A decade and half ago, I published in Whole Earth Review a wonderfully succinct guide to conducting a radio interview/story, written by radio producer Jay Allison. It's still great advice (available on Transom.org), so I asked Jay what tools he is recommending for radioheads these days and he quickly sent back the following pithy and incredibly useful reviews.

***********************

So you want to make a story for radio?

The first tool I'd recommend is the public radio website Transom.org, which covers a spectrum of Tools, Ideas and Practices. You'll find recommendations for new gear there, but more than that, you find new voices and new ways of telling. It's a performance space and master class with the likes of Studs Terkel, Sarah Vowell, Norman Corwin, Scott Carrier and lots of others. I'm quite proud of it (it comes from a non-profit group I founded, Atlantic Public Media) and it's having a real impact in public broadcasting. Check it out: Transom.org

*

Sharp mini-disc,$150-250, previously available from Amazon

As for gear, many people are using the small mini-disc recorders in the field these days. The portable mini-discs are teeny and cheap, but honestly I feel that's their weakness. They break. Their tiny mic inputs get stressed. Humidity hurts them. If you want to hear something heretical in the digital age, I often still use an old analog cassette recorder, the venerable Sony TC-D5M. It runs on D-Cells and is not subject to digital gremlins. It sounds quite sweet, if somewhat noisy compared to the silent sheen of digital, and I can almost always rely on it. I use portable DAT recorders too, but the best, the HHB, uses rechargeable batteries which, like all rechargeables, are inherently evil and programmed by the devil to fade at the moment they are needed most. I personally do not use Minidisc recorders, but they sound good for the money, which is why lots of people love them and I recommend them for beginners. The model numbers change, but the Sony and Sharp units are the most popular, particularly the Sharp for its more flexible recording volume controls and AA battery powering. For specific models, check the latest recommendations at Minidisc.org.

*

Beyer M58 microphone
$240
Broadcast Supply Worldwide
800-426-8434

Also from Amazon

For an all-purpose interview mic, I'd pick the Beyer M-58. It's a dynamic omni with a long handle for getting in close to the speaker's mouth, which is required for radio. It represents a good balance between sweet sound and indestructibility. You need the M-58's windscreen, a set of headphones (Walkman-style will do), and the proper XLR-miniplug cable to connect the mic with the mini-disc recorder. The best cable has a right-angle plug which doesn't stress the delicate input. Sonic Studios makes nice custom cables. In fact, their website sells a variety of portable rigs, configured and ready to go, plus lots of good advice for recordists.

*

ProTools
Free download at
Digidesign

Finally, I'd say the most remarkable new tool is Digidesign's ProTools. ProTools is editing and mixing software. It replaces many bulky and expensive items of yesteryear, like the reel-to-reel tape recorders we used to edit on with razor blades (a lost and lovely skill), the multi-track machines and mixers which blended our sounds, the various outboard signal processing devices which improved the audio. Now it all comes in a little box for a few hundred bucks. Anyone raised around computers will get the hang of it quickly. It's powerful stuff. Of course, you still have to have talent, smarts, and a great ear. Digital technology hasn't changed that.

Digidesign has a free version, ProTools Free, which is just enough to get you hooked and make you want to move on to the hard stuff... which is NOT free, but still just a fraction of what it would have been only a few years ago for this kind of power in a digital audio workstation. It works best on the Mac.

*

Mbox
$250
Available from Amazon

UPDATE: $450 for Mbox2 available from Sweetwater
800-222-4700,
260-432-8176

Getting the sound in and out of a computer with ProTools Free, however, is tricky. There are lots of kludges and work-arounds that will get you started for little money (check the Transom.org discussion boards), but if you're at all serious, you'll be happier spending the few hundred bucks for the commercial version than wasting your time on trickery. The commercial ProTools package includes a hardware interface (it's like an external audio card) which allows you make the connections easily. Their MBox is the cheapest of these - at $500 list, with the fully enabled software included. One thing: the interface must be connected to your computer in order for the commercial version of ProTools to work.

