anywhere else.
• T may be great for starters, but E is the most common letter to appear in our language.
• The word cleave is the only word to have two meanings that happen to be complete opposites: it can mean to either stick together or to separate.
• English contains no rhymes for the words month, orange or purple.
• The shortest complete sentence in English is “Go.”

Wondering why we’re feeling so loquacious today? October 16th is Dictionary Day. And as people who make our living with words, it’s a day we like to recognize. We do our best to keep ourselves somewhat hip with the lingo (and, yep, that even includes some of those pesky trade terms) so that we’re able to help you put together the best possible ad to sell your item.

If you’re really not sure what to say in your ad, feel free to give us a call. We’ll help you think of how to describe your item to its best advantage and we may also have suggestions for selling points to mention. And if our assistance fills you with a need to talk about what you’re selling, remember that we also offer you a chance to come on the air every Saturday on our weekly radio show, Paper Shop Live!

Good Vibrations!

We woke up this morning feeling pretty good. Despite the cloudy weather and slightly chilly temperatures, we felt upbeat. It occurred to us that we were the direct recipients of some good vibrations. And when we checked the calendar, we knew exactly why: today’s the anniversary of the release of one of the most groundbreaking tunes in music history.

When the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” dropped on October 10, 1966 it was the most expensive pop song ever recorded. The extensive instrumentation (including a theremin) and the fact that it was assembled from parts of various recording sessions generated a price tag of over $40,000 – a music industry record for the time.

And here’s something else you might not know: although “Good Vibrations” was a Beach Boys single, the song was recorded using studio musicians. In fact, country superstar Glenn Campbell was the guitarist on this track.

Every song has a story. And so does every collectible. We not only enjoy helping you find, sell and trade those collectibles, we also love learning more about them. Got an interesting fact, story or item? Tell us. Gotta keep those lovin’ good vibrations happening, right? Right.

Ad of the Week: 400 Egg Cartons

Because we sell anything and everything, we often get ads for the interesting, the unusual and the extremely specialized. One of the best parts of working here is that we learn so much about so many different things. Here’s where we feature an ad that made us sit up and take notice.

This week brings us something rather eggcellent (and, let’s face it, a great chance for some really bad puns):

400+ EGG CARTONS, $40. All, Will sep. +(SUSQUEHANNA) 570-727-3207

If you’ve found yourself short on these magnificent little items, well, now you can breathe easy. After all, 400 is an awful lot of egg cartons! Don’t be chicken – now’s your chance to stock up.

As we tend to do, we quickly became fascinated by the mundane; in other words, we spent a little time thinking about egg cartons. Such common, yet specifically crafted little things! How did they come to be?

For centuries, eggs were collected, transported and sold in baskets. While a basket can hold a number of eggs, there is some pretty strong potential for breakage. And it was a dispute about that breakage that motivated a newspaper editor from British Columbia to design a better means of transport. In 1911, Joseph Coyle, in response to a dispute between a local farmer and the hotel who purchased that farmer’s eggs, designed a paper carton to safely contain the eggs. So successful was Coyle that he not only continued with the production of his newfangled cartons, he also invented machinery to mass produce them in 1919.

So the next time you reach for those eggs tucked into their snug little carton, give Joe Coyle a thought. Or maybe call that seller in Susquehanna and give Mr. Coyle, well, 400 thoughts.