More From The Paper Clip Menagerie

James was talking about paper clips yesterday and got me thinking about all the other fancy styles of clips out there. There are many more clips out there than your standard gem clip. Yeah, apparently they're officially called gem clips. I'm on board with joining the French and calling them trombones. They may be metal and a must for every Apple user or amateur lock-picker, but elevating them to gem status is a bit much.

Granted, none of these other clips have as many alternate functions as the trombone. They can't measure your carpet to determine which chairmat you need. They certainly can't be bartered for a house. Then again, they also won't insist on helping you with your Microsoft Office documents. They can, however, do a better job of keeping your papers together, especially when you have a larger stack that even the "Trombones Geants" can't handle.

The best part about these clips are the names. No more musical instruments, but rather a full menagerie of aptly-named paper fastening goodness- butterflies, bulldogs and owls.


First is the butterfly- light, graceful and designed to land on documents without leaving marks. It holds a little more than the trombone, but otherwise serves the same purpose.


Here's the bulldog. It bites down on papers and doesn't let go. Great for large stacks up to an inch as it fits a lot into its jowls.


The owl clip is apparently nocturnal as it's not seen nearly as often as the others. It is similar in function to the trombone and butterfly, but with a smaller presence than the butterfly without scratching papers the way the trombone's business end can.

There is also the binder clip, which adds a pair of latching handles to the bulldog clip but lacks a clever name. I'm thinking venus fly trap, but open to suggestions. While you're coming up with names for that, this clip for panel walls desperately needs a cool name. Not sure whether to go with a bird of prey or some sort of spaceship.

An Homage to the Paper Clip

The other day I was digging around in my desk drawer for a pen, and I had to push aside a few boxes of paper clips to get to the back. I briefly glanced at bilingual labeling on a box of Jumbo Paper Clips and chuckled to myself after reading "Trombones Geants." It brought to mind a marching band of giants all playing giant brass instruments. I put it out of my mind and got back to work. I didn't think anything of it until a few weeks later when I noticed that most of our paper clips were labeled as "Trombones". It turns out that the French call paper clips trombones, and when you consider the shape of the typical wire paper clip it is an apt name. Sadly, the Spanish translation for paper clip, sujetapapeles, is more literal and a lot less interesting.

Jumbo Paper Clips aka Trombones Geants

The Wikipedia article on paper clips is long and boring.  I didn't waste a lot of time reading the details, but here is a good generalization for you.  Nobody quite knows who made the first paper clip or what it looked like because nobody ever bothered to draw it.  A lot of people have come up with odd stories involving paper clips and most of them aren't true.  Probably the most interesting part of that Wikipedia article is the current defacement "i like bologna and cheese."

If you've ever worked on Apple products of almost any vintage you no doubt have or had a straightened paper clip in your tool arsenal.  It was neccessary to remove any stuck disk for a number of years and they even distributed paper clips as an official tool to remove the SIM card from your iPhone at one point.

Even more recently Lindsey Lohan made the news due to some complications with her alcohol detecting leg shackle.  Some gossip magazines say that she once attempted to remove it using a paper clip.  She of course denied anything like that happening.  Maybe she was just trying to swap the SIM card in her iPhone while holding it near her ankle.  It isn't my place to say.

Paper Clips make MacGuyver Proud

Well there shouldn't be anything stopping you from buying an excess of paper clips and doing whatever you want with them.  Use them to hold papers together or straighten them and use them to fidget around with electronics. If you're extremely outgoing why not try to fold them into the old jumping paper clip toy.

Office Supplies as Art (Packing Tape)

Between the 10th and 15th of March a group of sculptors and performance artists put together a unique installation piece in Vienna.  While primarily meant to be a stage for the dancers the installation of a giant spider-web style structure in the middle of an abandoned stock exchange building has drawn a lot of interest.

Numen/For Use

The artistic collaborative group "Numen/For Use" created this structure from 530 rolls of packing tape.  Their website says that was 35,600 meters of tape weighing in at 45kg.  For those of you who are not metrically inclined that is 116,797 feet and 99.208 pounds.  Just because I liked word problems in school that means that each roll of tape measured 67.170 meters (220.372 feet) and weighed 84.905 grams (2.995 ounces).

To further investigate the tape usage I decided to check out the most common tape lengths available and see what kind of comparisons we could make with the packing tape commonly found around the office.  The most common packing tape by far is the Standard Scotch Packing Tape on a 165 foot roll.  Now a 165 might seem like an odd number, but that's actually close to 50 meters, which is a nice round number.  That means it would have taken 712 rolls of standard Packing Tape to create this monstrosity.

