From the readers: Toys of yesteryear, Earle Cook Jr. and liminal spaces

It's ridiculously already 100 degrees outside, so it's a good day to try to type up a post while Bandit sleeps between my arms and Mommy Orange gives my right arm a bath. Here are some reader comments that have come in since early February:

Can we have a national discussion about this vintage toy advertisement? Anonymous writes: "The floor is lava. This is why the guy needs rescuing by a lift cage. Big Josh has pecs. But so did my Big Jim's roommate, GI Joe, with a taped-on leg. He was a Vietnam vet, but still highly deadly and capable."

Never underestimate the capabilities of an action figure and an awesome imagination.

A long-gone motor inn, longer-gone ancestors and a sketch: Anonymous writes: "I remember [Framingham Motor Inn in Framingham, Massachusetts] fondly. My now hubby of 50+ years and I had our 1st upscale date there."

Book cover: "The Second Hammer Horror Film Omnibus" (1967): Anonymous writes: "Five shillings was a pretty high price for a paperback in the UK in 1967. You could buy new paperbacks for 2/6, half that price. Probably first publication, royalties to Hammer and film script-writers, and Burke's own fees helped put the price up."

Thanks for the insight! 

Old postcard: "The World's Most Famous Chicken Dish": Anonymous writes: "My family dined frequently at MD's Chicken in the Rough in New Market, Virginia. As a child, the warm rolls and honey were my favorite. The chicken platters were generous and mounded high with shoestring potatoes. I believe MD's burned in the early 1980s. It is sorely missed!!"

Thank you for sharing that memory, and I'm very sorry to hear about the restaurant's fate.

Unfortunate apparel of 1980: The official Star Trek duty jacket: Anonymous writes: "I still have the LED jacket. The silver is flaking off but the LEDs still work."

Realms of the uncanny: Dreamcore, backrooms & liminal spaces: Anonymous writes: "Hmmm, it seems like this dreamcore and liminal space isn't ... imaginal enough. But I appreciate the pictures you already have. Keep doing what you're doing!!!"

Thanks! I'll have to wrangle up another post of my photos this summer.

Luckyday buttons — the talk of the town: Two replies on this 2015 post!

Anonymous #1 writes: "I have a half a card with a red head in a yellow sun hat and red ribbon around it. They must have been known for putting different models on the cards!"

And Anonymous #2 writes: "I have a 2.5" x 3.75" card with 3 of 6 remaining white baby buttons 1/4-inch wide, states size 12. Baby sitting in left upper corner wearing a blue hooded cape over white dress, shoes and socks. Card color is pale pink. Price imprinted in right lower corner is 5 cents."

A postcard of Earle W. Cook's house, for some reason: Anonymous writes: "Earle W. Cook Sr., the senator, was my great uncle. My grandmother had this postcard and I saw it in the mid 1960s. This house was torn down later in the 1960s to make way for the construction of Interstate 40 through Kingman, Arizona. Earle Cook Jr. died May 12, 1981, in northern California. The family, including me, to this day still believe Earle Jr. was innocent."

I appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment and for providing these additional details. It's was certainly a strange, strange case, involving a bomb on a jetliner.

1938 holiday postcard from Leinhardt Bros. of York: Anonymous writes: "I have a dresser made by Thomasville Chair Company in NC (the name changed in 1961 to Thomasville Furniture). The paper tag stapled on the back of this beautiful mahogany chest of 4 drawers had 'Leinhardt Bros York, Pennsylvania' typed on it. The piece was probably manufactured in the 40's. Just guessing by the style. Anyway, it ended up in Florida!"

Postcard of vanished attraction:

Ed's Ghost Town in Indiana: Beth Michael-Chasse writes: "Ed’s was an awesome place and we loved stopping there when we were kids. Dad would usually stop on our way from Shelbyville to Chrisney to visit our grandparents. Ed’s was located about halfway between the two towns, making it a great place for a break. The time or two he didn’t stop saw us crying with disappointment and in dire need of a restroom stop. My favorite things to look at were the shells and rocks, the puzzles in the toy section and of course we had to get some of their stick candy. The many signs along the road informing us we were getting closer to Ed’s were each read aloud with growing excitement. We were so ready to get out of the hot car and hunt through souvenirs and interesting odds and ends. When the interstate was finished, we never saw Ed’s again. That was such a huge disappointment for us. We sometimes talk about Ed’s and we enjoy those nostalgic trips down our memory’s lane. I wish I could go back just once more."

