Desk Objects with Nicholas Longtin

I've worked at ArcStone for over twelve years so I have amassed a pretty impressive stable of desk oddities to garnish my workspace. From my jumbo sized Homer Simpson PEZ dispenser to a deactivated hand grenade, few of these items offer any real utility beyond the pleasure of simply owning them and occasionally tilting back Homer's head to hear one of his signature catch phrases.

However, there is one item I use frequently and with great satisfaction, and that is my grandmother's old Zenith tube radio. With all our modern conveniences, high speed data lines and all-you-can-eat multimedia, I still find myself twisting the Zenith's old plastic knob and enjoying the sweet warm tones of FM transmission amplified by good old fashioned vacuum tubes.

Sure terrestrial broadcast is on the decline, and I'm also sure any station I choose has a snazzy website and free Internet stream, but to me tubes just sound better, more honest, and fuller than today's cold hard circuitry and compressed audio data.

Using this old radio is about more than just the sound. It's a connection to the past. Each time those old tubes warm up dust that's collected inside for a half century gets heated. Soon after a familiar aroma wafts through my office, a smell that brings me back to my childhood, sitting next to my grandmother in the old house on White Bear Lake, listening to the radio.