A fantasy artist once submitted an amazing illustration showing a skull-headed demon glaring hungrily at the viewer from in front of a complex and twisted grove of obviously cursed trees. The editor loved the drawing, but said “You’re not fooling me, you know. You just wanted to draw those interesting trees and added theContinue reading “Beating About The Bushes”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Madnesses of the Month
Well, here it is spring and, ignoring a few random blizzards to kill the sprouting tulips, we are prepared for spring pursuits: basketball tournaments, baseball games, and, of course, what we are told our hearts turn lightly to even though we know very well we’ve been pondering it all winter. So I thought we’dContinue reading “Madnesses of the Month”
Talk the Talk, Crawl the Crawl
Once upon a time, I lived in a town which had a large number of residents who claimed Irish heritage. But a vocal minority was of Bohemian ancestry, with the result that at this time of year, the greeting card racks were evenly divided between green cards for those who wanted to send aContinue reading “Talk the Talk, Crawl the Crawl”
FICTION FRIDAY: The Matter of the Bloodstained Bagpipes
“Well. Lieutenant?” “The story checks out, sir. That was definitely William D. Orcutt walking into the bar and not coming out again.” “Three weeks after he was murdered. A week after his burial. And how was he dressed?” “Just like the rest, sir, down to the dirk and sporran.” “That’s eightContinue reading “FICTION FRIDAY: The Matter of the Bloodstained Bagpipes”
Lost Classics
I am aware that you do not come flocking to this column to read about ME. Yu come here to learn about my latest research into unsuspected naughty jokes in Edwardian postcards, to learn what new fishing gags I have found on postcards of mid-century, and to share what I have discovered about suchContinue reading “Lost Classics”
Missed Inconveniences
The fact that fashions change is one of the surest rules of nature. Coming in a close second to THAT rule is the rule that we will laugh at the fashions which have passed. (And I think third place is that we all deny that we will ever laugh about what we’re wearing NOW. Continue reading “Missed Inconveniences”
Hard of Herring
Ah, the Interwebs are a wonderful place to spend an afternoon. You think you are looking up something, and find you have gone down another rabbit hole. This, of course, can happen in any style of research: print, audio, video, or digital. But out here in the Interwebs it is not only possible butContinue reading “Hard of Herring”
Behind the Bar
Earlier this week, we considered the classic saloon, as portrayed vintage postcards. We considered particularly the swinging doors, the bar rail, the spittoon, and free lunch. And we allowed as how there was one feature we needed to consider in a blog, that indispensable dispenser, the bartender. The customer, of course, is theContinue reading “Behind the Bar”
The Postcard and the Saloon
We have several times in this space considered the actions of alcoholic beverages on the people seen on vintage postcards. This alcohol appears in many roles depending on the angle the artist has decided to take: the toast at a banquet, the beer keg in the cellar, those cans and bottles in the fridge,Continue reading “The Postcard and the Saloon”
The Unexpected Cow
In our last dissertation in this space, we considered the image of the placid milk cow, and how postcard artists revealed a darker side, showing rebelliousness of which city folk had never herd. (No, I will NOT apologize. You knew what blog this was when you clicked on it. This time, we willContinue reading “The Unexpected Cow”
Blogsy Babbles 