Thanks for sharing these wonderful memories, Beth! And thanks again to everyone who commented.

If only we knew then what we know now...

On November 3, 1990 — 34 years and 5 months ago — I was a second-year student at Penn State University, learning the ropes of journalism and calling all of my sources via landlines. 

Also on that date, the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal published this short editorial about AT&T's new SmartPhone. Looking back, it's quite the curiosity...

Peeking inside 1916's "The Overall Boys in Switzerland"

Eulalie Osgood Grover (1873-1958) was a Minnesota-born author, primarily of children's books, who was best known for the "Sunbonnet Babies" series, according to an article by Barbara White on the Winter Park (Florida) Public Library website. The "Sunbonnet Babies" books were primers designed to build younger readers' vocabulary. They were informed, in part, by Grover's travels throughout Europe.

The "Sunbonnet Babies" did not, however, originate with Grover. They started with illustrator Bertha Corbett Melcher (1872-1950), who began drawing them in 1897 and published her first book, The Sun-Bonnet Babies, in 1900. After that, the subsequent books (about eight of them) were written by Grover and illustrated by Corbett.

Due to the success of the "Sunbonnet Babies," Melcher and Grover devised a second series of primers following exploits of young boys. Thus were born "The Overall Boys." And that brings us to today's book, The Overall Boys in Switzerland, which was published in 1916 by Rand McNally. It's a gorgeous and sturdy book, well-built to withstand being passed around the schoolhouse and passed down to younger siblings. 

Of course, to get to Switzerland you must travel through other areas of Europe, and the book documents that part of the Overall Boys' trip, too. It starts along the River Rhine before they arrive in Bern ("The Bear City"). And that launches adventures with chapter titles such as "Above the Clouds," "On Mount Rigi," "Shopping in Lucerne," "Saturday Evening on Lake Lucerne," "Over and Through the Mountains," "The Herdsman's Cabin," "A Summer Blizzard," and more. They encounter the legend of the Mouse Tower, the Fountain of the Child-Eater and other grim aspects of Europe's history. This children's book is pulling very few punches. 

The whole book is fascinating, and amusing at times. Here is just a small sampling of passages:

"Look!" shouted Joe. "I see the first castle! We are sailing right up beside it. I wonder if a really, truly King and Queen are living in it."

"Of course," said Jack, "unless they have been killed and their castle turned into a prison or museum."

"Do you suppose it has a dark dungeon under it?" asked Joe. "How I should like to see a real dungeon!"

***

Suddenly somebody screamed, and then somebody else screamed. The little boats began to hurry and scurry in every direction. It looked as if all the Chinese lanterns had gone crazy. Everybody's eyes were turned toward the sky, for up there, right above them, was a fire balloon. The fire had caught in the top of the balloon, and it was all ablaze. Now this blazing balloon was falling straight down, down, down, toward the little boats on the lake. Of course the boats were scurrying to get out of the way, and of course the people screamed. Each thought that the burning balloon would surely fall right into his boat, but it did not. It fell hissing and sputtering into the dark waters, right where the boats had been only a few moments before.

***

The boys bought a number of things to take back to America with them, and they bought a dozen or more post cards to send to their friends. The very prettiest of these cards were sent to their own little brothers, Tim and Ted, and to the Sunbonnet Babies.

***

But the boys liked best the carved wood shops. Sometimes they saw boys, not much older than themselves, carving jumping-jacks and bears and queer little dwarf men out of blocks of pear wood. ... The Overall Boys coaxed their father to buy a fine carved bear to take home with them. The bear was as tall as Joe.

I'm not the only one still reading the book in modern times. A Goodreads reviewer wrote this in 2020: "Years ago my grandma had to sell her house and move to assisted living. She passed many of her children's books to me. This book belonged to my uncle when he was young. ...  I enjoyed this book and also enjoyed learning what appealed to my uncle when he was a boy. I know Switzerland is a far different country today than it was when this book was written, but this book made me want to visit the country and have my own adventures there."

