Swinging the Swingline

I started my current job about six years ago. The amount of time that has passed shocks the hell out of me but it's true. Since that time I've had a newish red and black plastic stapler from Staples...emblazoned with their logo on it no less. A few months back my stapler disappeared. I muttered about it every time I had to staple something and finally asked my colleague to order me a new one. She pointed out that we could look for the missing one first. Oh, well...yeah. A short time later I was in the big kitchen we have there and opened a drawer to look for something and saw two staplers. Neither one was my missing stapler but since we don't need two staplers in the kitchen I took the one most like my missing stapler back to my desk. I showed it triumphantly to Nancy and then told her about the cool old green metal one that had been with it. Then I wondered why the hell I hadn't taken that one so I trotted back and switched staplers.

Here is my new stapler:

I admired it profusely and then commented to Nancy how Art Deco the lines of the stapler base looked. I turned it over and lo and behold there were the patent dates....

And here's the earliest patent on it....from 1938! How wonderful is that???

Small pleasures!