Monthly Archives: April 2022

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News you can’t use.

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Smart phones. They’ve changed the world, and not always for the better. I readily admit I can’t live without mine, and after reading this article….

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It may be genetic.

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I can see how international travel would raise the cost of a honeymoon, but $20,000…. in the U.S.? Must be a seriously swanky resort.

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Beware my Georgian friends. Lizards be hungry.

And finally, because you know I have to include it….

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Shuck corn.

Boil corn.

Eat corn.

And I didn’t need to waste 4 years in journalism school, so there.

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Bonk. A preview….

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The next book in my marvelously bizarre Mary Roach series is Bonk.

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And I should warn you, things are going to get extremely strange. If you’re the least bit squeamish about the subject of human sexuality I suggest you skip these posts because nothing is off limits.

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I loved Stiff in all its macabre glory… and when the topic is sex, you know Mary is going to bring it. Here’s a sneak peak at some of the chapter titles.

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Scientific research features heavily throughout the book.

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Of course they did.

If you’re up (so to speak) for a fascinating in depth look at sex, I promise you’ll learn some interesting tidbits, trivia, titillating trifles, facts about men, women and the lengths (so to speak) they’ll go to in the pursuit of pleasure.

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No doubt!

🤣

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So close.

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If you’ve ever collected stamps you know what an utter nightmare it can be to determine value. There are so many variables…. color, condition, perforation count etc.

My husband never had any interest in philately until both my aunt and his uncle dumped huge collections on him a decade ago. Numerous dusty boxes and files and books cluttered our office for months as he attempted to sort, categorize and value those stamps. I tried to help, and was interested in the history…. up to a point.

The point when my husband would come running in the kitchen waving a tweezered stamp in the air like a maniac. He’d have a big smile on his face, his body positively trembling with enthusiasm. Said stamp would be shoved in my face and I would be asked, ” Is this red… or magenta?” His anticipation was palpable. Think Howard Carter about to open Tut’s tomb.

Over and over again this would happen. “Red or magenta?” “Yellow or chartreuse?” “Blue or aquamarine?” And over and over again I would correctly name the color…. I am an artist’s daughter after all…. and my husband would be crestfallen. Desolate. Disappointed beyond measure because while the red, yellow and blue stamps were common and usually worth .20- .75 cents, the magenta, chartreuse and aquamarine could be worth thousands.

Needless to say he never found the 1856 magenta British Guiana 1c ( most expensive stamp ever sold, $9.48 million ) or the the 1918 U.S. inverted Jenny… a favorite among collectors for obvious reasons.

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(That little oopsie goes for a million plus.)

But hope springs eternal, he knew he’d find a winner. And every time I’d identify the color that lost him $30,000? He’d get mad… at me! Like it was my fault lilac is not aubergine. After months of painful searching, the stamps went back in their boxes and eventually back in the cellar. Until now.

Now they’re floating back up to the living space with the rest of the crap treasure he’s been sorting through… and once again I’m called upon to be the bad guy.

Yesterday he was smiling ear to ear. He’d found a $5,000 stamp!

And while he did have a 1926 2K Czech Hradcany, what he didn’t have was the rare watermark that makes it valuable.

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And naturally, I was the evil witch who pointed it out.

He didn’t speak to me for 2 hours.

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It’s like they’re not even trying.

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While my normal reader numbers have taken a serious nosedive recently, the amount of spam accounts willing to receive my drivel filled missives expands exponentially. Every day I zap more and more of these annoying non existent bloggers.

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And while I give them an A for persistence, ( I zap two? Three come back. ) their lack of original site names is quite pathetic.

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If you’re going to clutter my follower list, at least put a little effort in to it. Geesh.

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Damn. I’d sell them my dust much cheaper..

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Yes, someone just paid half a million dollars for a few specks of dust. And while the bunnies under my bed may not be nearly as exotic, for quantity… they can’t be beaten.

Here’s the gist of the moon dust saga : In 1969 Neil Armstrong gathered moon dust in a bag, which was put in another bag for transport to earth. Apparently the government is very greedy about their dust and forbids private citizens from owning it ….so instead of handing it out as party favors, the dust bag was loaned to a space museum in Kansas.

Problem. Museum directory Max Ary was a crook who was convicted of auctioning off space artifacts in 2005. The Marshall Service seized and then auctioned some of his items much to NASA’s dismay. The woman who bought the bag of dust… for $995… figured it might be worth a bit more and shipped it to NASA for verification.

NASA refused to give it back. She took them to court and won her dust, as well as $1.8 million. But NASA had used carbon tape to pick up a few grains of the dust to test, and these were not returned… so she sued again. It’s these tiny flecks that just brought half a million.

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So please, if you have extra cash lying around and are interested in purchasing some dust? Let me know. Mine may not come from outer space but collection is not an issue.

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Random tidbits

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Have you seen this duck?

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I really hope Crystal wanders by our house at some point because seeing a woman chase after her with a net is positively screaming blog fodder.

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We ducked into a favorite pub last week for a toddy and a nosh. The pot stickers were less than spectacular, but the cranberry ginger crush was yummy.

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Sitting at the bar I saw this…

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And while the thought of peanut butter whiskey disgusts me, the delivery system has merit.

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I don’t recommend running into a moose . Our friend did years ago… his bike was totaled and he spent a month in the hospital . The moose? He sauntered off like he’d been tapped by a fly swatter.

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Answer to Name That Crap

19 Comments

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This piece of crap…

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Was used to tighten the rope on a child’s trundle bed in the late 1700’s -early 1800’s.

I know this because my husband bought that bed….

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And the tightening tool came with it. We took both pieces up to the Maine State Museum a decade ago and were told they were handmade primitives from a French Acadian area in northern Maine. The bed was deemed special due to the wheels, something not often seen.

The whole set up would have looked something like this…

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Not my picture, but you get the idea.

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