Here's a gallery of some additional images from my copy of The Overall Boys in Switzerland...

And here's a rare shot of Venus (the orange cat on the right). He's the only cat in the house who won't let me pet him, unless I've come upon him when he's sleepy and cornered. He's sitting here with his cousin Dusty.

Saturday Shelfie

Madeline Brandeis revisited

I had almost forgotten that I wrote about some of Madeline Brandeis' books ten years ago. I guess that's par for the course for my brain, which has been turned to oatmeal by current events, these days.

I thought I had just this week learned that the children's author was also a director, taking the helm of 1918's silent fairy tale film The Star Prince. But I guess I had known that, too, as I wrote in 2015: "In her amazing and too-short life, she was also a pioneer filmmaker. You can read about those efforts at the Women Film Pioneers Project." You can also read about Brandeis' The Star Prince in this review from one of my favorite film bloggers, Movies Silently. That review notes: "The story is heavily influenced by fairy tales and there are bad aspects to that as well as good. Equating beauty with goodness is not such a great lesson, nor is making the main villain a dwarf. I think Brandeis’s heart was in the right place but some of the decisions do not exactly work."

Anyway, I was reading up (refreshing my memory) about Brandeis because I'm selling some of her books on eBay as part of Resimplify Me. It's a small collection that includes volumes from her Children of All Lands and Children of America series for younger readers. Hopefully they will make nice additions to someone's collection.

As part of putting that listing together, I came across these neat old inscriptions in a few of the Brandeis books, which I'll share here for posterity...

Above: Inscription inside The Little Dutch Tulip Girls

Above: Inscription inside Little Rose of the Mesa.

Above: Inscription inside Little John of New England.

Psychedelic book cover: "Tongues of the Moon"

• Title: Tongues of the Moon
• Additional cover text: "A plot to set the stars on fire ... chilling science fiction"
• Author: Philip José Farmer (1918-2009)
• Cover illustration: Unknown!! It would be really nice to sleuth this one out, so the groovy artist can be acknowledged for the record.
• Publisher: Pyramid Books (T2260)
• Year of this edition: Second printing, July 1970
• Original publication date: 1964 (also by Pyramid Books, with a different cover)
• Pages: 143
• Format: Paperback
• Cover price: 75 cents
• Back cover excerpt: "This is Science Fiction — but — perhaps less Fiction than Science ... Man's fate has always been to play deadly games with the enormous forces of the universe ... tempting doom. And now it may be too late ..."
• Grim opening passage: Fireflies on the dark meadow of Earth ... The men and women looking up through the dome in the center of the crater of Eratosthenes were too stunned to cry out, and some did not understand all at once the meaning of those pinpoints on the shadowy face of the new Earth, the lights blossoming outwards, then dying. So bright they could be seeen through the cloudmasses covering a large part of Europe. So bright they could be located as London, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, Leningrade, Rome, Reykjavik, Athens, Cairo ... Then, a flare near Moscow that spread out and out and out. ...
• Excerpt #2: Earth, dark now, except for steady glares here and there, forest fires and cities, probably, which would burn for days. Perhaps weeks. Then, when the fires died out, the embers cooled, no more fire. No more vegetation, no more animals, no more human beings. Not for centuries.
• Excerpt #3: "He'd have to be a raving maniac to do that!" said Broward. "He's a maniac all right, but he knows what he's doing and how to do it," said Scone.
• Excerpt #4: Broward patted her back and said, "I know, sweetheart. Try to forget what's happened, think of it as a nightmare. Now we're awake and in a world that needs to be gardened and needs love as never before." 
• Rating on Amazon: 3.6 stars (out of 5). 
• Rating on Goodreads: 2.97 stars (out of 5). 
• Goodreads review #1: In 2023, Jim wrote:  "One of PJF's earlier books, from 1964, and not one of his better books, but still of interest. In this one, Earth is destroyed in a nuclear war — but the war is not over. There were Earth colonies on the Moon and Mars, and led by power-mad dictators, are going to continue the war. Our hero, Broward, is one man who wants to stop the fighting ... and killing. Farmer has a rather cynical view of human nature — much like Mark Twain. However, in this story, he gives us a hero who has the courage to stand up against the insanity of war."
• Goodreads review #2: In 2019, Dave wrote: "Awful! Lol. I was hoping for a little cheesy sci-fi but this was terrible! No chapters, just one long run on story with weak one dimensional characters. Unbearable. I pity the Little Free Library that will house this. Not only will it cheapen the company of the other books where it resides, but some poor soul may choose it thinking it a small hidden masterpiece. Only when they reach home and crack it open will they realize their fate. I can’t even bear to stash it during daylight; one night, soon, I’ll be off to some darkened street to hide this poor mistake of a story."
• That's really harsh: Agreed. There's no need to disparage books that are placed in Little Free Libraries. Let readers explore and decide for themselves. A much more in-depth and thoughtful review of the strengths and weakness of Tongues of the Moon can be found in this 2022 post on MPorcius Fiction Log, which has been going strong since 2013 and already has 42 posts (!) this year. MPorcius writes: "I like the broad outlines of the plot of Tongues of the Moon, and its themes and ideas.  All the Biblical references and the theme of an atheist acquiring faith are a good change of pace from the references to Greek and Norse mythology and to Shakespeare, and the insistence that religion is a scam, that is the norm in the science fiction I generally read. ... There is a lot of talk about culture and ethnicity in Tongues of the Moon, and while it seems Farmer admires all the various people of Earth, and the whole point of the book is that we should all get along, some of his depictions might be considered uncomfortably stereotypical." 
• Related headlines from this morning, 61 years after the novel's publication: Trump says he’s "angry" at Putin’s remark questioning Zelensky’s legitimacy: The president said he would mull secondary tariffs on Russian oil if Putin stalls the peace process with Ukraine ... and ... Elon Musk’s Mission to Take Over NASA — and Mars (Musk & government officials have discussed a scenario in which SpaceX would give up its moon-focused Artemis contracts to free up funds for Mars-related projects) ... and ... Nuclear risk from military AI prompts calls for US, China and others to seek agreement

