On July 13, 1958, a fellow named Ned mailed a hotel card – one depicting the Radisson Minneapolis surrounded by what I take to some Minneapolis sights. A busy design, but the Radisson has had a long history in the city.
Dear Mother & Dad
Here is where I stay in Minneapolis. Heading home Tuesday. Hope you are OK.
Love, Ned
Ned could have put that in a tweet, I think.
Another card among those I bought recently has a postmark date of June 6, 1958, and an image of Mt. Sopris in western Colorado, but it was mailed from Richmond, Calif. Postcards are now 2 cents — but not for much longer — and the postmark says in big block letters, PRAY FOR PEACE.
Monday
Hi Folks!
Well we finally made it to California Saturday P.M. Sure glad to get here kind of tired of riding. Think I’ll go to San Francisco tomorrow. I’m in San Pablo, Calif.
Love, Wanda
Not long ago I bought a box of old postcards for what worked out to be 10 cents each. I haven’t done a complete survey, but most seem to be from 30 to 60 years old. Many are old hotel and motel cards; many others are destination cards. Some present an interesting subject artfully, others clearly fall into the Boring Postcards genre.
A few of them were mailed. Someone, decades ago, spent a few minutes composing a few lines to someone else far distant, stamped the thing, and dropped it in a mailbox or letter slot. The recipient presumably read it, looked at the image, and maybe even told the sender – when they met again in person – about getting the card. And that was probably that. Off to a shoebox or a drawer or somewhere and left to the vicissitudes of time.
Somehow, they were eventually among the cards that I acquired, even though none were originally sent to this part of the country. I’ve scanned four cards, all mailed in the 1950s. The first is dated and postmarked December 18, 1951, and sent it from Harlingen, Texas, addressed to Mr. & Mrs. C.L. Cahoon of Brockton, Mass.
All text sic.
12/18/51
We are already to leave Harlingen now and the car is packed to the top. As usual we brought more than we needed, but it has been fun. It has been cold here, but now is hot again. We went to Mexico Monday and thru the market district. It won’t be long now before you will see what we have purchased. Looking forward to X-mas and seeing you all and all our wedding gifts. Coming home thru the South to Sea Island Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, etc. Too much snow + ice up North for safety. Love, Mary + Warren. See you in a week.
Young newlyweds maybe? Hope they made it back for Christmas. Postage, incidentally, was 1 cent. Two weeks later, on January 1, 1952, the penny postcard would be no more, with a 100 percent rate increase to 2 cents.
After a brief not-cold spell on Saturday and Sunday – I can’t call it warm, but still not bad – it’s winter cold again. Diligent neighbors used the interlude to sting lights on their houses or finishing removing leaves from their lawns. I did no such things.
The sunset on Saturday was shot with pink and gold.
I did manage to read Fahrenheit 451 over the long weekend. Or rather re-read, because I read it when – 40 years ago? Does that even count as re-reading? I picked it up because Lilly read it for school not long ago, and asked me about the story sometimes, but I had to confess to remembering very little about it, besides colorful scenes of book burning and the idea of becoming a living book.
I understand that it’s an important work. But I’m not particularly taken with Bradbury’s writing style. Not sure what it is. Also, Bradbury was clearly afraid of the pernicious effects of dumbing down society, especially as expedited by television, and I’m not entirely persuaded. Maybe the level of stupidity is always about constant, just manifesting itself in different ways across the decades.
Here’s another interesting disk from my bag o’ cheapies: 200 Italian lira. Pre-euro, of course, and in this case 1993, and a special commemorative. Or not so special, considering that 170 million of them were made, and that they’re a aluminum-bronze combination. I’ve seen the obverse bust simply referred to as an “allegory,” so presumably that’s Italia personified.
The one to have would be the proof version, of which only 6,500 were made. In any case, the coin commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Italian Air Force (since 1946, the Aeronautica Militare Italiana, but before that the Regia Aeronautica Italiana), or maybe just military aviation in that country.
All kinds of interesting detail. But when I think of Italian military aviation, I think of Italo Balbo, who didn’t found the independent Italian Air Force, but built it up as an instrument of fascist power. Even so, he has a street named after him in downtown Chicago to this day.
Next, another sort of flying: the common swallow, or hirundo rustica. Who would put a swallow on their coins?
The newly independent Slovenia, that’s who. This is a 2 tolarja piece, and during the pre-euro period that country was fond of animals on its small coins. I see a fish, a fly, an owl, and others, all helpfully with their scientific names.
During its first year of issue,1992, the 2-tolarja piece was a brass coin with a non-proof mintage of over 5 million. The tolar used to be the country’s base unit, with tolarja as a plural. Clearly a cognate with dollar, a word that gets around.
My latest acquisition of cheap foreign coins included some Dominican pieces, such as a nickel-clad steel 25 centavo coin, featuring an ox-drawn cart. A little investigation reveals that 25 Dominican centavos isn’t much money at all — the equivalent of a little more than half a U.S. cent. Even in the Dominican Republic, I can’t believe that buys very much.
