Saturday, July 7, 2018

Yes, sports departments still get snail mail


We still get a slow trickle of old-fashioned mail in the sports department at LNP/LancasterOnline. Most of it involves announcements of local events — running, biking, etc. — that folks would like for us to include in our free community calendar. But there's also the occasional letter.

There are, for example, still dedicated Community Copy Editors who believe it's their duty to snip our typos and mistakes from the newspaper and mail them to us with the appropriate level of admonishment.

And then there are unsolicited opinions from left field. We recently received a "Get Well" card from a reader with the following message inside, scrawled in half-inch-tall block letters:
"DEAR SPORTS COLUMNIST
I THINK THAT THE GREATEST PLAYER IN FOOTBALL WAS JOE WILLIE NAMATH OF NEW YORK JETS. HE IS A LIVING LEGEND. HE DID NOT PLAY FOR GLORY NOR MONEY."
I cannot, of course, confirm whether Broadway Joe was uninterested in glory and money. But it's great to see that he still has his passionate fans.

RIP, Steve Ditko


This is Steve Ditko's splash page to introduce the very-early Doctor Strange tale ("The House of Shadows"), which appears within Strange Tales #120 (May 1964).1

It was reported yesterday that Ditko — the Marvel artist who co-created Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and Squirrel Girl, among many others — died on June 29 in Manhattan at age 90.

Here are some Twitter reactions to Ditko's passing.















Another panel from my copy of Strange Tales #120...

Footnote
1. Doctor Strange made his comics debut in Strange Tales #110 in July 1963. Strange Tales #120 marked his ninth appearance.

Saturday's postcard: Clara's
rainy-day message from 1920


The postcard was published by the Acmegraph Company1 of Chicago, which was only in business from 1908 to 1918, according to MetroPostcard.com. It was postmarked in Pasadena, California, on March 1, 1920, and mailed with a green, one-cent George Washington stamp.2

It appears to be marked as Number 11389, and the caption on the front states: "AMONG THE LIVE OAK BRANCHES, PASADENA, CAL."

The postcard was mailed to Mr. D.B. Stone in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. The short Leap Day message, written in cursive and pencil, states:
Feb. 29/20
Dear Bru. & Family,
This has been a very rainy day. Ezra is not feeling very good today, the rest are well.
Clara
I found a reference in the October 26, 1946, edition of the The (Huntingdon) Daily News to Daniel B. Stone and his wife Alice (nee Alice J. Robinette) celebrating their 43rd wedding anniversary. They were members of the Church of the Brethren, and Daniel Stone belonged to the Knights of Pythias.


Footnotes
1. That's where Wile E. Coyote got all his postcards.
2. Also in March 1920, President of Mexico Venustiano Carranza departed this mortal coil and "Dennis the Menace" cartoonist Hank Ketcham entered it.