Stripe and Bandit are checking out the grooviness.

1910 letter inside "Legends & Tales of Old Munich"

This letter, dated May 27, 1910, in Munich, was typed and placed inside a gift copy of Legends & Tales of Old Munich, told by Franz Trautmann (1813-1887) and translated by Amelia Curtis Stahl. 

The letter states: 

"To one who knows, loves, and embellishes the ancient, historic, and beautiful City round which the legends therein contained cluster, THIS BOOK is offered, for her gracious acceptance, by Her sincere friend,"

The last name on the signature looks like Soltau.

As to the recipient, it may be the name written on the title page (see below). I can't figure out the first letter, so it could be Meülholtz or Neülholtz or Heülholtz, or ... 

But none of those is a common German last name, so I'm clearly misinterpreting the century-old German cursive. If we toss out the first "L," the most likely name would be Neüholtz. Anyone wish to weigh in?

The chapter titles include: Concerning the Origin of the City of Munich, The Cross in the Wieskapelle, The Little Faust Tower at Sendling Gate, Dragon Corner on the Market-Place, The Spoon Landlord behind the Rathhaus, The Black Footprint under the Organ of Unser Franen, The Monkey on St. Laurenz, The Hunger Bell in Theatine Monastery and the Theatine Clock, and Concerning Ghosts and Apparitions in Munich. 

There are no online reviews of this 1910 book, but, just last summer, Lunte Books in Eugene, Oregon, did a 23-minute examination of the book on its YouTube channel. Very cool and valuable for the historic record! 

A commenter on the video states: "Now this is the kind of travel book that I truly enjoy — To learn about a country's culture, and not just see sites or read descriptions of buildings — This fuller picture makes the destination much more compelling. Thanks for discussing this book, and for giving so many fascinating details."

Phillies Opening Day 2025

It's Opening Day for Major League Baseball, but it's hard to get truly excited at this moment, given the unsettling nature of how things are unfolding in the United States, on multiple fronts.¹  But I'll be a trouper and take a swing at it.

Sitting atop the desk in my bedroom were these old Philadelphia Phillies media guides, which may or may not end up on eBay (they wouldn't fetch much). 

