Officially, according to me, this is the largest collection of used staples in the world.
I am confident my proclamation will hold.
Carol Riggs has saved, and piled, a 9½-inch-high mountain of used staples.
It took her 16 years.
When she reviews multiple-page documents, she removes the staple in the corner, puts it on her pile, and reads through the pages.
We’ve heard about building things one brick at a time, but this compilation is tedious with a capital “T.”
She’s moved her staple sculpture three times into larger bowls.
Funny, it lifts up in a blob, seemingly magnetic, but Riggs says it’s just the teensy ends clinging together. The staple mountain is on her desk at Chicago Title Insurance Company in Everett.
The staples hang together, like that kid’s game, Barrel of Monkeys.
Rusty Bennett, a FedEx driver, noticed the collection while delivering packages. Thanks, Mr. Bennett, for the hot tip.
I live for this stuff.
Riggs lives in south Everett. She has two daughters and adores her five grandchildren, including two who live in China.
“I send them comics from The Herald,” Riggs said. “They read them and wrap gifts with the colorful paper to give to other foreigners with a hankering for the funnies.”
A windowsill in her office is lined with fast food kid-meal toys. While parents or grandparents tend to mortgage business, their charges have toys to keep them occupied.
Still working at age 68, she just isn’t ready to retire, Riggs said, and she loves Chicago Title.
“I do payroll, accounting and human resources,” she said. “And plunger the toilets when necessary. But it’s a great job.”
I should say so. When she turned 60, the office gang chipped in for a trip.
“I went to Disneyland,” she said. “I had never been.”
And get this: The staple collection could be much bigger. She left a collection behind, 20 years ago, when she worked for Lawyer’s Title in Lynnwood.
The janitor in Lynnwood mentioned he had trouble with staples getting stuck in the carpet, so she began her collection.
The widow has other hobbies. She likes to go to the movies, has a dog and two cats and is a safe driver.
She plays books on tape in her car, so she carefully stops at all yellow lights to maximize listening time.
Modest enough to not take full credit for the staple collection, she credits co-worker Don Medema with additions.
He brings her little paper cups with staples he donates to the glob.
We weighed the bowl of staples on a postal scale. Three pounds, 12 ounces.
I took a box of 5,000 Bostitch staples, measured it, divided by the square root, considered thrust and velocity, and deduced that the pile has about a gazillion staples in it.
A world record, for sure.
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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