Category: Social Stream

Because I often buy index cards in tranches of 5,000 to 10,000 at a time, I’ve noticed that Oxford recently dropped their brick of 500 4×6″ index cards to $6.47, a new low for the past year when they’ve generally been hovering in the $8.50-9.50 range. As a competitive move, Amazon has dropped their competing brick to $5.82, also a new annual low. If your card index habit is price sensitive, now is the time to buy.

Three notebooks stacked up next to three separate piles of 1,300 index cards.

Book Club: Steven Pinker’s When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows

Dan Allosso has been hosting a regular book club since Autumn 2021, centered around sense making, note taking, and topics like economics, history, sociology, and anthropology. (See our list of past books to get an idea of topic coverage.) Our next iteration over the coming month or so will focus on Steven Pinker’s most recent book on knowledge:

Pinker, Steven. 2025. When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life. New York: Scribner.

The first session will be on Saturday, January 10, 2026, and will recur weekly from 8:00 AM – 10:00 Pacific. Our meetings are welcoming and casual conversations over Zoom with the optional beverage of your choice. We’ll cover the first three chapters in the first meeting and the book will likely consume three meetings in all over the coming month.

To join and get access to the Zoom links and the shared Obsidian vault we use for notes and community communication, ping Dan Allosso with your email address. 

Happy reading!

Filing Index Cards with a C-Line Document Sorter

Not surprisingly, I don’t always file away my index cards as quickly as I probably ought to. Every now and then I go through my deck of unfiled cards and try to sort them into my card index/zettelkasten. The end of the year seems like a pretty good time to clear the decks.

Because I haven’t documented some of this portion of my process before, I thought I’d take a few photos of my C-Line document sorter which I use to do a fast sort of cards before filing into my card index. I bought it a while back from Brodart Library supplies and it comes in quite handy for sorting and filing documents. It’s got sections for sorting by alphabet, days of a month, months of the year, days of the week, and numbers up to 30,000 (which I primarily co-opt for Dewey Decimal sorting). The days of the month and month sections come in handy for use with my Memindex work, and the months of the year are useful for sorting receipts for expenses and at tax preparation time. In all, it’s fairly flexible analog office tool.

Side view of a C-Line index card sorter sitting on a wooden table. We can see about 100 cards slotted into the various flaps of the sorter

As I go through my stack of index cards, I use a Mitsubishi No. 772 pencil (the vermillion side) to underline topics for filing and cross-referencing purposes. This allows me to cross-index topics quickly as well.

A box of Mitsubishi No. 772 pencils with a sharpened one sitting in front of it. One end of the half red/half blue pencil is vermillion and the other end is Prussian blue.

I went through several hundred cards the other day and only had about 150-200 left for filing into the commonplace book section of my card index. Most of these cards were from 2025, but some dated into 2024 with a handful from as far back as 2023. 

Over the coming days, I’m hoping to finish cleaning up some of the notes from this year’s reading work.

A comparison of A5 sized notebooks with 4 x 6 inch index cards on a cost per square foot basis

Notebooks

Product Sheet width
(inches)		 Sheet height
(inches)		 pages price Area
sq. ft.		 $/sq. ft.
Hobonichi A5 Graph 5.8 8.3 288 $23.00 96.3 $0.24
Leuchtturm 1917 A5 5.8 8.3 251 $25.95 83.9 $0.31
Moleskine Hard Cover 5 8.25 192 $20.00 55.0 $0.36
Travelers Notebook 4.3 8.3 128 $11.90 31.7 $0.38

 

4 x 6 inch index cards

Product Sheet width
(inches)		 Sheet height
(inches)		 sheets price Area
sq. ft.		 $/sq. ft.
Amazon Basics 4×6 Index Cards 4 6 500 $7.30 166.7 $0.04
Oxford 4×6 6 4 1000 $16.49 333.3 $0.05
Stockroom Plus 4×6 (grid) 6 4 300 $13.67 100.0 $0.14
Exacompta 4×6 6 4 100 $15.77 33.3 $0.47
Notsu 4×6 6 4 50 $14.99 16.7 $0.90

Generally, Exacompta cards are the closest in price per square foot to the nicer notebooks while most 4 x 6 inch index cards are comparatively much cheaper (even if you’re only writing on one side).