*

So, the basic setup is an inexpensive portable mini-disk recorder, a Beyer M58 mic, the Digidesign MBox as the interface between the gear, with ProTools software installed on any recent Mac, even an iBook. An external firewire many-gigabyte drive is recommended but not necessary. This package gives you all the digital/analog ins and outs, plus astonishing editing/mixing/processing tools for creating fully professional stories or music. Burn a CD or rip an MP3 when you're done, and share with the multitudes. At Transom.org, you'll find youngsters and oldsters who are doing exactly this and are getting their stories on public radio. It's a step in the direction of citizen access to mainstream media, when most steps are headed in the opposite direction.

Current reviews of mini-discs
Minidisc

How to fake just about anything. Makes use of the newest (styrofoam) and oldest (plaster) prop materials. Prop making skills are easily transferred, too. A lot of this fakery can go a long way in real life architectural and interior decorating.

The Theater Props Handbook
Thurston James
2000, 270 pages
$30
Players Press Inc.
Studio City, CA
Amazon

Cut the sleeve from a length of PVC water pipe. Slide the components into the pipe and secure the assembly with hot glue. Set the unit into a candle holder and decorate it with wax drippings melted onto it from a real candle.

*

I don't know anything else non-explosive, that you can pick up with one hand, and that can move five tons one hundred feet -- with safety, precision, and astonishingly little work. Like many good tools the Tirfor is a thing of beauty, superbly designed and engineered. With 100 feet of cable (or more) its reach is much greater than a come-along, and this can often make all the difference. Its speed is much faster, too, not just the speed in moving something (the lever is double-acting) but speed in setting up or moving the set-up around. Often when you need to move something, minutes if not seconds count. The action is precise. A come-along winds the cable upon itself, and often when the cable comes under tension the cable wrap slips a bit. The resulting jerks can cause all kinds of problems in a situation where precise movement counts, and a sudden shift in load may cause failure somewhere else. Finally, the Tirfor has a much more effective (and safer) mechanism for smoothly *lowering* a heavy load. Most (ratcheted) come-alongs are very poor at this.

--George Dyson

In Europe these tools are known as Tirfor Hand Winches. In the US they are branded Griphoists. They are also sometimes sold as Scaffold Hoists. This diversity indicated their astounding versatility for moving heavy things by hand. They do the work of motorized winches -- haul logs, or move stuck tractors, raise towers, and so on -- but with the deftness of a human hand. Because there is no ratchet or coil, a Griphoist permits very small adjustments, unlike either come-alongs or winches. The patented double grip mechanism of the Griphoist/Tirfor is considered so reliable that some versions of the unit are rated by the UL to be suitable for hoisting humans -- for instance in hoisting window-washers scaffolding.

The consumer versions of the Griphoists are the Pull All, which is rated to move 700 lbs and the Super Pull All, rated at 1500 lbs. Of course you can get heavy duty versions that move up to 8 tons. The Pull Alls can handle pulling out stumps, hoisting car engines, and other homestead chores.

Pull All Griphoist
$250
Available from Amazon

Super Pull All Griphoist
$630
Available from Amazon

Also available for $260 and $675, respectively, from Ver Sales (distributor)
818-567-3000

Manufactured by Tractel
392 University Ave., PO Box 68, Westwood, MA 02090, 800-421-0246

For years midwives have been using over-the-counter superglue to "suture" perineal tears after birth. It's better than stitches. Veteran backpackers have been known to pack a tiny tube of super glue for emergency repairs of deep cuts in places where there is no doctor.

Superglue is ethyl-cyanoacrylate. While fine for small cuts, it has several weaknesses when used as a substitute for heavy-duty suturing. An improved version, butyl-cyanoacrylate was developed for heavier surgical repairs, and this stuff was used widely in the Vietnam War to patch up soldiers in the field. Butyl-cyanoacrylate is a little more flexible on a wound than commercial superglue, generates fewer toxic byproducts, and is now commonly used by vets to repair animal wounds. You can buy the stuff as 3M Vetbond. This is also what midwives have started using.

