Lower Prices and New Science Design

Greetings all! We've been too busy to post any blog entries lately, but we have redesigned our store to make navigation easier, and we've lowered all of our prices. We think this news is worth celebrating.

And if that wasn't enough, we've also created a new science-themed design. It features a picture of Charles Darwin and the phrase "Natural selection made me what I am today". Looks great on t-shirts and mugs. It's just in time for holiday gift-giving. So if you have a biologist or science-lover on your list, be sure to get them one.



This design and more are available at our Zazzle-powered sister store, Rising Tide Tees. Shop early!

Thrifty Holiday Shopping Guides

Community-minded as we are, Words Plus Paper has recently put together several holiday shopping guides with the focus on thriftiness. This is not affiliate marketing but a public service that we are providing in the spirit of the holiday season with good will to all and malice toward none.

The guides are set up on Squidoo as lenses. Each one focuses on a particular type of person that you may need to shop for this year. And given the tough economic times we currently find ourselves in, we've kept most of the gifts in the $20 and under range. After all, you really can't buy happiness, but it's still nice to give something.

We've spent hours searching the web to compile these lists. So without futher ado, we present our Thrifty Holiday Shopping Guides. Be well and have fun!

Holiday Shopping Guide for Cynics

Holiday Shopping Guide for Monkey Lovers

Holiday Shopping Guide for Robot Lovers

Holiday Shopping Guide for Hippies

Holiday Shopping Guide for Dog Lovers

Note: In case anyone is wondering, that typical cynic/hippie is one of our favorite writers - George Bernard Shaw. We love that picture.

Chinese Character Comrade T-Shirt

We conceived of our new Chinese character t-shirt a couple of weeks ago, but recent events have made it more timely than ever. While America has allowed it's manufacturing base to erode, turning itself into the largest debtor nation in the world, China has built up foreign currency reserves of $1.8 trillion. Now we're preparing for a "communistic" buy-up of bank equity. It may not be long before we're all calling each other "comrade".

And that's exactly what our new shirt says: "May I Call You Comrade?" Don't let the authentic, simplified Chinese characters fool you. This shirt was conceived and will be printed in the good ol' US of A. Go to our Zazzle-powered sister shop, Beijing Central, to get yours today!

May I Call You Comrade?

George Orwell T-shirts: New Quotes

If we were forced at gunpoint to choose our very favorite writer of all-time, George Orwell might very well be it. We can't count the number of times we have read "1984", and we've also read just about everything else by him such as "Down and Out in Paris and London" and "The Road to Wigan Pier".

A little Orwell trivia: Did you know that George Orwell originally wanted "1984" to be titled "The Last Man in Europe"? Also, the year he had in mind was "1980". It took him four years to write that novel, so the date was changed to 1982 and then, finally, 1984. He died of tuberculosis in 1950, a year after it's publication.

George Orwell traveled widely in India and Europe. He fought in the Spanish Civil War and worked as a war correspondent during World War II. His politics changed during the course of his life. He was a communist early on, but with the rise of Stalin, he became a democratic socialist. He saw the best and the worst of humanity, and he was not afraid to write about it.

One of Orwell's characters in "1984" said: "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever." We thought that was a little too depressing to put on a t-shirt, but we did find three other great quotes. These t-shirts make great gifts for writers, journalists and even anti-war activists. Head on over to our store, Words Plus Paper, at Zazzle, and get yours today!

Orwell on War

Orwell on Progress

Orwell on Political Language

New Peanuts T-Shirt for Writers!

If you're like most writers, if you get paid for your writing at all, it isn't much. Writers are among the most notoriously underpaid workers in the world. That's why when all of those Hollywood writers went on strike, we cheered them on, even if they do make more money than us. We figured that what was good for one group of writers was good for all writers. Plus, how often do you get to see writers in the news?

Now we've come up with a design that should prove an inspiration for all poorly paid writers. It features a drawing of a couple of ground nuts with the words "Will Write for Peanuts". It's sure to get a laugh from people who know how broke you are.

Wear one of these goober t-shirts and people will know how much you love to write. Wear it to an interview for a job that involves writing and beat out the competition with your low rates. It is equally suitable for casual weekend wear and formal parties with Hollywood executives.

Get your "Will Write for Peanuts" shirt at our Zazzle store, Words Plus Paper, and let everyone know just how cheap you are!

Gertrude Stein T-Shirt

Has there ever been a writer as cool as Gertrude Stein? We doubt it. That's why we decided to put her on a t-shirt. Not only was she friends with people like Picasso and Hemingway, but she also wrote her own "gay" stream-of-consciousness fiction before it was popular to do so. Actually, stream-of-consciousness fiction has never been "popular", but we're going to ignore that fact.