Acquired 1964 Sears Cutlass portable Typewriter (Smith-Corona Marchant)
Serial Number: 6ASP-103936
Sears Futura typeface (aka SCM Numode No. 61 typeface), pica, 10 CPI, 6 lines/inch, American 88 No. 423 keyboard, bichrome, 44 keys, 88 characters, Change-A-Type, ¶ key
A red typewriter for Christmas! And it was hiding the uncommon Sears Futura typeface (aka Smith-Corona Numode No. 61) for its American 88 No. 423 keyboard which also features the Change-A-Type functionality. (Sadly it’ll be a slog to try to find matching Numode typeface slugs to match, though some of my math slugs may work well.) This means that it meets my current collector’s criteria for an interesting model I don’t already have as well as an uncommon typeface.

Futura typeface sample of a 1964 Sears Cutlass'

I’ve been on the hunt for one of these for over two years and always lost out in online auctions which generally went in the range of $150-200 in part because of the hot reddish/burgundy paint job with white racing stripes and the fact that Taylor Swift used this same typewriter in her All Too Well: The Short Film.

In the last two years I’ve only seen three of these on ShopGoodwill, so they definitely don’t pop up often. There are only 5 others on the Typewriter Database. Many of the online auctions where they went for a few hundred on ShopGoodwill.com had them being relisted by flippers on eBay in the $600-800 range within two weeks with no cleaning or restoration work. I’ve seen prices for them on eBay for $1,000 and over. For comparison, similar typewriter models in the 5 and 6 series of the period would otherwise be selling in the $25-50 range in this condition. (Ultimately, I’m glad I waited.)

1964 Sears Cutlass sitting at an angle on a sea green metal bar stool in front of a barrister bookcase flanked by card index filing cabinets.

Close up angled from the top of a burgundy 1964 Sears Cutlass which has a pair of racing strips on the right side of the hood.

1964 Sears Cutlass with the hood open to show the stickers underneath the hood and a portion of the basket. One of the stickers indicates the type as "Futura".

This one is in generally exceptional shape and works well out of the box. The shop it came from (or more likely the prior owner) was definitely on the liberal side with their lubrication. One of the two carriage release levers is broken off, which is extremely common on the 6-series models which used plastic which apparently brittled with age. I’ll give it a once over to touch up some of the dirtier parts and make some subtle adjustments. I will probably hold off on a major overhaul at the moment because it’s in such good condition. The platen is solid and plastic-y feeling. It definitely needs an upgrade on this front.

This model seems to bridge the gap between the 5 series Smith-Coronas into the 60s and the 6 series machines like the Galaxie. It’s a top-of-the-line model with the keyboard tabulator and the hood hinges up and back like the 5 series rather than sliding forward like the 6 series models. I don’t have one, but I would suspect it’s closest to the Sterling 5AX typewriter which started in 1963. It’s also got a great little paragraph indent button for use at the beginning of new paragraphs. I look forward to seeing how they implemented this feature mechanically.

A 1964 Sears Cutlass sits on a stool in front of a Christmas tree. To the side is a wooden bureau with a wide screen television on it featuring the face of Joe Pesci as Harry in Home Alone. It almost appears as if he's squinting at the typewriter.

A 1964 Sears Cutlass sits on a stool in front of a Christmas tree. To the side is a wooden bureau with a wide screen television on it featuring the face of Macauley Culkin as Kevin in Home Alone as he claps his hands to his face and screams.

A 1964 Sears Cutlass sits on a stool in front of a Christmas tree. To the side is a wooden bureau with a wide screen television on it featuring the face of Kieran Culkin as Fuller in Home Alone. His face is being squished up against a chair and it gives the appearance that he's trying to look at the typewriter in front of the television.

