Welcome to the tribute to the Burrows Brothers  retail chain here on the Junk Blog. Not really, but yes, this is to display what a nut I am for office supplies that I like and use and hoard and never ever will finish using because I'll buy more before it's anywhere close to being depleted. This is the only artifact I own from a time when Burrows Brothers was a leading office supply store here in Cleveland. If you needed more than just one pen, maybe a box of pens and a few steno pads, you could get them at Burrows. If you needed a greeting card or the latest Signet paperback collection of Al Jaffee cartoons, you go to Burrows. I don't think they sold tobacco products but you could get gum. For tobacco and magazines/paperbacks, we could go to Booklein. (I remember getting books and mags from B.Dalton or Waldenbooks. B. Dalton had the most Mad Magazine paperbacks, so I usually went there. )

I don't remember why I went to Burrows or when to buy these staples. More than likely, I went to the Great Northern strip center Burrows because I'd moved to North Olmsted when I was younger which I called "mall city". There was the mall, and there was two sides of the city. No "downtown" but Great Northern was the city center. I remember going to the Burrows in a Lakewood strip center near downtown as well. The one thing I used to love about Burrows was smelling the Mr. Sketch marker that had a "mango" scent, the cinnamon one was second. Signet Al Jaffee books were a reason to go as well. Mad Magazines Al Jaffee drew lots of cartoons and had a deal with Signet to release them. It seemed when a new one was out, Burrows was the only place to buy it. Al Jaffee was my favorite Mad artist because he used to draw a little caricature of himself in all his Mad stuff. The cover of "Al Jaffee Gags Again" (which was my first non-Mad book) had a simple drawing with a face like (*.*) and that was easy for me to draw.  Al Jaffee's Mad Inventions book was one of my favorites. He did some cartoons on "In the future" and lots of them were spot on. The one that sticks out is a typewritten letter full of edits sent to a loved one, would be completely sanitized and error free when auto corrected and printed out by a computer.  Hmmmm. *Gets the correction fluid and starts smearing the screen...* (Don't try this at home.)

Time marches on. You used to go to small office supply stores. Office Max got it's start here in Cleveland and was a office supply oasis with every possible thing you'd need for your office or home. Magazine and book stores became superstores with Barnes and Knobbly and Borders. Even the card stores were becoming more and more a thing. I don't think Wally had made inroads into the area yet, but they have 4-5 rows of office supplies and sell them dirt cheap, putting the squeeze on the big supply stores. Well, that was the end of Burrows. Even this lowly pack of 5000 Made In The USA staples was re-priced once as there is another tag under it. That's why I guessed this was purchased near the end of the chain's life.  Fondly remembered. What's silly about this? I intended to do a blog talking about all the stuff I have for drawing/writing and I figured I'd call it the Burrrows Brothers 2021 entry, but I did not have a picture of the only piece of retail debris I had from the chain. Done. Now, to the mess of junk I have.

Heh. A big grey hulking mess of tech, made in China. Lenovo was the IBM of a few years ago until they sold off the tech. They still are pretty decent computers. I bought this one a few years back when the M$ corp decided that Skype would be better if everybody ran it on a 64 Bit machine. Wait? What? You're going to make everybody using 32 bit machines just throw those away if they wanted to use your product? Yes. I needed a remote computer to do Skype with because my cell phone wouldn't cut it. I bought this. Why did I show the back of a laptop? Hmmm. Do I use Skype anymore since Zoom works better and on everything? Hmmm. Did I want to prove that this is what the world has gone too rather than pens/papers for just about everything? Hmmmm. Why don't I have a big "steelie" sticker showing I'm a Grateful Dead fan. Hmmmmm. This space for rent. Hmmmmmm.

Lets first talk about "SURFACE." Surface is what I call a flat, smooth place where one can spread out paper to draw or write on. It matters because one needs a smooth flat space to draw or write on. This I got for sitting in bed and writing/drawing on. Pen and Paper. Writing and drawing. Who does that anymore? I'm writing this with a computer. IBM clicky key keyboard rat-a-tat-tatting away. I should try writing stuff with a computer and printing stuff out. It's what the trend is these days right? *get off my lawn!* Now I use this as a place for my remotes or as a desk when I sit on my futon.

I have pictures of my K-Mart Desks. I'm not going to run a pic of my K-Mart desk. You've seen them before. Now, it's the place where I do the majority of my writing chores for the radio shows I write for. A few years back, I was shopping in a Wally and found these. "The Ultimate Clipboard" they are called. Thick plastic. Elastic band to keep pages from blowing. They are pretty decent. This brought the "surface" to remote locations. Starbucks with community picnic tables? Whip out the surface. Smooth. A place to draw or write. Gee, I use pads right? I rarely use one sheet of paper to draw or write anything, but I have in the past. Hmmm, maybe I should get another. Wait? My Wally didn't have these in stock? I'll go to another Wally. They didn't have them. What? I went back to the Canton area and yes, they had a few left. I bought a few. Later, they had them in stock again everywhere. Why not buy a few more for safety. I like them. I don't want them to stop selling what I like so I better buy a few more...