If you want to know more about Gertrude Stein, you can go to our Gertrude Stein Squidoo lens where we talk about her life and accomplishments. For instance, did you know that she and Alice B. Toklas volunteered during World War I to drive supplies to hospitals in France? Also, she attended Johns Hopkins medical school for 3 and half years and almost became a doctor.

No, we can't think of anyone more deserving of being on a t-shirt. Stop by our Zazzle store and you'll also find totebags, mugs, postcards and more Gertrude Stein products. They make great gifts for the writer in your life.

Gertrude Stein

Edgar Allan Poe T-shirt Now Available

Edgar Allan Poe has always been our favorite writer when it comes to horror fiction. He was born in Boston in 1809. Tragically, his father abandoned him and his two siblings shortly before his mother died. This all happened before Poe had reached the age of two.

Young Edgar was taken in by John Allan, a tobacco merchant, who bestowed his middle name on him. Poe had a stormy relationship with his foster father. He attended the University of Virginia for a year and made good grades, but when his foster father did not send enough money to cover tuition and fees, Poe accumulated gambling debts and was soon forced to drop out.

Poe signed up for the army when he was 18 because it was the only way he could support himself. Two years later, he went to West Point, but not finding military life to his liking, he purposely had himself court-martialed for "gross neglect of duty" and ended his career early.

Shortly after leaving the military in 1831, Poe published his third book of poems. None of them sold very well. He took a position as an editor, a job which he was to continue throughout his life, although mostly in short stints for different magazines.

Throughout his career, Poe was better known for his literary criticism than his own creative efforts, although he did achieve some fame when his poem "The Raven" was published in 1845. Unfortunately, this success was followed by death of his wife and the failure of the magazine he was currently editing.

Poe died in 1849 of unknown causes. He was found unconscious in the streets of Baltimore and taken to the hospital, but he never recovered. It is said that the smallest amounts of alcohol could change his personality and lead to erratic behaviour. After his wife's death, he may have turned to alcohol more than would be thought prudent. We will never know.

The good news is we finished our Edgar Allan Poe t-shirt just in time for Halloween. Now you can wear your favorite writer of the macabre.

New Oscar Wilde T-Shirt

We first became acquainted with Oscar Wilde in high school when the theater department put on a production of "The Importance of Being Earnest". This is a very witty play that commented on the hypocritical morality of the Victorian era. It premiered in London in 1895 and proved to be the beginning of the end for Oscar Wilde. Although it was a huge hit with audiences, it only ran for 83 performances because Wilde was soon involved in a public scandal concerning his homosexuality. He was convicted on charges of "gross indecency" and sentenced to two years of hard labor.

Oscar Wilde didn't write anymore plays although he did write "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" about his prison experience. After he was released in 1897, he moved to Paris where he spent his last few years before dying of cerebral meningitis in 1900.

We think of Oscar Wilde as a real non-conformist. He was not afraid to be true to himself in a time which had very oppressive views on behavior. And for that, we salute him.

Below is the design for our Oscar Wilde t-shirt. Head over to our Zazzle store, and you will also find a couple of humorous quotes by Oscar Wilde in our Literary Quotes section. Enjoy!

Does This Shirt Make Me Look Chinese?

We're very proud of our new Chinese character t-shirt design. There's not a lot to it, really. It reads right to left in simplified Chinese: "Does This Shirt Make Me Look Chinese?" Well, sometimes less is more.

We think this a nice shirt to wear because people who can read Chinese will think it's funny, and people who can't read Chinese will just think it looks cool. Where ever you wear it, it's sure to get questions.

This Chinese character t-shirt is now available in our Zazzle shop, Beijing Central. We've already ordered several for ourselves.

Environmental T-Shirts: Cool It Down! and Scooters!

We here at Words Plus Paper like to read novels and short stories, but sometimes we like to toss a little non-fiction into the mix as well. Just recently we finished reading "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson. It's been on our list for years.

We're sure many of you have heard of this book, even if you haven't read it yourselves. First published in 1962, it spent several weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was serialized in The New Yorker magazine. This book called environmental issues to public attention and led to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. Critics claim that Rachel Carson was a lunatic advocating the banning of pesticides, but this book's lasting influence is due to her calm and reasonable approach of using scientific technology responsibly. Per Carson, “man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself…”.

Rachel Carson did not specifically address global warming, but when we decided to design an environmental t-shirt, that was the first subject that popped into our minds. The second thing we thought of was a line from an old Velvet Underground song: cool it down. We doubt that Lou Reed was pondering the Gaia hypothesis while penning those lyrics, but we decided to use it anyway. You can see the result below.

Like everyone else, we've also been hit hard in the pocketbook by rising gas prices. More and more, we've been seeing people around town on scooters. They certainly look gas-efficient, so we thought we'd pay homage to these fun little machines. And thus, our second shirt: I Love My Scooter.