In 2000, the FDA approved a new version of tissue adhesive for human use, sold as Dermabond. This new composition, octyl-cyanoacrylate, is a longer chain, still more flexible, and possess the yet-unexplained ability to inhibit bacterial growth -- a godsend in surgery. It's strong enough that it will likely replace a lot of suturing altogether someday. Small quantities of octyl-cyanoacrylate are sold to non-medicals for "research purposes" -- it's the genuine stuff, only in dispensers that aren't sterilized, and therefore not approved for human use (only animal use).

To use any cyanoacrylate on a wound, keep it on the surface layer of skin, not down in the well of the wound - imagine you are taping the top of the wound together. The glue sloughs off by itself in time.

Despite all the improvements of cyanoacrylate, small amounts of hardware store superglue will work in a pinch. I know a physician who uses ordinary superglue at home on his kid's cuts. A vial of Vetbond would be even better. It's dyed blue so you can easily see where it is on the skin and where it is not, and it is made for cuts.

Vetbond
(Butyl-cyanoacrylate)
3ml
$15
Revival Animal Health
Also from Amazon

Intac SuperGlue
(Ethyl-cyanoacrylate)
$1.15 for 2 g
Nasco Arts & Crafts
800-558-9595

This textbook is the best one-volume survey of earlier civilizations I've found. It supplies a couple of overview chapters and then summarizes every ancient civilization in Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas in fair detail. I relish its planetary perspective.

-- KK

Ancient Civilizations
Christopher Scarre & Brian M. Fagan
1997, 466 pages
Longman
Amazon

Arthritis has taken its toll on my body. My extremities have few muscles and most of my spinal column is fused. Oddly though, this morphed architecture has created Schwarzeneggerian neck muscles. Recently I've gotten very serious about maintaining my health and exercising. Daily lifting of hand weights has helped me build some decent arm muscles, but it's also made my shoulder/neck muscles EVEN tighter. Brave humanitarian souls have broken parts of themselves trying to massage my shoulders. A typical scene is someone messaging me and they're the one making all of the ugh-ing and uh-ing noises. They usually give up before my knotted muscles do. So, imagine my relief (literally!) when I discovered this gizmo. The Thera-Cane is a curved fiberglass "self-messager." This thing really has balls when it comes to deep tissue message -- 6 of them, in fact-- on various parts of the cane for getting at those hard to reach places. A little amount of pressure applied to the "body" of the cane translates to significant pressure on the balls. I can now pressurize (and release) those gnarly neck muscles to my heart's content, and nobody else has to lose finger joints, knuckles, elbows, etc. No one gets hurt, and my neck (and everything else I can reach) feels SO much better!

-- Gareth Branwyn

$29
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by
Thera Cane

I like earbud headphones -- especially on airplanes -- for acoustic privacy and because of the way they focus and intensify listening for me. But most off-the-shelf earbuds don't fit my ears; for instance, the set that came with the Apple ipod are just unwearable. They are not just big, but really round, which is not the shape of my ear, anyhow. And it is not just me; other people have this problem because I see this question online in the Apple discussion board.

I've tried many alternative brands. In my experience earbuds contoured to fit into the ear almost never fit comfortably and often won't even stay put. That is why I was delighted to find the UM1, apparently a unit made for musicians to wear as a monitor while on stage. It's produced by Westone, which mainly makes hearing aides, and the quality and performance reflect that high standard. The replaceable foam earpieces naturally fit perfectly, the sound is remarkably clean and precise, and the whole unit is unobtrusive when worn and quite small and packable.

I know these UMs don't appear especially ergonomic but the yellow foam piece is infinitely malleable; you squish them into shape, insert and then they expand to fill. And you'll notice that the earphone unit itself sits at a slight canted angle from the foam, which serves to point it into the ear when properly inserted. Following included instructions (I know, nobody does) I even learned to loop the wires behind the ear after inserting and slightly twisiting the foam plugs, which serves to secure the whole apparatus and basically hide the wires.

