Dr. Scat, the Scat-o-phone, and Rolodexes
Am I the only one who has unread emails going back to forever? I say, “Oh, I’ll deal with that soon,” and then, you know, two iPhone OS’s later… Actually, I don’tknow how long it has been since the last OS, but that seems to be how people measure time these days. Just trying to stay hip, kiddies!
But what I was going to say is that I was finally going through old emails, and there were a bunch from some nice folks who read a piece I wrote about Rolodexes for Gizmodo some months ago. It then got picked up on MSNBC a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, MSNBCers are big into correspondence. How old school! Lots of good stories about Rolodexes in my inbox now. I’ll try to share some of them here soon.
One woman, Laurie Chapple of Louisiana Office Supply Co in Baton Rouge, LA, wrote:
One by one, we have been seeing items going obsolete in the office products industry. However, the elderly still call and ask for discontinued/dying items such as:
List finders – like a rolodex, but in a flat “dial” a letter format.
Kor rec type – pre-correcting sellectric typewriter - when I worked summers in the 70’s, we shipped them out by the case load.
Carbon Paper – Still has good uses when you are away from a computer
Dr Scat – originally made for cleaning typewriter platens (the rolling pen part), but great for getting adhesive off glass.
I’d heard of all of these but the last one. After some super intensive research (I had to go through at least three pages of Google results) I found this photo by
shanksie on Flickr:
The left bottle is noted: “Scat-o-phone: Keep your telephone fresh clean and healthful. Wipe a few drops on the mouthpiece. Your phone is sanitary and deodorized.”
Smells like a combination of rubbing alcohol and perfume.
The right: “Cleaner for typewriter, rubber platen roll and type.”
The Life and Death of the Rolodex
Just a few years ago there were no virtual social networks, no synchronized address books, and no smartphones. But people had social networks and phones, and they had to memorize and organize thousands of contacts. Or have a Rolodex.
3 
Rolodex cards with “slight yellowing” are reborn as bookplates on Etsy. Kind of like making buggy whips out of recycled TV antennas, no?
(via Kandi’s Shop on Etsy).
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Art by Steven and Billy Blaise Dufala From a show earlier this year at Fleisher/Ollman. The brothers were exploring “concepts of consumption, use-value, sentimentality, exaggeration, efficiency, and waste are explored through a dark and humorous lens.”
(via Philebrity)
I spotted these photo albums at the Lomography store on Eighth Street. It’s an old idea—photos on a wheel like that. I have an album of my grandma’s that looks a little like this. I particularly was interested in the very Rolodex-y nature of this effort. Looks like a fun way to organize photo prints: get a Rolodex card punch (you mean you don’t already have one?!), a couple of cool vintage Rolodexes, maybe some tabs so you can organize it by date or event, and voila. I may try making one on my own. I’ll report back.
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I’m a big fan of all the projects dreamed up by Lea Redmond, a San Francisco artist who runsLeafcutter Designs. Here is a description of her Rolodex project. If you participate, please send a scan of it over this way. I’d love to post it!
“The Rolodex Project is a slowly evolving archive of hand-drawn odes to objects, artifacts, things: things we love, things we look for and long for, hilarious things, scary things, odd things, old things, new things, and the most everyday and common. The archive lives in a vintage 360-degree rolodex. You are invited to participate! Choose an object that is meaningful to you and draw it on a standard size rolodex card (which I can send you - see below). Write the name of the object on the back of the card and any story or thoughts about it you would like to share. All skill levels are welcome - just do your best. In exchange for your drawing, I will send you some reproductions of other drawings in the archive on rolodex cards; please include a SASE with your card for this purpose. Your participation gives your permission to post your contribution on the project blog and exhibit it in the rolodex archive. I look forward to seeing your drawing!”