So they probably don’t circulate much any more. Presumably 25 centavos had a more purchasing power in 1991, though sometimes coins linger well beyond their strict usefulness (e.g., the U.S. cent). Some 38 million of them were minted in 1991. On the reverse — I think it’s the reverse — is the Escudo de armas de la República Dominicana, which, in case it’s hard to read, proclaims Dios, Patria, Libertad.
Also in the lot: a Dominican peso. The portrait is of Juan Pablo Duarte y Diez (1813-1876), one of the founding fathers of the Dominican Republic. 
It’s brass, and apparently about 80 million of them were minted in 2002, so it’s a very common coin.
Again with the escudo. A quick look at images of Dominican coins shows it to be a common feature, maybe even one mandated by law.
Back to posting around October 19. It’s fall break. With any luck, I might see a thing or two in the next few days worth posting about.
In a grocery store parking lot the other day, a man in rollerblades rollerbladed up to me and gave me some campaign literature from one of the candidates running for Congress in my district. I can say for sure I’d never seen anyone electioneering on rollerblades before.
The weekend was cold, but it’s warmed up since then. Yesterday, late in the day, I spied a cricket on the door to the garage, which the sun was striking directly at that moment. I’d never seen a cricket perched there before. I didn’t realize until I looked at the picture that I also caught his reflection in the door lock.
Worried about his mortality, if crickets worry about such things? October would be the time to do it. I have a feeling they don’t, but I can’t say absolutely for sure.
Come to think of it, why should the grasshopper plan and work and save up for the winter? He’s going to die anyway come winter. The ant’s just being a killjoy.
In my apartment in Osaka, I had a black rotary phone connected to the wall by a sturdy black cord. There was no way to disconnect it without damaging the cord. Even in the early 1990s, that setup was a throwback. I don’t remember my phone number any more, but maybe it was 609 3443 or 3449. The problem described below didn’t go on for long, fortunately.
October 11, 1992
Recently some business somewhere has been assigned a phone number very similar to mine. At least it doesn’t seem to be a place, like a pizza joint maybe, that gets calls every minute. Even so, someone’s got 609 3446, one misstroke on a push-button phone from connecting with me. I received about a half-dozen call for this business in the afternoon.
At first I answered the phone each time, telling the caller than he had a wrong number, after which he would invariably call back. One dim bulb called three times, even after I’d told him (in reasonably good Japanese) that he’d misdialed the last digit.
I was annoyed until I had the inspiration of holding the receiver close to my tape deck, which I’d turn up a little for the occasion. Then I started having fun with it. No one ever called back after hearing a little music. The jolt must have made them more careful of the next dialing.
From The Guardian yesterday, regarding the first U.S. Ebola patient: “Thomas Eric Duncan told a nurse at a Dallas emergency room that he had recently visited Liberia, which has been ravaged by the Ebola outbreak. But an executive at Texas Health Presbyterian hospital told a news conference that the information was not widely enough shared with the medical team treating Duncan, and he was diagnosed as suffering from a ‘low-grade common viral disease.’ ”
Just a hunch – mere speculation – but it seems entirely possible that the nurse didn’t know where the hell Liberia was. You’d think the name would be an instant red flag in that situation, but maybe not if you don’t know Liberia from Libya or Lesotho or East Jesus.
I went outside last night and noticed some intense cricketsong near the deck, which is a little unusual. I also happened to have my digital recorder in my pocket. What follows is 20 seconds of northern Illinois cricket, on October 1, 2014, at about 9 p.m. Cricket Oct 1 2014
That inspired me to record 20 seconds of the dog this morning reacting to people walking by in front of the house. She’s looking out one of the windows, and the scratching is her paws on the window sill. Dog Oct 2 2014
At about noon today, the wind was up, but it was fairly warm. I ate lunch on my deck, and listened to the wind, and recorded 20 seconds of it. Wind Oct 2 2014
A question to ponder: How can Crème Caramel Chicago’s product be so good? Ingredients: milk, eggs, sugar, cream, caramel, vanilla. That’s it. Yet in the words of Shakespeare, it’s a wow.
It’s also a product of EU Foods, though it has nothing to do with that supranational entity, I think, since it was made in Bensenville, Illinois.
Another thing to ponder: a thematic men’s room sign.
I saw it about a year ago in Dallas at the Ann & Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Museum. As I write this, the wires – quaint, that term – are burning up with news of the first U.S. Ebola case, and the honor goes to Dallas. Well, why not? Texas excels at so much else.
I doubt that we’ll get an epidemic, though. What we will get is excessive news coverage. Just another reason to avoid cable news, out in that vast wasteland. Vaster now than when I was born; a regular Sahara.
I didn’t know that Newton Minow had an honorary street sign in Chicago, but I saw it downtown last month. I’m happy to report that at 88, Mr. Minow is still alive and kicking.