...one for the car. One for my computer room. One to have in the living room. I'll give one to Boomer in Pitt. He'll like one or maybe two so I have one if I forgot to bring mine. I'll have surface wherever I go. See? I created a junk pile of stuff I'm probably never going to use all of.  I did have some dollar store clip boards to use as well, but they aren't the ULTIMATE. I want the ULTIMATE.  I like the ULTIMATE. I'm not obsessed or anything...

But I am. Not really. Case in point, these. (To the side and back of this photo.) They are Canson XL (recycled) sketch pads. 3.5 by 5.5. I think I bought my first one from Pat Catans (a now gone craft store chain that was a superstore of drawing wares as well as every other dam craft product made. They had 8 aisles of stuff for artists alone. Hence, they carried every sketchpad made.) They were really cheap and decent quality. I started my "cartooning" (drawing with pen) on these pads and quickly became a fan of using them. Whenever I went to Patcats, I'd always pick up one or two of these. Michaels even carried them and at one time, they were selling these cheap as discontinued pads. I bought a few. Then when Patcats announced they would be closing as they were swallowed up by Michaels, I went to several stores and bought what they had left. Now, when I look on the web, I don't think they even make this size anymore. See? I stocked up. Lets see, I just passed 1000 sketches on these books. I started in 2010. 10 years for 10 pads. That means I'll use these up by the year 3000. Awww, well, I am going through them a bit quicker since the pansamatic, so 2050. Yep. The other pads are sticky pads of all sizes. I use them when I draw on a big sheet of paper to stop my big clumsy mitts from smearing. Envelopes. Lots. Note cards? Check. It's Burrows Brothers.

I started really trying to draw when I switched to overnights at the gig I was working at the time. There was a lot of down time during this over night gig and I started to draw at the encouragement of a friend who was in the business. He gave his advice to "trace" at first. Take an image and trace it. Eventually you get the feel of drawing and you can then try and duplicate the picture you're tracing without tracing it. Eventually you get the feel to start making original drawings with just reference pictures and then you don't need the reference pictures, you just know how to draw what you're trying to draw. It worked. I bought mechanical pencils and found that these Mead 8x11 sketch books were the ones I wanted to use. They had micro perfs so they tore out easy. They fit on my scanner so I could print them out if need be. They were heavy, acid free paper. Great for erasing. Lots of erasing. I bought a ton of these pads and still have them because I haven't drawn a full sized piece in a few years at least. Turns out, they aren't made anymore. BAM! Another reason to stock up.

Look! I can draw Boomer The Dog! Yeah, this is a children's "learn to draw" book, but when I saw it was Boomer The Dog! Hey, where are the paws? Okay, it is for kids but the for older folks learning to draw, these types of "here's how it's done" just didn't click. How do you go from 4 circles into a fully finished lion drawing in four frames always baffled me. It took my friend telling me the "Trace" method that got me jazzed on drawing cartoons.

Just a sampling of some of the "derbis" that I've built around my "cartoons". The 3-D pad was sold at a dollar store and came with a set of 3-D glasses. (The red-blue type.) These came in handy when I watched King Gizzard's "Cellophane" video. Look ma, two drummers floating in space and that harmonica player just gave me a dirty look! I've actually used the "cartoon animals" book to draw the animals listed, just to copy the features.  Happy Dino.

Ahhh..Darice. Part of the PatCats empire that all faded. Double stick tape that frankly doesn't get much use around here other than to tape up a mirror to the back of my electrical box so that I can see what I'm doing when inflicting a pansamatic self hair cut. *shudder* Need to do that again. I should just get a bowl. They are also good if you need to block the glare from a downward LED light fixture that was put in sideways facing.  Yep.

Everybody needs a place for their STUUUUUUFFFFF. *skitch* George Carlin. *Thanks* Here's mine. Paper clips. Thumb tacks. Refills for pens and erasers. A ZIMA pin with led lights that I found outside of a bar way back when Zima was still a thing. Plus, a Sobe cap that has a tribute to one of Howard Stern's whack pack. "Riley Martin" who was all about UFO abduction sometimes spoke things other than English and this was one that Howard played on his show all the time. Imagine finding it in a SOBE bottle. "O-Qua Tangin Wann"  RIP Riley. There's a googly eye for one of my plants. SNL was pushed.

Folders and envelopes do do do do. Folders and envelopes do do do do. (Incense And Peppermints.) Does anybody know what words they say after that in that song? Heck these were bought for a dime apiece from some dime apiece back to school sale from a participating mart. Do I use them? A bit. Did I need to worry that these would be discontinued? No. Did cheap stuff like this cause Burrows to fold? Likely.