These designs and more are available at our Zazzle-powered sister store, Rising Tide Tees. Stop by today and say hello!

Lit Star T-shirt Now Available

Well, I guess we just got tired of seeing that phrase "rockstar" everywhere. Or maybe we're just jealous because none of us can play guitar (or even drums) very well, although some of us do have experience with power chords.

Anyhoo, we were kind of wondering what it would be like if writers were as revered as rock stars. And okay, there's a few and one of them we actually admire. Yes, J.K. Rowling. We've read all the Potter books. But let's face it, most bestsellers are real trash. We don't want to name names, but James Patterson and Dan Brown come to mind.

Still, in the face of extreme adversity, we decided to go ahead and design a t-shirt that treats the budding writer like a rock star. We've called this new design "Lit Star" and we think that pretty much sums it up. This t-shirt design is particularly cool because it's done in faded colors with a distressed, vintage look. If you're not a writer yourself, then get one for the aspiring novelist in your life. We know that everybody knows someone who dreams of being an author.

Mark Twain T-shirt Just Added

Our new Mark Twain t-shirt is now in our Zazzle store. Twain, the pseudonym for Samuel Clemens, was one of America's truly great writers. Born in Florida, Missouri in 1835 and raised in Hannibal, he worked as a typesetter and a printer while educating himself in public libraries in the evening. He also worked as a steamboat captain, a very lucrative job, for a couple of years before the Civil War broke out and he headed west.

Although he started out writing mostly travelogues and humor, his most famous work, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, took a darker twist, commenting on the hypocrisies of American life. Huck is often faced with choices between doing what he thinks is right and what society thinks is right. When wondering if he should turn in his friend, Jim, a runaway slave, he thinks long and hard before deciding not to do it. "All right, then, I'll go to hell", he says to himself. This phrase is the basis of our Huck Finn shirt.

We hope you like them as much as we do.

More Famous Writers and a Store

This week has been very busy as we've been setting up our new store on Zazzle. The name of the store is, of course, Words Plus Paper. Now, we will no longer have to link to items individually. You can go into the store and browse all of our designs, including the ones that never make it on the blog.

We will also start updating the blog more frequently but with only 1 or 2 featured designs at a time. This will allow us to look more closely at the inspiration behind our favorite designs.

This week, however, we do have four new writer t-shirts. First is Henry David Thoreau, the bad boy of Walden. Have we mentioned before how much we love his essay "Civil Disobedience". Supposedly Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi were both inspired by his writing.

Next is Fyodor Dostoevsky. You must have known we were Crime and Punishment fans because we featured the Raskolnikov for President bumper sticker in a previous blog entry. Well, we still are. The Brothers Karamazov is on our reading list.

We also have a Charlotte Bronte t-shirt. She created the memorable character Jane Eyre, a strong, moral, and independent woman, in a time not known for independent women. This semi-autobiographical novel is still considered to be one of England's finest.

And finally, we've done a Jack London t-shirt. Sometimes he's passed off as too commercial, but his short stories are a fine example of the art. All of his works are available on the internet at jacklondons.net. Read "To Build a Fire" again, if you haven't already.

We hope you enjoy the new designs. Feel free to stop by the store. Thanks!

T-Shirt Designs with Famous Writers

We'd like to begin this week's post by wishing a happy birthday to Dorothy Parker. This witty writer and poet was born on August 22nd, 1893. She's best remembered for such phrases as "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy" and "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force". Any writer who made the Hollywood black list is A-okay in our book. So happy birthday, Dorothy. We've designed a t-shirt in your honor.

We've also designed a new George Orwell t-shirt which we think is quite striking. It has clean simple lines and a bold typeface befitting the author of "1984". We hope you like it.

And no, we're not afraid of Virginia Woolf, but we are a little bit intimidated. Did you see Nicole Kidman playing her in "The Hours" with the putty on her nose? What a great performance. We're not sure that our t-shirt does Ms. Woolf justice, but we'll let you be the judge.

Lastly, we have a new Franz Kafka t-shirt. Franz worked hard at an insurance company by day and did his writing at night. Perhaps that is why it is so dark. Most of his work was published posthumously. We just wanted to let him know that he hasn't been forgotten.

As always, click on the picture to see a larger version. Click on the link to go directly to our Zazzle shop.


See Parker T-Shirt

See Orwell T-Shirt

See Woolf T-Shirt

See Kafka T-Shirt

Salute to Science

We here at Words Plus Paper have always felt that science and art are more alike than they are different. Indeed, some of our favorite historical figures are scientists such as Darwin, Faraday, Einstein, Newton, Aristotle, Turing... we could go on and on.

