From the readers: Bookdumping, needles and pronouncing Mousehole

The first message in today's roundup is a combination Postcrossing/Papergreat message. Through Postcrossing, I sent Cindi in the UK a postcard of the Lewis chessmen and told her about the cats and how hot it is here in Arizona. After receiving the postcard, she went to the blog and read the August 7 post Kipple 'n bytes: Thoughts on what we do and don't preserve. These are her thoughts on it all:

"Hi Chris, what a beautiful card you sent me, thank you! And you gave the temperature in C, which is helpful. The record here in England is 40.3, Alexa tells me. Poor fluffies! That can’t be fun, I’ve heard it said that paws can be burnt on hardstanding in that heat. Thanks for your blog. Re: kipple, after lessons learned after a maternal death, we decided to downsize about 8 years ago. Now we live in a small flat where we can’t accumulate. Quite often, as we only have a few bookshelves, we go ‘bookdumping’ at our local train station. It’s really fun placing books all around the place, then scuttling to the upper shopping balcony to observe who picks them up. I have also become acquainted with the concept of library books! Currently munching my way through a sandwich of Christopher Isherwood and the harder to understand (because of culturally very different references) Joan Didion."

That's definitely the kind of "bookdumping" I can get behind! So wonderful! Also, hardstanding seems like a much better and more precise word than pavement. 

From the Readers (2022 edition), plus many cats: Jarak Dekat wrote, "Oh my God, manies cats. I love it," and now I think that Oh my God, Manies Cats has taken the lead for the title of my eventual autobiography.

And Inky from the On Shoes and Ships and Sealing-Wax blog wrote: "Hooray, you're back!!! It seems you are leaning towards your own version of Millions of Cats. (I must add I've been enjoying all the pics of them on your Twitter page.)"

Regarding that: The long, long Twitter thread of daily cat pictures can be found here.

"Prinzess Victoria" and a tiny old package of sewing needles: Cat from the Cat's Wire blog wrote: "Very interesting, thank you! I just wrote a blog post about needles myself — among them Princess Victoria needles — and was amazed at all the different labels I could find for them online! My own are 'Finest silver eyed sharps' in a size 12, no country of origin and 'Princess Victoria'."

1911's "The Isle of Wight," its provenance and Joseph Sadony: Roger Allen wrote, very helpfully, "In the first inscription Blenheim could be name of a house — Mrs. Paterson's, Mrs. Mitchell's — in Newport. In local directories it may just be recorded under the street number, which would make it difficult to identify."

Cheerful Card Company can help you earn extra money for the holidays: Unknown wrote, "I sold them for years. I too am 66 and had a loyal customer base. So much so that when I stopped I had customers calling me. Only reason I stopped was when they sent out this year's kit and several weeks later sent the letter asking if you wanted them!"

The somewhat obscure "Mousehole" by Nettie Mann Pender: Roger Allen, kindly checking in again, wrote, "Mousehole — the village — is pronounced 'muzzle' or to rhyme with 'towsle'."

Thoughts on aspirational reading: Finally, Brian Busby of The Dusty Bookcase, wrote: "In the early nineties, I made a point of taking on the longest book I owned, but had not read, to bridge an old and new year. For example, I remember starting David Graham Phillips' Susan Lenox, Her Fall and Rise in December 1990, and finishing it in January 1991. Others tackled included Norman Mailer's Harlot's Ghost and The Executioner's Song. Don't know why I stopped. Dreiser's An American Tragedy beckons! Must admit, there's no form I admire more than the novella."