When my dog chewed up my first set, I nearly had to quit listening to the ipod until replacements arrived; the difference between them and ordinary earphones is that great. I recommend them to everybody.

The UM1 is a bargain at $99 (web price). I'm told the higher grade UM2 is even better, but my discrimination isn't that great so I haven't sprung for them yet.

--Howard Weaver

UM1 In-Ear Monitor
$110
Available from Westone

I spend 16 weeks a year touring back and forth across Canada. I work six nights a week - usually in a different city every night. My gear is in and out of airplanes and vans virtually every day. I have been a serious luggage fetishist for years (have been touring for 30) and have gone through every conceivable combination of suitcase and bag.

For the last four or five years I've been carrying a back pack. There were always obvious balance and hands-free comfort improvements with a backpack, but until a few years ago they were all made with hikers and outdoors people in mind. There was nowhere to put your computer, paper, and other essential toys. The Brain Bag is my second computer-oriented backpack. (An important additional virtue of a carrying a back pack is that they seem far less likely to be housing approximately $8000.00 worth of computer and related stuff and so are less likely to be stolen.)

I'm hard on luggage - even my guaranteed-for-life Tumi suitcase is starting to give out. My carry-on bags usually had a life-span of less than a year. The Bihn bag, after two years, looks brand new. It's an organizational dream - obviously designed by someone who gives a shit. The computer (in my case a G4 Titanium) fits safely and snugly into a velcro-closed, floating hard case in the back compartment. On top of it goes the "Snake Charmer" which is a two compartment accessories bag with see-thru mesh sides that *perfectly* fits the remaining space. In the front compartment is an organizer for paper, files, etc. (the "Freudian Slip") that can be removed from the bag easily. Each side of the slip is configure differently, so, depending on how you choose to use it - you orient it with the most useful side out. There are three big pockets on the front and a water bottle holder thing. Two of these pockets are subdivided inside for further organization.

All the hardware and material is first class and the thing fits so well that often, at airports or waiting at hotel reception desks for check-in, I forget to take it off.

I love the bag not just because it's a great bag but also because it's an intelligently conceived, beautifully designed and well-made thing. A rare find these days.

-- Ra McGuire

Brain Bag: Big Proffesional Backpack
$140
Tom Bihn

Amazon sells the whole "Run to Cadence" series put out by Documentary Recordings. These are recordings of 40 minute call-and-response chants by drill instructors and the grunts as they run in formation at 115 beats a minute.

I like to use my Airborne Rangers recording as a procrastination-buster when I have to tackle a disagreeable task around the house. I did not serve in the military, but when this tape plays in the background, I "fall in" , get pumped, and get the job done. The momentum stays a while.
-- David Stubbs

Run to Cadence With the US Army Airborne
$15
Amazon

The biggest health risk after an accident at a nuclear plant or a nuclear attack results from exposure to radioactive iodine. Other radioisotopes are dispersed and quickly excreted, but radioiodine is concentrated and retained in the thyroid, increasing your risk of thyroid cancer. Even tiny doses, which can be carried downwind for hundreds of miles, can be harmful. Children are at greatest risk. Taking potassium iodide (KI) before or immediately after exposure saturates your thyroid gland with safe stable iodine so that the uptake of radioactive iodine is blocked. There won't be time to get it when an incident occurs. So if you live downwind of a nuclear plant, or worry about a nuclear attack, you might want to keep some KI tablets at home. (But please note that this may not protect you from the radiation of a terrorist "dirty bomb" made of spent nuclear waste) The FDA recommends keeping a 14-day supply on hand; radioactive iodine has a half-life of eight days. Only two brands have received FDA Approval, Iosat and Thyroblock. Children should take half an adult dose. A related salt, Potasium Iodate, (KIO3) is less bitter, and may stay down better in babies.

-- Tom Ferguson, M.D.

