Staple Day 25

A MONTHLY UPDATE FROM INSIDE FIELD NOTES

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Hi, it’s Jim from Field Notes. This is our 25th monthly newsletter containing a variety of stuff that doesn’t really fit anywhere else. Please respond to this email if you have comments, questions, or suggestions. I’d love to hear from you. You can find recent Staple Days here.

TLDR Version: Redrum, Abracadabra, Sub Deal, Paper Flowers, Write-Only Memory, On a Whim, Developments, Pinned, Racine & Kinzie.

Most Foul

We’re working on a devious little project with our pals at The Mystery League. Sandy and company were the masterminds behind the puzzles in 2018’s “Clandestine” Edition, and the crazy-popular online puzzle hunt that accompanied it. Watch Deep Cover, for a recap on all that. You may have noticed that over the years we have gotten into the habit of announcing giveaways on Wednesdays. Nothing like that is happening today but next week does contain a Wednesday. Huh.

NOTE: The Mystery League has also created a great, daily word transformation game. It’s a blast. Give today’s Raddle a try.

Gaga

Hrishikesh Hirway, the host of Song Exploder, interviewed Lady Gaga about the making of her mega-hit “Abracadabra” for the 300th episode of the show. He told a lovely story about the experience on his blog and, lucky for us, Field Notes played a small part in it. Thanks for that.

The Art of the Fall

Coneflowers, Foxglove, and Chicory is the film that accompanies our current limited edition, the “Fall Flowers” Edition. Its hero is the intricate art of Laura Garcia, who fashions blooms from cut and folded paper. The voice-over is Tyler Meredith, whose sly and intimate interpretation really brought our copy to life.

Spring flowers get all the press.
Showy daffodils, lillies, tulips.
But it’s the fall flowers that do the hard work.
Combining forces with the maples and the birches
They stand as a rear guard to protect the retreat of summer
Coneflowers, foxglove, and chicory.
Like cut and colored paper.
Delicate, yet defiant.

Remembrance of Things Last

Based on a couple studies that I have cited in previous Staple Days, I’m trying a small trick to hopefully improve my memory. The Norwegian University of Science and Technology concluded that “intricate and precisely controlled handwriting movements have a beneficial impact on the brain’s connectivity patterns related to learning and remembering,” A Dartmouth study showed that “writing leads to higher rates of retention.”

Like many people, as I get older I find myself occasionally unable to recall a name, place, or title that I absolutely know. The forgotten noun (and for me, it’s always a noun) pops into my head in a few seconds or a minute later. The joke I make is that I must have that data stored on a bad sector of my brain’s hard drive. But since I’ll randomly forget the same name more than once, I think maybe the bad sector metaphor might be sort of valid.

As a fan of single-use notebooks, I’ve assigned one of our “Hatch Show Print” Memo Books to this task, and whenever I temporarily get stuck for a name or title, I write it down as soon as I recall it. My theory is that by doing so I'm adding it as fresh entry in my database. I’ve only made a handful of entries to date so it’s too early to draw any conclusions, but one benefit is that the list makes for a random poem of sorts. Anyhow, despite our Field Notes tag line, I guess I am writing it down to remember it later.

You Should Absolutely Buy That Stupid Thing

Advice from a recent post on John Birmingham’s Cheesburger Gothic, a “dive bar on the internet.” John is referring to our Memo Books, but we’re taking it as a compliment.

Things Develop Over Time

As noted in previous Staple Days, I’m keeping a commonplace book to record quotes that resonate with the present me, so that the future me knows where he’s been. Here are a couple recent entries.

“The events of our life are like photographic negatives. The few that make it into the developing solution and become photographs are what we call our memories.”

Note: From Janet Malcolm’s Still Pictures, a collection of essays in which she examines her past through a series a ordinary family photographs. Highly recommended.

“You could of said no and I could of not believed you.”

Note: This, from Raymond Chandler’s The Long Good-Bye, is one of dozens of examples cited by Stan Carey in his excellent essay and recent reconsideration on the topic of modal-of construction. When phrases like “would have” and “must have” are shortened to “would’ve” and “must’ve,” they become phonetically identical to “would of” and “must of,” resulting in hundreds of years of grammatical mistakes. Or, what Carey has come to see as, “a good example of language change – a natural, essential characteristic of a living language.” I should of known that.

Pinback Wizards

So you know, we’re down to the last couple hundred of the Busy Beaver Button 30th Anniversary 3-packs that we dropped last week.

1200 West and 400 North

Our 2025 Winter Edition and its related subscriber bonus item are both on press. It’s an ambitious undertaking and we’re planning on announcing that and the date of our Happy Hour Launch Party at HQ in a few weeks. Also, keep Saturday, December 13th open for our annual Holiday Market. Watch your mail for details.

Saturday & Sunday: We’re taking part in one of Chicago’s great fall traditions. Open House Chicago is this weekend, and we hope to see you at HQ for that. By the way, you might want to wish FN Co-Founder Aaron Draplin a happy birthday today.

^*Coined a long time ago in the Field Nuts Facebook group, “Staple Day” is traditionally observed when a writer reaches the exact middle of a Field Notes Memo Book, revealing the metal fasteners which bind the cover and the interior pages together.