Staplers are all too often saddled with the trappings of the mundane. We think of them—inaccurately, I’d now argue—as standardized tools for monotonous tasks.
Image courtesy of History of the Heart.
I turned to Chad Lemke, stapler enthusiast and collector, to learn about the rich history and design quirks of paper staplers. Although he eschews the word “expert,” since 2007, Lemke has maintained Stapler of the Week, a site that “examines the memories and histories associated with” a single stapler from his collection each week. The site has been on hiatus for the past year, since as Lemke says “my one-year-old gets most of my waking attention these days,” but, as a childhood collector or erasers, I was delighted that he sat down with me via email to share a little of the vast world of staplers.
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The Growler
Growler Community Table. Image by Andrew Lamberson.
Beer enthusiasts can be a touchy bunch. The inexorable rise of the microbrewery, and selling craft drafts to discerning drinkers, has spawned an industry of self-styled ‘beer sommeliers’, always quick to point out the rich complexities of the latest brews to anyone who will listen. They tend towards an air of defensiveness that wine experts shed many vintages ago.
So it’s no surprise that the latest squabble within the beer community has not only come to a head, but threatened to froth over completely and make a mess of the bar.
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