Friday, May 25, 2007

Unidentified Baseball Player

I was perusing ebay and came across this auction. It is described as a cabinet photo of a 1900's baseball player. The photo mount is labeled "Blair and Webber Plattsburg". Don't know if it is Plattsburgh, NY or Plattsburg, MO. Here are the photos. It is not my intent to 'steal' these from the seller, I just didn't want them to get lost to the ether when the auction goes away.



Edit - for those of you who don't like to read the comments, I've been informed that the location is NY. Blair and Webber still has a studio on Peru Street in Plattsburgh.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Bookmark this

I like to read books. Sometimes magazines or newspapers, but mostly books. I try to read some every day. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Currently I'm reading (among other titles) Elliott Roosevelt's The President's Man and Elfrida Lang's The History of Trinity Evangelical and Reformed Church. Gripping stuff. To keep my place, I use bookmarks. Sometimes they are the dust jacket slipped over the cover between the pages. Sometimes, I'll grab a baseball card, or a business card. Sometimes I'll just remember what page I'm on. Apparently, other people use stranger things.

I've run across an interesting essay about bookmarks from The Believer website. Simon Quicke has a blog about books and such. Some of his posts are about bookmarks. Although not bookmarks specifically, there is a wonderful blog called Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie. Lots of images. Let them load.

Enjoy books, not only for the words that they contain, but also for the family and friends that gave them to you or suggested that you read them. Remember that teacher you had in school, how he or she encouraged you to read. Delight when your children pick up a book. Delight even more when they carry it to you and say, "Daddy read." Read for knowledge. Read for pleasure. Read to take your mind off the pressing issues of the day. Escape into a different world for an hour. You'll be the better for it.



Friday, May 04, 2007

Noshville

NOTE: original text has been edited and photos added.

So, since this is now an edited version, I can get it to look better and tell you what we ate and why we like Noshville.

Angie and I are in the greater Nashville area for the Tennessee State Down syndrome Conference. We are representing the Down Syndrome Awareness Group of East Tennessee. For dinner we went to one of our favorite Nashville restaurants, Noshville. Since pictures are worth a thousand words and I'm tired, here are some photos. And no, we didn't eat any desert.

In 2004, Caroline had to go to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital for heart surgery. It was a very long three weeks. Angie spent most of her time with Caroline. I, being the lover of all things medical, spent much of my time away from the hospital, but did come up to see them every few hours or so. That's a story for another time. When you're in Nashville for three weeks, and you want to stay close to your daughter, you eat at the Subway in the hospital food court. While staying at the Ronald McDonald House, you eat spaghetti for the third time that week. Then you find a pizza joint down the street. Then KFC looks good at 11pm. Then you venture out and find a Turkish restaurant with rose jelly. Then you find Noshville.

I think, in reality, that Angie had found this place before I went out in search of food. She took me to it. Actually, I think that the night that I drove over with my folks and Edison, there were many people that took me to it. During our stay, we went to it with Debbie and Nancy, two women from our church small group that came over to visit. What I remember from when they came over was the fluorescent green garlic dill pickles that they serve up, like bread sticks, almost. I think that I tried one that day. Just to say that I did it. I don't remember. Dill and I don't go together. They gather the pickles from a big tub and what you don't eat, goes back in. Yum.
This night, Angie had the Reuben and I had a BLT. My sandwich must have had a 1/2 pound of bacon. I couldn't finish it. I had the chocolate malt (see above). That I did finish.


The fries are wonderful. Just enough crisp to bite into and just enough mush to feel good. Very tasty.

One other time that we went there, we saw Jackie Mason. Yeah, Harry Hartounian from "The Jerk." He was in town doing his act. If it's good enough for Jackie...

Their deserts are wonderful. Normally they have cheesecake from some deli in New York City. They didn't have them while we were there. Very good, though. We had some when we went back for Caroline's post surgery visit. I walked over to Noshville. Angie got a Reuben. I got a tuna salad sandwich. And cheesecake.

So, enough about the food, already. When you visit Nashville, you must go to Noshville.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

The funniest people I know

We all like to laugh. Some of the people that make me laugh are Bob Newhart, David Letterman, Joel Hodgson, among others. But I don't know them. I like to watch or listen to them, but I don't know them.

So, who are the people that I do know that make me laugh? In no particular order ...
  1. Don White - accordionist / entertainer
  2. Doug White - Don's youngest son / piano tuning school friend / musician / tech geek
  3. Tim Berry - marketing bigwig for major theme park in the south
  4. Tim Mize - high school friend / dialysis technician
  5. Karl Allen - former co-worker / programmer
  6. Dan Marchant - high school friend and college roommate / programmer
These are all guys that have made me laugh. And still do. I think back on experiences that I've had with them, jokes they've told, things we've done together. Even though it has been almost thirty years since I met some of them, I still laugh.

Thanks for the fun.