Iosat potassium iodide tablets
(an adult 14-day supply)
$9.50
NukePills.com
866-283-3986
or from Amazon

The trouble with most optical equipment is that it won't get used unless it is out of the case, opened up, and powered on. But if it is open and lying around, it will get highly abused. I buy my cameras, spectacles, binocs, etc. assuming they'll be dropped and splattered, and they should hold up to this misuse. But until now I haven't been able to find a microscope strong enough to do its job yet sturdy enough to be left on the kitchen table ready for inspections by toddlers and teenagers. Now after several years of looking for an everyday microscope suitable for a busy family I found one.

The Brock Magiscope #70 is exactly what I had wanted. It has a single moving part that my five-year old can handle. He can put a leaf in and focus it right. Rubber bands hold the slide. For light the scope uses a fat fiber optic bent pipe which channels ambient room light to the underside of the objective lens (no electricity). There is no fussing, no adjustments. The viewing field is amazingly bright and clear, with a choice of 100x magnification, good enough for high school work. We've discovered we can press the lens of a digital camera to its eyepiece, focus on the digital screen and get pretty good microphotography shots.

And best of all it is practically indestructible. The thing is simple and rugged as a hammer. In fact it was built for the abuse of K-12 classrooms, which is probably as grating as a war. Brock offers a "lifetime replacement warranty, including accidents." If it breaks, ever, they replace it. And they do. (Some visiting kids manage to break the light optic -- I have no idea how -- but Brock replaced it with no questions asked.)

This tool is always on, always out (it sits next to the fruit bowl); we use it.

The Brock Magiscope
#70 with x4 and x10 objective
and x5 and x10 eyepieces
$175
Brock Optical Inc.
407-647-6611
800-780-9111

You can't beat walking as the proper pace to discover a new place. Russia and its former Asian republics -- an area almost as large as the continental US --now offer vast numbers of possible hiking routes for visitors. Some routes wander among ethnic villages and some head into the most wild places on earth. I'm goaded to try a ramble in the Caucuses by this guidebook full of trails and tips available no where else. Solo traveler is still rare here, but this guide will be your best friend.

-- KK

Trekking in Russia & Central Asia
Frith Maier
1997, 369 pages
$17
The Mountaineers
Seattle, WA
Amazon

My garden includes roses, blackberry and ivy vines, five kinds of fruit trees -- all plants that need constant pruning. So I carry my pruner on my belt. I probably use them a few dozen times every day. I have no idea why it took me so long to buy a pair of the best available -- Felco. It's got leverage! A handle shaped to the hand. If you prune a lot, you'll know immediately by the feel that these are the best. You can buy models for small hands, ergonomic models for gardeners with arthritis, left-handed ones. Forty dollars seemed like a lot for clippers but after decades of using inferior pruners I get pleasure every time I snip the Felcos.

-- Howard Rheingold

Felco F-8 Pruner
$30
Frostproof Growers Supply
800-635-3621
863-635-3620
Also from Amazon

Simply the best overview of the -- long now -- I am aware of. Displays with utmost intelligence 50 centuries of civilization, as revealed in the complex rise and fall of ancient powers. Because it is not as linear as the famous, previously-reviewed Histomap, it is not as handy for quickly locating a fact in time, but its extra dimensions make this diagram the one I keep returning to to grok the past 5,000 years.

-- KK

Diagramatic Chart of World History
(In English)
Louis-Henri Fournet
32 x 46 inches
19 euros
(shipping not included)
Available from Editions.Sides

Of all the books championing tiny houses, this tiny one is my favorite. Each very tiny house -- or should we say each shack and shed -- is photographed and sufficiently rendered in orthogonal view that one could construct it, or at least borrow designs from it. Less is more. This teeny book is, as they say, huge.

