Santa Blogs XXXIX

Dear Santa Blogs:      I took your advice last year, and sent my niece a number of highly collectible postcards featuring cheerful Santa Clauses.  I received, the following Groundhog’s Day, a quite charming thank you email, saying she appreciated the thought, and would of course treasure these valuable artifacts, but that she was getting aContinue reading “Santa Blogs XXXIX”

Santa Blogs XXXVIII

Dear Santa Blogs:      For years I have enjoyed your advice on how used books and/or used postcards can make excellent gifts at this festive time of year.  I have a slightly different problem.  I am finally getting around to thinking about possibly arranging to get ready to do my Christas cards.  Have you anyContinue reading “Santa Blogs XXXVIII”

Entirely Disinterested Gift Guide

     Gather round, kiddledybooks!  It is that time you wait breathlessly for: the appearance of Uncle Blogsy’s Annual Holiday Shopping Guide!  We will once again…..What’s that?  You don’t recall Uncle Blogsy’s Annual Holiday Shopping Guide from last year?  Listen, mistletoe meatball, these annual traditions have to get their start somewhere.  You didn’t realize you’d beenContinue reading “Entirely Disinterested Gift Guide”

Who Needs Lyrics?

     Pop songs are just like pop singers.  If they want to become really, really big, they have to be prepared to take a lot of abuse.  A song which becomes popular has to deal with critics who find it shallow, derivative, and overly simple (which some critics feel are basic requirements for even beingContinue reading “Who Needs Lyrics?”

Figure It Out Yourself

     Sigmund Spaeth, best known for what people regard as a misguided attempt to teach children instrumental classics by setting lyrics to them, wrote a LOT about music.  One of his wisest observations was about how audiences react to performance of a medley.  It is true, as he states, that whenever a new song startsContinue reading “Figure It Out Yourself”

Number Please

     A man named Charles Williams, Jr. had the honor of having the first phone number in the United States.  (It was 1, of course.  Mr. Williams produced telephone equipment for Alexander Graham Bell, so he played guinea pig.  (He also, by the way, had the second phone number—2–for his shop.)  You can read theContinue reading “Number Please”