Acquired Brodart Colored Blank Punched Catalog Cards (shopbrodart.com)
Medium-weight colored blank punched catalog cards
blue, green, buff, ivory, white, salmon
Stocking stuffers anyone? Santa brought 6,000 index cards down the proverbial chimney today. Should have enough now to index all the books in the house? 

A library card catalog with a red Christmas stocking hanging on it with a box full of index cards next to it.

Four drawers of a library card catalog full of index cards in blue, green, buff, and ivory.

Five card catalog drawers lined up and full of ivory, buff, green, blue, and salmon index cards

A library card catalog covered in stacks of Brodart index cards.

Brodart has recently discontinued their salmon card index cards with pre-drilled holes -188-218. This has been a shift since the summer of 2025, though they’re still carrying the standard salmon index cards (without predrilled holds for card catalog rods).

A conversation with their customer service team seems to indicate there aren’t plans for discontinuing their other cards (blue, green, ivory, white, and buff), but: caveat emptor as they no longer list their card catalog furniture or their charging trays on their website, their Dewey Decimal tabbed cards are now gone, and Demco recently quit carrying their buff/red-lined Library of Congress cards this past year.

Incidentally, they’re doing a 20% discount on their index cards (and related circulation supplies) for the holidays right now, so stock up if you need them. 

In honor of Melvil Dewey’s 174th birthday yesterday, I’ve just purchased 6,000 cards in an attempt to get them to continue stocking them all and to have a happier 2026.

Acquired Lochby Field Folio A6 (Lochby)
Keep your A6 notebooks, pens, and essentials organized on the go with the Field Folio A6. Durable, vegan waxed canvas, slim design, and flexible pockets—perfect for travel, journaling, or everyday carry.
Lochby Field Folio A6 sits closed on a brown wooden table with it's Lochby kraft identification tag sitting on top of it. The exterior of the folio features brown waxed canvas.

I recently asked the kind folks at Lochby “if the Folio A6 will comfortably fit 25-50 standard 4 x 6″ index cards which are slightly larger than an A6 notebook? If not, is it something you might consider for some of us ‘Hipster PDA’ tribe members in the future?”  

Erring on the side of caution their customer service replied, “Unfortunately, since the Field Folio A6 zips up, there’s no way to fit this many index cards in it without the potential for damaging them when zipping it up. But I’ll take note of your suggestion and pass it on to our product development team so we can consider it as well as gauge interest.”

Because I often use A6 sized notebooks, I couldn’t resist adding to my Lochby collection, so I went ahead and ordered it anyway.

Lochby Field Folio A6 surrounded by several pens and pencils. Inside the right pocket of the folio is a yellow covered Hobonichi A6 notebook

It arrived in the post yesterday. Today I’m happy to report that it actually will accommodate 4 x 6″ index cards reasonably well.  I can comfortably fit about 30 cards into the right side pocket and still have room to tuck a Hobonichi A6 notebook into the folio and still zip it shut handily. 

Lochby Field Folio A6 with a bunch of 4 x 6" index cards tucked into the right side interior pocket .The interior of the folio features yellow highlight material as well as two yellow ribbon bookmarks. The left side has pocket space for several pens and pencils. Sitting crosswise across the top of the folio is a burgundy Mitsubishi 9850 HB pencil

Because I usually have a few pre-glued decks of index card “notebooks” sitting around, I tried one of these and can happily report that the back cover/board fits into the right pocket easily (just as you’d tuck the back cover of a notebook into it) and works well with the Lochby A6 folio! (The center elastic bands are slightly smaller and fairly tight, and could work with these glued decks too, but will tend to cut the glue at the ends, so one should take care here or carefully only glue the center 5 inches of the deck for this use case.) I suspect that if one had a plastic wallet-photo type holder, it might work well in this, particularly if you’re carrying around some of your daily use cards in addition to blank cards for future use. 

Lochby Field Folio A6 with a deck of gridded 4 x 6" index cards on the right hand side.