We have a great respect for these pioneers who proposed new ideas about reality. It's not difficult to understand Bohr's theory of atomic structure, but we never would have thought of it ourselves. On the other hand, we read Brian Greene's "The Fabric of the Cosmos" and we're not sure that we want to delve any deeper into string theory because that stuff is just really weird.

Still, this week we have decided to salute these heroic figures with a series of science-themed t-shirts, great for geeks, nerds and the educated layman. In particular, we're paying homage to the fields of astronomy, archaeology, biochemistry and physics.

We hope you enjoy these designs. Click on the picture for a larger version. Click on the name to link directly to our Zazzle-powered sister shop, Rising Tide Tees.


See Milky Way Shirt

See Trilobites Rock Shirt

Funny Chinese Character Shirts

After years of procrastinating, we finally learned how to type Chinese characters on our computer. We don't know why we didn't do it sooner, although, admittedly, it's a pretty simple process these days. Take a look at our Squidoo lens if you want to find out how to do it.

Below are a couple of our first efforts. These are some phrases that we thought would like good written in Chinese. They're a little offbeat which is the way we like it.

Click on the picture for a larger version. You can find these and other great designs at our Zazzle shop, Beijing Central.


See Drink More Green Tea Shirt

See I Can Fly Shirt

Happy Birthday, George Bernard Shaw!

George Bernard Shaw, dramatist and ardent socialist, would be celebrating his birthday today, July 26th, except that he's no longer with us. That's probably for the best, because if he was still alive he'd be 152 years old. As it was he had a long, productive, and we'll assume, happy life, lasting 94 years which is longer than most of us can hope to live.

Nevertheless, we've decided to wish him a happy birthday anyway. Why? Is it because we're big fans of the musical My Fair Lady which was based on his play Pygmalion? Is it because one of us was once cast as Don Juan in a production of "Don Juan in Hell"? Is it because he is the only person ever to have won both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar? If you answered 'All of the Above', you would be correct.

To celebrate, we've designed four t-shirts featuring some of our favorite Shavian quotes. We thought these quotes would look good on the small set, too, so we've included sizes for kids, toddlers and infants. The bibs look particularly nice. Click on the picture to see a larger illustration. Click on the link to go directly to our Zazzle shop, Words Plus Paper. Happy birthday, George!

Addendum: we'd also like to wish a happy birthday to Mick Jagger.


See Shaw on Hatred Shirt

See Shaw on Cynicism Shirt

See Shaw on Intelligence Shirt

See Shaw on Art Shirt

Satirists on Politics

During this election season, it's always fun to take a step back and reflect on what politics means to us. We have lots of thoughts on the subject, but they seem to be alternately bitter or depressing. So rather than use our own, we decided to raid the minds of political satirists and put their quotes on t-shirts.

Okay, so Robert McCloskey, author of Make Way for Ducklings, doesn't qualify as a political satirist. Still, we love the quote by him, first seen on a poster featuring one Richard M. Nixon.

Ambrose Bierce and Will Rogers both wrote newspaper columns. Bierce was the more biting of the two, often stirring up controversy. This definition of politics comes from "The Devil's Dictionary".

Will Rogers is best known for saying "I never met a man I didn't like." Obviously, he never met Dick Cheney, but judging by our quote, he might have met George W. Bush.

Voltaire needs no introduction, but we'll give him one anyway. He was very outspoken in his day, and spent time in prison for it. His ideas influenced leaders of the American revolution and perhaps helped bring about the modern nation-state, so that years later Mark Twain could say "We have the best government that money can buy." We didn't put Twain's quote on a shirt because it was too depressing, and Voltaire's quote isn't exactly funny, but we think it's true. Vive le truth!

Click on the picture to see a larger version. Click on the link to go directly to our Zazzle shop.


See McCloskey Shirt

See Bierce Shirt

See Rogers Shirt

See Voltaire Shirt

Witty T-Shirts for Writers

Words Plus Paper is pleased to announce a new line of t-shirts and gifts featuring great writers, thinkers and artists from the past. We're starting with four designs but will be adding more continually so check back often.

These first three designs feature some of our all-time favorite authors: Oscar Wilde, Henry David Thoreau and George Orwell. If there's something you'd to like to see, let us know. As writers ourselves, we're well aware of the value of criticism. To see a larger image, just click on the pictures. To see the t-shirts, click on the link and it will take you to our Zazzle shop. Thanks for looking!

From the "Civil Disobedience" essay, here's the full quote: "The greater part of what my neighbors call good, I believe in my soul to be bad. And if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?"
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George Orwell, the pen name for Eric Arthur Blair, was a great novelist and thinker. Isn't it time you reread 1984? First published in 1949, it's still relevant after all these years.
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Oscar Wilde was perhaps one of the wittiest people who ever lived. He was part of the Aesthetic Movement whose members strove to turn their lives into art.
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