-- KK

(Left) George Bernard Shaw's Writing Hut; 8' x 8' -- 64 square feet

The Tiny Book of Tiny Houses
Les Walker
1993, 95 pages
$11
Amazon

As an untidy person, I've found that the secret to an organized work spaces is to have lots of bins, boxes, drawers, tubs, and containers. A couple of each are not enough. You need scores of each size. The key is to not skimp on the numbers. The wonderful news is that plastic containers are getting cheap enough to buy in bulk . If you keep an eye out for sales you can get molded, lidded, durable containers for only few dollars a piece. I recently bought about 40 plastic stackable breadbox-size containers at IKEA for 99 cents apiece. I use them in my workshop and studio and kitchen pantry.

Suitable containers come in all sizes and shapes. Some of the cheapest these days are the 12-gallon Tuffcrates, with hinged lids. (There are larger versions but I find these unmanageable when full.) The 12-gallon laundry-basket sized guys swallow a nice pile of stuff. They are semi-transparent giving you a hint of what's inside. Empty they stack up compactly. Full, they stack up solidly five or six high. We store seasonal clothes, hobby materials, vacation gear, holiday decorations, old documents, and so on in a handy self-made wall in our basement. They are easy to move around, easy to get in and out of, pestproof and dustproof. They look fine too. Stored in basements and garages, we've had zero problem with mildew or mold or mice, which I cannot say about goods stored in cardboard boxes. I've seen Tuffcrates for sale as low as $3 a piece. Since they don't ever wear out; you could easily pass them onto the next generation. You simply can't have too many of them.

For more specialized storage I gravitate to Rubbermaid containers. They are often perfect for certain uses, but it's harder to find good discount deals on them; they are usually not cheap. I like the small stackable small-parts containers (#7747). They are book size (good), open fast and are indestructible - unlike a lot of tackle boxes. I use the smaller ones, about 6 inches square, called ActionPackers (#7874), for office supplies as well - all those paperclips, pins, and easily lost paraphernalia. Get at least a dozen. I thought at first that having uniform containers would make finding things more difficult because you'd be without distinctive visual cues, but in fact labeling and standard holders speed up locating stuff.

Rubbermaid and others produce a whole line of containers called underbed containers, which slip into the underultized - or at least under-organized - space under most beds. We've found no where else that stores giftwrapping paper as safely and conveniently; we keep a set of cutters and tape right in the wrap boxes. But I've recently discovered that these long sealed flat containers are also marvelous for storing maps, charts, blueprints and other rolled paper quite securely. The Rubbermaid versions come in regular (#2128) and the Jumbo (#2129) -- a full 42 inches long - which I prefer. They are also stackable.

I was in one of those discount stores the other day and I found a stockpile of shoebox-size containers for about $1.50/ piece. They are not as good as the Rubbermaids, because their lids slide off too easily, but I got a dozen and now they have brought order to the closet that holds our craft materials. A bigger size - larger than a breadbox but smaller than the Tuffcrates - took the chaos out of the Legos, Duo blocks, and Konexits toys.

Find a good deal, then pounce on a bunch. I've never gotten a set of containers that we haven't used sustainably. But I have bought one or two here and there that I haven't made much use of. You need a critical mass.

Tuffcrates
Manufactured by Contico

Rubbermaid
888-895-2110

A selection of products available from
Rubbermaid Products

My friend and colleague Kurt Bollacker is a foodie (and extreme programmer). When I asked him about cool tools in his kitchen he immediately suggested this one. It's a pretty nifty device.

Kurt Bollacker writes:
I have used at least a dozen different garlic presses in my life, and the Rosle is the best one I've ever seen. It has a built-in mechanical lever that presses the garlic significantly harder than you press the handle. This means it takes less physical strength and is less of a strain if you are pressing a lot of garlic. The Germanic precision of manufacture is very high. This press is much easier to clean because the screen where the clove is pressed against can be lifted up out of the "pit" so that you don't have to dig down into it to scrape out the fiber remains. This also means you don't need a cleaning bristle (either separate or built in) to clean it. When I mentioned "the world's best garlic press" in the office, two folks immediately knew I was talking about the Rosle.

