Sunday, May 11, 2014

From the readers: Mystery photos, Sanka and spam, spam, spam

It's always wonderful to hear from Jim Fahringer, and, as we kick off another installment of "From the Reader," his feedback pertains to the recent post Images of America's past: Two old mystery photos:
"The soldiers look like First World War soldiers drilling. They could also be WWI era National Guard soldiers. They don't look quite like Pennsylvania National Guards.

"The second photo looks like a small rural fire house with the fire engine parked in the firehouse. The volunteer firemen are sitting on chairs in front of the firehouse. When I was a child, most firemen sat out on chairs in front of their fire departments, especially in the warm spring and hot summer. Often these firemen sat out all night on their chairs just talking and joking. The guys in the picture don't really look like they are dressed to fight a fire. Some are wearing ties. I especially like the guy on the far right. [pictured above] Could you imagine fighting a fire with a tie and black-and-white saddle shoes (although brown-and-white saddle shoes were more popular during this period)? Those saddle shoes would not be very white after fighting the first fire. Speaking of saddle shoes, I wish they would come back into style. If you search the internet, you will see that saddle shoes are beginning to make a comeback with many new color combinations. The one thing that seems to be missing in this photo is a Dalmatian dog. As kids we often stopped and talked with the firemen who sat outside the firehouse and chatted with them — they were always very friendly and seemingly appreciative of their young visitors and they always had a Dalmatian firehouse dog. Oh, I almost forgot the guy on the far left. He is wearing pure white bucks and what appears to be pure white slacks and shirt. Could you imagine fighting a fire dressed in white buck shoes, white pants and a white shirt — all that is missing is a white hat!"

Guide to Papergreat's photos of graveyards and old buildings: Sandi writes: "Love this! Old cemeteries are also one of my favorite photo ops."

Friday night's vaguely creepy vintage snapshot: Anonymous writes: "Sign says: 'Lovely new hairstyles for clients of the Guillotine'."

A nostalgic peek at a kitchen from eight decades ago: Anonymous writes: "My Grandma used to always order 'Sanka' when she was out for lunch. I believe it was one of the first decaf coffees. They always had pots of coffee and Sanka ... didn't use the work 'decaf.'"

Great links: Which movies gave you the biggest fright? Anonymous writes: "One of the scariest: The Woman in Black (original, not the one with Harry Potter) ... the ending almost gave me a heart attack."

5 awesome vintage Easter postcards (aka The Cute Chicks Gallery): Anonymous writes: "I like the lamb with the giant chicks. The little boy with the cigar is scary."

Book cover: "Best Ghost Stories of J.S. LeFanu": Paul of Freaky Folk Tales writes: "You might enjoy my blog and book of 'new' Victorian ghost tales." [Thanks for sharing, Paul!]

See these old milk caps and share your morning-delivery memories: Anonymous writes: "Our Abbotts milkman used to come early Saturday mornings, walk into the house, shout 'MILKMAN' and put our milk and whatever else we'd requested right into the fridge. We'd left our empty bottles outside of the front door with our order for how much milk, cream, and butter we needed on a note stuck between the bottles."

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A higher volume of spam comments has been sneaking past Blogger's spam filter lately. I've had to do twice-daily pruning just to stay ahead of them, these dandelions of the web.

But we can have some fun at their expense, at least. Here are some amusing (to me, anyway) snippets from some of the bot-generated spam comments that have forced their way past the sentry.

  • [My wife will appreciate this first one.] "If you point out that your body part or shell, roll up all put together to Coach Factory Outlet Coach Factory Outlet Coach Factory Outlet Coach Factory Outlet sanity, you should always be fairly expensive."
  • "Best of all, because vacuum trucks remove debris and water, is is very unlikely to further injure a victim during rescue operations."
  • "Spiders are perpetually encyclopaedism just about many techniques."
  • "This is where you'll need to think slightly outside of the box, but your favorite momma to be AND her family will be blown away by your thoughtfulness. These can adapt themselves to a hot day (think Gazpacho or chilled Borscht and a mixed vegetable salad) or a cold one (a clam chowder or a Ribollito with a warm potato salad) very easily. Some people like to write a poem from the baby's level of view or only a short, poem to say thank you. Feel free to visit my blog; fun baby shower activities"
  • "butt on the set."

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