This has been my mostly consumed product since I can remember. When I started writing a lot, I used spiral bound note books, but the spiral would wear and the tearing of pages would result in a mess. So, Mead gave us "Neat Books." I was home. They were compact and the pages could be torn out and stored cleanly. This was my way of doing things. I usually try to get them when they are on sale but in the past few years, they are getting tougher to find. I bought a CASE of these (20) when Target had them for for 50 cents apiece and I've been using them since because I had several more before I started on the 20. I still have several. Made In USA. They still make them but now they are "Assembled In USA". Ahh, but being past 15 years old a few years back, I noted the binding was falling apart when I used these. (Plus the fact that I was going through one every 6-18 months..) There was this pansamatic thing that showed up in 2020 and well... I had to rethink my Neat book strategy. I wasn't going anywhere to write anyway. It was stay at home Jones, and still is, but one of these that went fell apart a week after starting it and well...

Solution. 3 ring notebook. The advantage? I can take out a portion of a radio script I started and put it with where I'm starting it again a few pages after. That's it. That's all. Actually, there was one other use... You see, they make spiral bound notebooks now with micro perf pages, so they can tear out cleanly. They are only 70 pages usually, I need 80 pages. I'm a creature of habit, I fear change. *skitch* *Don Geronimo from the Don and Mike show* *Thanks*. I had a few of these laying around and figured, because I've switched, I might as well... So I have about 5 more pads to get through (made 80 pages by combining the paper) and then it will be back to neat books with cracked bindings.

Oh yeah. The evil dollar store. Makes me buy stuff when there is no need for it. Construction paper?  Maybe once I needed a piece. 40 page sketch pads? I use them to throw them away. I'm like the parsley that Fred Flintstone had to buy just for the customers to throw away. Never has a lesson in economics been taught so well that by Fred Flintstone. Way Out. WAY OUT! That's where the fun is. WAY OUT!

Yes, even the smaller stuff is squirreled away for me when it comes to my writing and drawing habits. Years ago, I got a spiral bound mini book from Dollar Tree and then, I guess it was from one of the first times I went to Orlanldo for a vacation, that I started a tradition. Writing a diary of my trips. Gave me something to do when I was on the plane or downtime in my room. It was small, so I didn't need a lot of surface. I found it worthwhile to remember the crappy service we got at a Chilis in 2016 when we went for a dinner. Yes, filled with that stuff. A few years later, I went to buy a few more but they looked the same, but were not the same. Cheaper/thinner and with cardboard backing. I used one, but the paper tore easily. So, I looked to replace and got the dogs/cats covered ones because they are better. I'm currently using Mead's version of one that I had started for my non trip to Orlando that I was going to take just before the pansamatic. It became my pansamatic diary and is still being written in with details: Tuesday- Woke, Worked, Mom Call, Bar, Late Night, Zzzzz. --I'll bet this working on this entry in this very junk blog with be in a weekend entry. Yep.

...and of course, what would  this junk blog be without dogs and pens. That's it. I have pens. Lots and lots of pens. I've compared pens on this junk blog, which means I have a ton of pens. Of course, I've compared how napkins and toilet paper were on this junk blog. Do I have a lot of toilet paper and napkins? Nope. Those get used every day. Pens? One by one. Refill the Bics. Here's a batch of the "old" Bic pens that blopped little blops of ink when you wrote with them. The newer ones do not. That's why it's all I use currently. There's some Papermate pens as well. They didn't blop as much as the Bics did but they still blopped. Blop blop fizz fizz. Oh what a mess it is.

Of course! When I find something I like, buy more than I can use in a lunchtime. Walking through a store and see a pack? Pick em' up. They will eventually get used.  Yep. Devo Obsesso.

I have more pens that I can use? To quote Adam Carolla: "Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssshocking." It's the dollar stores fault. The BK420's you see in excess here were purchased because they had a low blopping factor and with a little cutting of the refill, they fit in the Paper Mate retractable pens that I also bought mass quantities of. Trouble was, the Paper Mates were old, and the ink dried pretty easily inside the pen. So, I got BK420 pens from Pentel and they worked as replacements. Hotcha. Of course, dollar store again. When Bic became the best pen to buy, I used a shell from the very few "gripper" pens to make a Bic Hybrid pen that I use to this day. Ahh, but I only had three or four shells, until I found the Prima pens you see "piled high". They worked , so why not buy 500 of them?

.....FOR A BUCK?????

Yes, pens for a buck. Imagine my surprise when walking into the dollar store, they had a ton of the pens I thought they were not going to make anymore. Closeout Jones. I bought a ton of these as well. Too bad they don't get used because they will all be dry if I tried to use them. They had something like 14 separate pieces to make up a click pen from. Guess that's why they went the way of Burrows. 

...FOR A BUCK????

Yes, I did have the same experience with mechanical pencils as well, only not as much. I still use my original G-Force pencil for drawing but when I found out they were not going to make them anymore, Boomer went onto Flea Bay and got me a DATSUN. Ahhh, but about a year later, there was a ton in the dollar store. Did I need more of them? Haven't you learned not to ask that question here on the Office Supplies Junk blog?

Don't get me started on the erasers that I tried and used. For a buck? These should really be donated to the eraser museum. They got a lot of nice erasers there. *skitch* SHUT UP! Okay. I'll shut up. -Junk Blog