u/foetusized

I bought this stapler for $1 from a Salvation Army thrift recently. It has no model number on it, but looks much the same as the current Swingline 78911 model. The newer ones have printed on the bottom the newer corporate name (ACCO Brands), newer address, website URL, made in China, and the model number.

The internal mechanism with the hole in the nose looks like a Rexel design, consistent with the made in U.K. label. Swingline and Rexel were both owned by ACCO before the corporate restructuring that formed ACCO Brands in 2005. Swingline put their brand name on other stapler models made by Rexel in Great Britain; I have a Swingline-branded version of the Rexel Compac.

These early Mercury staplers come in two different finishes. Some have a darker matte finish for the base and top button, while others (like this one) are full chrome.

The top disconnects from the base, for tacking. It isn’t obvious, but you press down on the main pivot and the top slides forward. These were decades of dirt in there, that I cleaned out after I bought it and pulled it apart.

The thing I cannot find, is did Bates buy the entire Consolidated Wire Products company, or just the Mercury stapler line?

I received this text on behalf of David Tomita (Washington County Commission District 10 incumbent candidate) yesterday morning, Election Day, saying that the election was the following day. There was no follow-up message to correct the error.

From the initial image text I received from this number, it belongs to “Defend Us PAC.” From a conversation I had yesterday, Tomita was not the only Washington County candidate to have this happen. My best guess is that someone put these message on the wrong date in their text scheduling software.

So who else got such a message on behalf of a local Republican candidates? Did they lose in the election yesterday, like Mr. Tomita?

Until I relapsed this past month, buying these, my last purchases were in May 2024. My collection of miniCDs has been packed away since I retired that year. I’m really not sure why I started buying again. One came from Amoeba via eBay, and the other three (including the set of three) from a seller on Discogs.

Daniel Lanois “Jolie Louise” (89) - French language single in the Cajun style, released in France.
Pandora’s Box “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” (89) - single from a one-album project by Jim Steinman, who later produced Celine Dion’s hit cover.
We’ve Got a Fuzzbox and We’re Gonna Use It “Walking on Thin Ice” (89) - cover of the Yoko Ono song. This is the song John Lennon recorded the day he was shot.
Stephen Jones 1985-2001 (2002) - 3CD promotional compilation of instrumental work by Jones (aka Babybird) who was seeking work scoring TV & films.

Next steps are ripping them to MP3, then digging out the collection to file them away.