Rosle Garlic Press
$37 from Amazon

Hippies got one thing right: Tie dye clothes make people happy. As a group project, for family reunions, or summer camp, a massive tie dye happening is a real blast. The process of dying is simple enough for toddlers to do, yet potentially sophisticated enough that a real adult artist can be challenged. For general instructions and for examples of patterns to tie, I found this guide, though simple, to be useful to most dyers.

-- KK

Tie-Dye!
Virginia Gleser
1999, 95 pages
$11
Book Publishing Company
Summertown, TN
Amazon

Grocery store dyes are hot-water dyes. The secret to spectacular tie-die (and batik) is cold-water Procion Dyes. These come in scores of brilliant colors, and can be found in larger art supply stores. To start with you'll only need the smallest size they sell, an ounce or two of dry powder, plenty for maybe a hundred shirts. Dissolve the powder in clean empty squirt bottles and you are ready to go after you soak the designated clothes in Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (sodium carbonate, for a fixative). In our experience you'll want to maximize the concentration of the liquid colors to keep the end result brilliant.

Procion Dyes, 2 oz, $4 each
Plus lots of other tie dye supplies, including blank clothes from
Dharma Trading
800-542-5227

Also, many colors available from Amazon.

Pranks you can use. Stupid tricks, dumb gags, and funny routines. Liberate your inner 12-year-old with this handdrawn manual.

Stuntology
Sam Bartlett
2002, 122 pages
Email Sam Bartlett for a copy. Acess his website here.

Also from Amazon

The world's most educational wallpaper. Also the largest map of the world commercially available -- 9 feet by 13 feet. It is impressive. Standing in front of it, your gut senses a large blue ocean world. It is pretty crude cartography, however; large cities only are depicted and some countries are out of date. Be forewarned you need a quite large blank wall to contain it (you need to trim 8 inches off the top just to squeeze it onto the standard residential wall), although I've seen folks wrap it around corners, dormers and windows. Think of it as beautiful wall paper, which it is. Works well in an office -- particularly since you can write on the plasticized map with dry erase markers. Doodle in your travels. It could also be used on a floor. It comes in 8 pieces, each 3x4 feet, applied with wallpaper paste (included). That modularity gives you another bonus. You can arrange the pieces so that they center the world on your choice: the Americas, Europe and Africa, or Asia. I like it because it gives me an overwhelming sense of the scale of our planet.

-- KK

Write On Map Mural
Item #66554
$150
Available from Hammacher Schlemmer
800-321-1484

Stewart Brand writes in response to my review of Klutz Book of Knots:

Knots are such fundamental tools, and matching the right job with the right knot is so often essential, the important next step from the Klutz Book is the equally lucid and fairly comprehensive MORROW GUIDE TO KNOTS. Last week my wife Ryan gave a glad cry at the clarity in the book when she wanted to see a couple ways to tie a clove hitch, and learned that it's easy to put a slip in a clove hitch for quick release.

-- KK

Morrow Guide to Knots
1982, 255 pages
$11
Available from Amazon

As a Mac user I am spoiled. Among many other built-in goodies the Mac has notes. These are screen equivalents of post-it notes. They linger on your screen as reminders until you release them. I use them all the time. Joel Garreau made this suggestion for the majority Windows users.

-- KK

Joel writes:
You know about computer screen stickies? Here's a little program I'm in love with. Available for free, although it gives you an opportunity to tithe on Paypal.

Stickies 4.5

Rotary cutters aren't new tools. It's just taken me a while to appreciate how great they are. The Fiskars 45mm Rotary Cutter replaces exactos for most heavy-duty cutting jobs in our household. It's faster, surer, easier and therefore safer to use than razor blades. It will slice through paper, vinyl, cardboard, fabric, and foam board with ease and accuracy. I can only manage perfectly straight long cuts with a rotary cutter and straight edge. Cutting curves is buttery. Seamstresses can add pinking blades. The replaceable blade retracts when not in use; it can be side-switched for left-handers. When I think "cut" I reach for this tool.