Media guides were incredible handy for sportswriters back in the days before the internet began to fill up with our accumulated human knowledge and history (now being replaced by our accumulated misinformation, disinformation, AI garbage and alternative history).

Decades-old media guide sell for a couple dollars apiece, usually in bulk lots. Folks mostly don't want them, and they'd rather have other things taking up shelf space. I get it. They're no different than old encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, atlases, etc. Curiosities that add to clutter. I reckon that, in my case, one or two aren't a huge space commitment, though.

Here are some images from inside these guides (from 1981 and 1988).

The Phillies open their 2025 season against the Washington Nationals this afternoon. One thing I do like about Arizona is getting Phillies games earlier in the day (three-hour time difference). It's especially nice with weekend afternoon games, which may start at 10 a.m. my time and be over before lunch, leaving the rest of the day open.

The Phillies' lineup today will be:

SS Trea Turner

1B Bryce Harper

3B Alec Bohm

DH Kyle Schwarber

C J.T. Realmuto

LF Max Kepler

RF Nick Castellanos

2B Bryson Stott

CF Brandon Marsh

SP Zack Wheeler

They have a very good team this year. I'm more optimistic than the average Philadelphia sports fan, who thinks the Phillies should have gutted the team after losing to the New York Mets last October. I guess I can be bold like John Doll 96 years ago and make some predictions for the upcoming season:

DIVISION WINNERS:

AL East: Baltimore

AL Central: Detroit

AL West: Texas

NL East: Philadelphia

NL Central: Chicago

NL West: Los Angeles

WILD CARDS:

AL: New York, Boston, Cleveland

NL: Atlanta, New York, Milwaukee

AL Pennant: Baltimore over New York

NL Pennant: Los Angeles over Philadelphia

World Series: Los Angeles over Baltimore

Not exactly going out on a limb there, of course.

Maybe, in a weird way, it will be nice to have a predictable summer on the baseball diamonds across the United States, when much else is in disarray and despair. Then, this autumn, we'll have One Battle After Another.

Some previous baseball posts

• A neat piece of Phillies history (1970 hex sign giveaway)
• John Doll's 1929 baseball predictions
• Down memory lane with 1983 Topps Baseball Sticker Album
• Collection of Phillies ticket stubs
• Baseball-themed advertisements from a 1953 Phillies scorecard
• Inside the 1973 Spartanburg Phillies program
• Some Phillies Fever from the Bicentennial summer of 1976
• It's been five years since Harry Kalas, the Voice of the Phillies, died [2014]
• Steve Jeltz's greatest day (Phillies 15, Pirates 11)
• Connie Mack has some advice for the 2013 Philadelphia Phillies
• For Opening Day, great Phillies hairstyles of the late 1970s
• Ches Crist, baseball player
• It's Opening Day! Do you have Phillies Phever?
• Philadelphia Phillies spring training photos from March 1984
• 1959 Fleer baseball card showing the "Ted Williams Shift"
• Baseball program ads for Coca-Cola and Hires
• An all-star lineup of Camel smokers from 1954
• Postcard: The haunted hotel that spooks Bryce Harper

Grim footnote

1. For example:

• Charlotte Clymer: "If you think what happened to Rumeysa Ozturk can't happen to you because you're a citizen and she's not, you are sorely mistaken. Ozturk was snatched off the street not for being a national security threat but for having a wrong opinion. If we don't put a stop to this, it's coming for all of us."
• Gillian Branstetter: "No matter your station in life, there is astoundingly little separating you from those men in that cage behind Kristi Noem. No charges, no attorneys, no hearings, no trial. Just conjecture and brute force could be enough to justify completely dehumanizing you, too."
• Erin Reed: "It’s not just trans and gender nonconforming people who should be worried — most every marginalized group will be impacted by this measure, as well as huge impacts on married women."
• Prem Thakker: "So the position of the Trump-Vance administration — and every member of Congress unless they explicitly say otherwise — is quite literally you do not have guaranteed free speech rights in America if you say things they don't like. That is the headline."
• Andrea Pitzer: "As long as thugs in hoodies can disappear people from our streets, we do not have a functioning democracy."