If you are ready to start on your own path to Packing Tape structure building I'd recommend you start with a huge pack of Commercial Grade Packing Tape.  This is 3Ms toughest, thickest packing tape so when you are creating structures to hold dancers it is a worthwhile investment.  The standard pack only comes with 48 rolls, but unless you have an abandoned stock exchange building to build in you should be okay.

48 Rolls of Manmade Spiderweb (Packing Tape)

This pack of tape will only get you roughly 7% of the way toward your own Vienna Semitransparent Spider tubes, but everybody has a beginning.

Fellowes Makes a Great iPad Stand

With the release of any new Apple product you can only expect to see a flood of new accessories on the market. With the iPad, Apple seems to have lifted the accessories market to new heights. The selection of iPad cases, iPad sleeves, iPad docks, and iPad stands is overwhelming. Most people already have a bag to carry around their sleek new friend in, and a lot of people wouldn't dare to sully the sleek metal case with some neoprene or silicone cover-up. I have a feeling that iPad stands will probably be the biggest piece of the iPad stand pie.

If you have an extremely keen eye for design and demand that all your accessories fit your product like a glove you can find some nice options for $49.99 or even $129.00 but if you are like the rest of us and your iPad purchase has forced you to limit your food choices to Ramen or Toast you are probably going to want a stand that's a little more economical.

The Fellowes Study Stand was designed to hold books and magazines upright at an ideal angle for hands-free reading.  This ideal angle for reading is coicendally also the ideal angle for watching movies or viewing a slide show.  You can get them at such a great price you'll probably want to buy one for the kitchen, one for the office, one for the living-room and one to keep at the in-laws.

Fellowes iPad Stand Alternative

This alternative iPad stand is made from a heavy duty wire that is plated with chrome.  It has some rubber stoppers on the ends to help to keep things in place.  You can see some photos of the Fellowes Study Stand in use as an iPad stand over at Just Another iPad Blog and see that it looks great in portrait or landscape mode.  If you are worried about the coils of wire possibly scratching the back of your iPad you could easily put a piece of felt between your iPad and your Study Stand and you'll have just upgraded yourself to a Premium Study Stand.

You'll Never Have Another Paper Jam

I was shocked when I first read it. A paper with a guarantee that every sheet will be 99.99% Jam Free. I'm not a lawyer so I don't know exactly what that means, but it sounds awesome to me. I know I've spent more than my fair share of time spent at a copier or printer trying to remove one jammed piece of paper that got crunched in between a two rollers.

Trying to remove paper from a printer is never fun. Between the heated parts on some printers, sharp edges on other, and the possibility for ink and toner to easily escape while you are digging around in side it's an accident waiting to happen. Last year my wife was trying to deal with a paper jam and she managed to seriously tear up her thumb (that was not a fun trip to the hospital). I would prefer if everybody everywhere could have one less trip to the emergency room so I'm here to tell you that you should spend some extra money on paper that's a little better and save yourself time and hassle.

Hammermill (a subsidiary of International Paper) guarantees that all the paper in each ream in each box is 99.99% Jam Free. Hammermill's Tidal MP line of paper is their Multipurpose paper so it is ideal for copiers, printers, fax machines, and those all-in-one units as well.

Hammermill Jam-Free Paper

Who can argue with paper with Zebras on the packaging?  If you haven't bought a case of paper online previously you should really give it a try.  You don't have to remember to lift at the knees or get a ladder to try and get the box down from one of those big-box office supply stores.  The friendly UPS man will drop off the box at your front step.  All you have to do is drag it inside.

Stop Ballpoint Pen Leaks

The ballpoint pen is aptly named because the ball at the tip is the most important part of the pen.  If the ball is held in place to tightly you won't get smooth lines.  If the ball is held in place to loosely you'll get extra ink on the page.  If that ball falls out completely then nothing will be holding the ink in at all and you'll get a great flood of ink in your pocket, on your desk, or all over your important documents (it happened here at the office).

Ballpoint pen technology has come a long way since it was first patented in 1888, but it still relies on a ball held in place perfectly to create your ideal lines.  If relying on a metal sphere that's measured in millimeters isn't your bag of tea then I'd recommend you look at Sharpie's line of pens.

Sharpie Fine Point Pens

These aren't the same Sharpies that your Mom used to label your T-Shirts in High School, but they do use the same tried and true porous tip technology that all markers have relied on for generations.  These pens write just as you'd expect them to.  Just be careful to make sure you remember to click the pen again when you are done using them.  These aren't standard pens, and just like markers once the tip has dried out you'll greatly decrease the usefulness of the pen.

Manly Man Pee Pads

We received a great review for this product.

Big D Deo-Gard Commode Floor Mat