Fiskars 45mm Rotary Cutter
$12
From, among other retailers,
Amazon

Manufactured by Fiskars

You can triumph in 99% of life's challenges knowing how to tie 6 basic knots -- which is probably 4 more knots than you currently know. The thing about knots is that a few will do if you really own them. Forget about those 300 ingenious knots sailors use, and for now master the few versatile ties taught in this cleverly engineered book. I own most of the knot books, and this is the best one for learning the ropes. It's for klutzes.

Volunteer to teach a boy/girl scout troop using this book; you'll learn fast.

-- KK

John Cassidy
1985, 24 pages
$11
Amazon

Unlike a lot of tool-heads, I don't live on my belt. I'm a pocket guy; I like pants, shirts, and jackets with lots of pockets, where I keep my knife, light, pens, phones, cameras, and so on. Others hang everything on their belts. Stewart Brand is a belt guy. It's always instructive to have Stewart give a tour of what he currently packs around his waist. His latest refinement is making me re-examine my fashion sense. I may have to try the belt-mode after all.

Stewart Brand writes:

I've been refining the tools I wear on my belt for 30 years. The current kit is on my bod at all times except in bed and on airplanes. I use some of what's in it every day and probably all of what's in it every month. Each device is exquisite in its own right. In combination they surround nearly any problem.

The whole kit weighs 12.1 ounces and cost me $282.

Handyman Belt Organizer

Start with the Handyman Belt Organizer from Brigade Quartermaster---$13. Made of Cordura, it has a couple more loops and dividers than you need; cut them off. The remaining main pocket is perfect for the Nikon 7x15 Monocular and Workchamp Swiss Army Knife next to each other. The pocket flap carries the Brunton Classic Compass. The belt loop can unfasten independently, which is handy when preparing for air travel without disrobing. Weight: 1.4 ounces.

Belt Organizer
$12
Available from Brigade Quartermaster

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Workchamp Swiss Army Knife

The Swiss Army Knife I now favor is one of the larger ones from Victorinox---larger in length, not fatness, so it meets the hand without feeling miniature. The Workchamp has all the tools I want, with none of the usual Swiss Champ ones I can do without---small blade, fishhook disgorger, packet hook, magnifying glass, etc. Here's what it does have: quite large blade with lockback feature, pliers, file & metal saw, wood saw, scissors, bottle opener with large screwdriver, can opener with small screwdriver, large and small phillips head screwdrivers, awl, corkscrew (with the crucial tiny screwdriver for glasses), toothpick and tweezers. I'm going to get a drill and hotrod my Workchamp to carry the wonderful pin (for splinters) and ballpoint pen from my now obsolete Swiss Champ. And I'm thinking of grinding the tweezers to make a sharp point---also good for splinters. The whole weighs just a half ounce more than the Swiss Champ: 7.2 ounces.

Workchamp Swiss Army Knife
$50
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Victorinox

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Brunton Classic Compass

Most compasses are way too fancy and fussy. All you need is something that is stable and sensitive, well marked, and has the ability to adjust its declination so you can read off true north directly anywhere you travel. All that at a great price is in the Brunton Classic. It's big enough for hand and eye but only weighs: 1.1 ounces.

Brunton Classic Compass
$12
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Brunton
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Nikon Monocular

For decades I treasured my old Zeiss monocular, long discontinued, but I finally retired it because it's been surpassed by a new wonder from Nikon, the 7 x 15 monocular ($195). It is light, small, robust, and powerful, perpetually handy for identifying a distant bird or the small-print citation on a distant PowerPoint slide. Used backwards, of course, it is an admirable little microscope. It comes with a particularly intelligent neck-string, which I use when hiking. Weight: 2.45 ounces.

[This tiny telescope/microscope is really quite amazing. Worth carrying even if you are beltless. --KK]

Nikon Monocular
$197
Available from Binoculars.com

Or $215 from Amazon

Manufactured by Nikon