If anyone within traveling distance did not already know, you should be visiting the Newberry Library Book Fair this weekend, at 60 W. Walton Pl., Chicago (about six blocks west of the John Hancock Building.) It is an improvement over last year’s Covid-afflicted venture and open from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. There may beContinue reading “Optional Advertisement”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Hitting the Beach
So we are in full vacation season now, in spite of heat and smoke and the decision whether to boycott states which are too blue or too red in their politics. People are flocking to places where they can kick back and forget about that alarm clock telling them to get dressed and goContinue reading “Hitting the Beach”
With Banners Flying
If you have been following along (and why should you?) you will recall our discussions of the role of postcards in the life of the general public. Originally regarded as the text message of the day, they could be used to issue or accept an invitation, let someone know you’d gotten home safely, etc. Continue reading “With Banners Flying”
Takeout Odor
The skunk, I am told here, is a member of the weasel family, which may come in brown, ginger, or cream colors as well as black, almost always have stripes or other warning marks, and almost never, ever bite. This is all very well for science on the Interwebs. In postcards (as well asContinue reading “Takeout Odor”
Converbs
Proverbs are chunks of solidified wisdom handed down through the ages, a sentence or two which embody a nugget of truth. These may be cheerful “Every cloud has a silver lining” or cynical “Everything in the world is off by a quarter of an inch.” They can contradict each other: “It’s never to lateContinue reading “Converbs”
Foliage Fooliage
We have, hereintofore, considered the various locales favored y our ancestors at the turn of the last century when it came to romance. The people passing through the years 1900-1920 hand-in-hand (lip-to-lip, perhaps, but that’s really as far as the mails would let ‘em go) have been shown to enjoy the comforts of benches,Continue reading “Foliage Fooliage”
Chatbott
This is not a current events blog, so this particular column is NOT about the AI writing controversy. The magazines which regularly send me rejection slips (sneaking up on the magic number 7,500) are divided on the issue, some refusing stories which have been written using AI and others saying it’s okay as longContinue reading “Chatbott”
Mockbeth
I was thinking of writing a column in this space about the use or misuse of Shakespearean lines on postcards, back in the day when Shakespeare mattered a whole lot more to the individual citizen of these United States. I may still do that, but in doing my research, I ran into a separateContinue reading “Mockbeth”
Hitting the Bottle
The recent addition to my inventory of a pile of postcards featuring babies made me wonder a little more specifically about a matter we have mentioned hereinbefore. Postcards of infants are filled with sociological observations, but most of those can be left to others, i.e., the proportion of mothers to fathers in baby-holding, theContinue reading “Hitting the Bottle”
Out On a Limb
We have been discussing stockings worn by ladies on postcards of the past. I mentioned that in this, as in so much of a cartoonist’s life, what is really important is knowing just where to draw the line. And so today, we are going to discuss stocking tops. Maybe this is what isContinue reading “Out On a Limb”
Blogsy Babbles 