August 2020
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These very pretty pieces of china mean nothing to the world at large but they have great importance to me. When I was a boy, the only holiday that was celebrated at 539 East 9 Street was Thanksgiving. Why was it not forbidden along with all the others? The reason, I suspect, is that it…
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Some very serious contributors to film art created this almost forgotten whodunit. Deadline at Dawn was adapted from a novel by Cornell Woolrich and the screenplay was written by Clifford Odets. Cinematography was by Nicholas Musuraca and direction by Harold Clurman. That's some pretty good bloodlines. Moreover, the principal roles were played by young, sparkling…
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It's a lawn mower, or as the John Deere people like to call it, a lawn tractor. We call it a "riding mower." I've spent a thousand hours upon it and upon its used-to-death predecessor. Keeping up the lawns take just about three hours — twice a week in May and June, bi-weekly come a…
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The George Szell — Cleveland Orchestra recording of Dvorak's New World Symphony, which I purchased sometime about 1952, was the first "long playing" album that I ever owned. The record jacket illustrated above is not, I'm sorry to say, the correct one. I couldn't locate the proper image on the internet, and my…
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This is the most unusual and perhaps the most beautiful object I've ever owned. It's a rawhide or leather puppet used in traditional Siamese theatrical performances. On the reverse, it's dated 4 IX 85, or September 4, 1885, which I presume is the day the puppet was acquired (or "collected"). I purchased it from an…
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This is my favorite chair. It's made of solid oak and was constructed at the turn of the last century, possibly as early as 1880. In style, it's cross-cultural, a hybrid — part European and part pure American. The top rail, the apron and the central splat are Gothic or Renaissance Revival, though they…
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This is a picture, found on the internet, of the Underwood portable that was my dear companion for many years. I bought it for $20 in the summer of 1956 at a second-hand shop on Flatbush Avenue and I brought it with me to college. I even transported it to Vermont for many summers and…
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I own no more genuine nor no more dated an artifact than these frames. I wore them during high school, college, and for a few years afterward. They were mighty conventional, but no more than I. In retrospect, I can't say that they enhanced my manly beauty. The glasses made me, like all my contemporaries,…