FRIDAY FICTION: Budget Hearing

     “Military spending is at an all-time high and the Royal Treasury tells me it is not hard to understand why.  You, General, ordered 412 operations last year in which all our infantry and cavalry mounted a full assault.  That’s more than one Red Alert per day!”      “Yes, Your Majesty.  We WERE quite fortunateContinue reading “FRIDAY FICTION: Budget Hearing”

Safe To Go Back in the Water?

     One of the common paradoxes examined in old postcards is the conflict between people who go fishing in hopes of getting a bite, and then being shocked when they get one.  Dogs and mosquitoes are the usual sources of discontent, but the world of aquatic life offers creatures who get logical revenge on theContinue reading “Safe To Go Back in the Water?”

LIKE A MIGHTY QUONKER, Chapter 8

     Precisely at twelve (one and one-half hours after his first break and two and one half hours before his next), Matt pulled the door of his cubicle shut and carried his brown paper bag to the nearest lounge.  He bought a can of Diet Coke from the machine and sat down at the sameContinue reading “LIKE A MIGHTY QUONKER, Chapter 8”

FRIDAY FICTION: Fancy Meeting YOU Here

     “You here, Uncle Jack?”      “Down cellar.”      “Hi, what’s…um, what are you doing?”      “Sealing these papers in stasis.  Might be safe to touch in eight thousand years.”      “So your latest invention is a radioactive printer?”      “Nope.”      “Your latest invention exploded, then, and spread plutonium across your notebooks?”      “TheContinue reading “FRIDAY FICTION: Fancy Meeting YOU Here”

What Are Those Boots Made For?

     We seem to have been spending a lot of time lately on the sexual antics and/or misdeeds of our ancestors, and on my way to something else, I began to wonder about the old story of the walk home from the ride in the country.  You must know the drill: young man with aContinue reading “What Are Those Boots Made For?”

LIKE A MIGHTY QUONKER, Chapter 7

     Matt very slowly eased his head out the door of his cubicle.  His mother wore that grey suit he’d seen a thousand times.  Ada Silberwetter had an orange-brown ensemble that flowed with her.  They stood with their backs to him.  Walter Prince faced them, and had obviously not expected to encounter so warm aContinue reading “LIKE A MIGHTY QUONKER, Chapter 7”

HERE It Is

     You will recall, from our last thrilling episode, that we were discussing a wildly popular postcard theme we discussed in this space some years ago: the “How Come You Haven’t Written To Me?” cartoon.      The expectation that when you wrote a card or letter you expected one back by return mail (an expectationContinue reading “HERE It Is”

Waiting at the Mailbox

     One of the nice things about doing a blog for years is the chance to go back to blogs which have appeared hereintofore and revisiting a topic with new information.  So postcards with wardrobe mal…no, no, come back.  We are ACTUALLY going to discuss one of the most popular of postcard sentiments: “Wen areContinue reading “Waiting at the Mailbox”

LIKE A MIGHTY QUONKER, Chapter 6

     Matt replayed his conversation with Ada Silberwetter until 3 A.M., coming up with a number of blistering responses which would have put the flouncing fluff in her place.  A sunny mood, therefore, accompanied him through the frigid gray morning that followed.  He couldn’t use the comebacks on their target now, of course, but withContinue reading “LIKE A MIGHTY QUONKER, Chapter 6”

Over Exposure

     No, I think it’s time to move on.  We have by no means exhausted the subject of wardrobe malfunctions on bygone postcards, but there are other, more delicate,  subjects we can address in this special space.  (You have no idea how many new outhouse postcards have come into inventory.)      We have done enoughContinue reading “Over Exposure”