Last week, when it was raining and I had a small window of time on my hands before meeting a friend, I paid a visit to wrk’s new shop on Prince St. There are a lot of designers/retailers who aspire to curate the old in a compelling manner. These folks happen to do it very very well. Anyway, I mostly wandered around, with no thoughts whatsoever of spending money. I am actually trying to divest myself of things. But I saw this spool peeking out from under a shelf and, well, you know… Now that I have photographed it, who wants it?

I know the Freemasons are a controversial lot, but when it came to this drawing tube I didn’t care. I don’t know if it’s made from celluloid or bakelite, but it is durable and compact. I found it years and years ago (for a dollar) when there was a sort of thieves market across from the old, and more official, 26th street flea market. I never really knew what the square and compass represented for the Freemasons until I read up on a little history. I just thought they spent a lot of time drawing. Duh.

My friend Ellis received this spud as a gift from another friend on the occasion of his 7th birthday. Ellis has assembled a little natural history museum (we have made gifts to his collection in the past) for which this will be a welcome addition. I don’t think I want all potatoes to take on this form, but how fun for the occasional tuber to go rogue. Totally cool.

Before you bake that cake, do you need to know if that egg you have falls into the jumbo, large or medium category? Well, plunk it down on the Acme Egg Scale and rest easy. I wish I could convey the coolness of the weighing mechanism. This is my friend Dave’s scale. He has chickens, so probably uses this instead of just admiring it. If you too have chickens and need a scale, these are available on ebay.

“Made in America by Men Who Know Pens!” Do you think such men still exist? For now, the final post of things on a card. The stitching on this one is lovely.