Potluck Friday: Harlequins, a hotel and a summer sweepstakes

Can you dig it? Let's travel back in time to the 1970s for a quick assortment of books and ephemera.

Scenes from the Palmer House of Chicago

Here are some totally tubular snaps from a 1979 brochure for the Palmer House of Chicago. You know you're jealous of the outfits and the interior decorating.

1977 Summer Sweepstakes

Here's a big-money raffle ticket offered in the summer of 1977 to help raise money for the former Corpus Christi Abbey in Sandia, Texas. The Benedictine abbey eventually changed hands in 2005, when it was purchased by the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States and became St. Mary & St. Moses Abbey. No word on whether they still have raffles.

A trio of Harlequin romances

Does anyone want a bunch of paperback romances from the 1970s? Please let me know, because I have a bunch. It seems that doctor-nurse story lines were popular during this time, as evidenced by these covers:

From the back cover blurb: "Mary McEwan was the quiet one and unlike Marty, her twin sister, she wasn't supposed to have adventures. But Doctor John Smith's attentions brought her out of her shell. Her heart rebelled when she believed that the doctor regarded her only as an entity in his special research on twins. She was through with being a guinea pig!"

Here's the cover of "The Hand of Fate" -- not to be confused with "Manos: The Hands of Fate."

This is a romance?!? The way Doctor Mark Rylie is putting those gloves on makes this look more like a Thomas Harris novel.