Friday, November 4, 2011

A cornucopia filled with reader comments

I am overjoyed to have an abundance of reader comments to share to with everyone today!

The 29th anniversary of the first episode of St. Elsewhere: David Bianculli, a tremendous TV critic and founder/editor of TV Worth Watching, was kind enough to write: "A pleasure to read this... from someone who loves 'St. Elsewhere' as much as you do. Great job."

And Anonymous writes: "Bravo on an excellent post. But who is Bruce Greenwood?"

Bruce Greenwood is a Canadian actor who portrayed Dr. Seth Griffin on the final two seasons of St. Elsewhere. He's had a terrific career in movies that has included roles in "The Sweet Hereafter," "Capote," the 2009 "Star Trek" (as Christopher Pike), and -- in what I think is his best performance -- the terrific 2000 film "Thirteen Days," in which he portrays John F. Kennedy.

Wampole's Creo-Terpin ink blotter from Ensley, Alabama: Justin Mann of Justin's Brew Review writes: "Regarding footnote 3: While the characters are different, the blotter is actually not incorrect. In German, the special character above the 'o' is called an umlaut (oom'-lau). Sometimes it's just difficult to write it that way, especially in print (like on my Droid 'smart'phone, apparently...). So the acceptable alternate spelling permits placing an 'e' after the vowel with an umlaut. They are equivalent. Learned this during my studies of German, and I guess that it probably also applies for other languages that utilize this special character. (BTW, one of my favorite breweries that I often tout on my blog is Tröegs, which is a nickname based on their family name, Trogner. They 'improperly' utilize both an 'e' and an umlaut. Aah, what the heck, no one cares about that - their brews make up for their lack of knowledge of German grammar!)"

Thanks for the correction and insight on this, Justin!

Weekend postcards: Some wonderful corners of Europe: mshatch, who authors The Secret of the Golden Flower, Unicorn Bell and mainewords, writes: "What lovely postcards - I wonder what those places look like now?"

The postcards on this day highlighted Heidelberg Castle, Germany; Sos del Rey Católico, Spain; and St. Michael's Church in Vienna, Austria. I was able to find a picture of Sos del Rey Católico that appears to be the same street that is shown in the old postcard (although perhaps from a different angle). Here they are, side by side, with the old postcard on the left. Looks like not much has changed!


Halloween Countdown #9: Who on earth would wear this? Buffy Andrews, who blogs at Buffy's Write Zone and Buffy's World writes: "This looks like my grandma's afghan. Belongs on the back of a couch! Ouch! Seriously."

You'll have to go to the original post to see the nightmarish outfit that Buffy is talking about!

Halloween Countdown #12: Horrors from the gift guide: Justin Mann, commenting on the unfortunate boy in his underwear1, writes: "Umm, a family that reads together, stays...no, that can't be right."

And Anonymous, commenting on the Beauty Pillow Case, writes: "I think picture #2 is actually printed sideways. She's holding the pillow up while leaning against the wall. That will keep her hair in place."

Halloween Countdown #13: Pointing the finger at myself: Justin Mann, becoming a most-welcome Frequent Commenter on Papergreat, writes: "Love it! Thanks for sharing your pain, Chris. It was so big of you that I refuse to make jokes. Only one question: why do parents insist on photographing their children holding up gifts that they received? Do they wish to capture the joyous gratitude upon their sweet cherubs' countenances? 'Cause I don't know about you, but I was never overjoyed when I received underwear. Wait, I do know about you - I can see from your photo that you were one happy camper."

Halloween Countdown #14: Live Mystery Egg: Anonymous writes: "U.S. Mail was probably faster and more accurate in delivering to the right address in those days, so whatever was in those eggs probably had a good survival rate...before the air ran out."

Happy Halloween: Witches and zombies and scarecrows! Oh my! Justin Mann writes: "Not crazy about witchery, but I absolutely *love* the picture of you and Mr. Bill! What a great way to participate in the festivities! (Also, great use of 'gaggle'.)"

Finding a new job in 1973 with Spider-Man's help: Matt Bradshaw of Omega Channel writes: "I love that 'Cartoon For Money' ad. I remember very clearly sending away for that back in the early 70s. The booklet they sent was maybe 10 or 12 pages in magazine size, featuring the cartoon tale of a cartoonist who learned to make big bucks from his doodles. I was disappointed at the time to find the 'Free' book was just an advertisement for their course/books, and being 8 or so years old at the time the price they were asking was out of the question. I wish I still had that booklet and I wonder what they were actually giving out to the paying customers."

Thanks for sharing that memory, Matt!

Perfume and fairies in a 1920 issue of The Ladies' Home Journal: Mel Kolstad of Ephemeraology writes: "That Djer-Kiss ad is GORGEOUS. Thanks for sharing it with us, Chris!"

You're welcome! Originally, I had planned for that post to include multiple advertisements from the February 1920 issue of The Ladies' Home Journal. But I got so side-tracked with tangents related to Djer-Kiss that I didn't get to any other advertisements.

I can, however, share one more here today, in closing. Here is part of the advertisement for Mavis, a perfume sold by Vivaudou. It was painted by Fred L. Packer.


Footnote
1. There's a phrase you don't hear every day. Thank goodness.

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