Welcome, Quinton!

Bonnie and I are grandparents! Quinton Thomas Dale was born on December 2nd to our daughter, Heather, and her husband, Josh.

Quinton weighed in at 5 pounds, 15 ounces. He and his mom are doing fine. Bonnie and I were fortunate to visit Quinton just a few hours after he was born. We took our video camera to capture the happy occasion. These pictures are frames from the videos.

Naturally, Bonnie and I are anxious to help Heather as much as we can. She is very busy these days.

Quinton has his own web site: http://www.quintondale.com/

Farewell, Lucy Dear

Lucy

(Sept. 19, 2003 - Dec. 12, 2008)

Bonnie and I said goodbye to Lucy for the last time today.

For about a month now, Lucy was battling cancerous mast cell tumors on her liver and spleen. Steroids mitigated the symptoms some, but chemotherapy apparently had little effect on the tumors. It got to the point where the discomfort was making life miserable for her, so we put her to sleep today.

Bogie, now 14 years old, is still with us and faring well considering all he has been through and his progressive arthritis. And, of course, we have little Jazz, our bouncy red puppy, too.

But we are sad to see Lucy pass at the relatively young age of 5 years. She was lively and lovely. We will miss her very much.

Sunsets

Few sights are as familiar, and at the same time as emotional, as an evening sunset. The anxieties of the nastiest days can be calmed and forgotten during a few minutes of relaxed contemplation as you watch the sun slide below the horizon.

My nephew, Greg, sent me a lovely picture of a recent sunset in Key Largo, Florida.

I immediately remembered a very different sunset that I photographed from my patio in 2006, and sent it to him. If you look closely, you can see the evening star, Venus, near the center about 1/4 of the way down from the top.

Each of these vastly different settings brings a wonderful feeling of peace and tranquility.

Fire!

We have one!

Yorba Linda made the national news Saturday, when a fire came blowing in from Corona. The media eventually named it the Freeway Complex Fire. It has burned 23,722 acres of land and destroyed or damaged 211 homes.

The burn area came within about 5 or 6 miles of the Poochie Williamson residence. That's just a little too close for comfort. We were not asked to evacuate our home, but on Saturday, it looked like we might have to go. The place looked like a scene from operation Desert Storm. We could see flames to the east, and a red halo of flames to the north. The smoke was so thick it nearly blotted out the afternoon sun. What little light we had was an eerie brownish yellow color.

We packed up 3 car loads of paintings, prints, collectables, photographs, prescriptions and vitamins, dog food, leashes, clothing, etc. Sometimes there were hard choices between 'take it' and 'leave it.' Heather & Josh took one car load for us, Amber and Ron took a second, and I put the rest of the stuff in our Maxima. I saw several other families in the neighborhood packing too, but many did not bother to. We knew, though, that if things got bad we could be on the road in a few minutes and many of the most treasured and irreplaceable of our possessions would be safe in nearby Fullerton.

Bonnie and I alternated shifts during the night watching the TV coverage for word of any change.

But we did not have to evacuate. The wind shifted Sunday morning, and the fire headed way north and west of us. Our skies were sunny and clear nearly all day. I unloaded the Maxima Sunday afternoon. The evacuation orders for Yorba Linda were lifted Sunday evening. Heather and Amber brought our stuff back today, and Bonnie and I have nearly everything put back in place.

The fire is about 30% "contained," but is still burning. I expect it will take the firefighters a week or more to extinguish it.

Packing and unpacking the valuables was an ordeal, but when we hear how much was lost by those who had to leave in a hurry we are glad we did it.

New Buttons, Old Designs

We who collect campaign buttons are busy this year, gathering Obama and McCain pins for our collections. The big difference these days is that the buttons are larger, anywhere from 2 1/2 inches in diameter to 3 1/2 inches or even larger. Large buttons were made in the "golden age" of buttons (1896-1916), but they are less common than the 1 1/4 inch and 7/8 diameter buttons.

Generally the graphics on buttons from the "golden age" are more colorful and better executed than on the buttons from the 1920's forward. Variations on the red, white, and blue stripe pattern became a common standard for many years. The 2008 campaign items have a lot of color and many attractive new designs. Some button makers, though, have reverted to the designs that were so popular during the golden age. As examples, I have posted pictures of two buttons from the 2008 campaign, and two from the 1904 (Theodore Roosevelt vs. Alton B. Parker) campaign.

The older ones are smaller, of course. Also, note that both of the 2008 buttons contain the candidates' names. In 1904, names appear only on the pin for Alton Parker and Henry Davis. Everyone recognized Theodore Roosevelt's image. Personally, I like the sharpness and refinement of the 1904 pins. But the 2008 buttons make their statements loud and clear. And the candidates smile for the portraits!

Henderson for President

On occasion a collector of political badges will encounter an item that is puzzling. One such item is the Henderson for President badge. I first saw it in 1968, when a lot of reproductions and fantasy badges were being produced. I wondered what the origin of the badge was, but I bought it and kept it, hoping that I would some day learn the story behind it.

Nearly 40 years later, the personal computer and the internet would help me find the facts behind the Henderson badge. It is indeed an authentic campaign item. It was about 20 years old when I first found it.


Leon Henderson (1895-1986, b. Millville, NJ.) was an economist and an official of the Russell Sage Foundation (1925-34). Henderson held several posts as economic adviser in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt before his appointment to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1939. Henderson was the first director of the Office of Price Administration (1941 -42). He played an important role in inspiring the country's massive economic mobilization for World War II and wielded enormous power as overseer of Government rationing and price ceilings. After leaving the OPA, he followed a career in business. He was a Democratic presidential hopeful in 1948.


I decided to post the information on my blog, and make it available to other collectors who may be asking my question.

Earthquake!

We just had one.

The TV news says it was a 5.8, centered near Chino, just a few miles from my home. As far as I can see, we have no damage to our house. I do have a lot of pictures on the walls to straighten. There was a small aftershock a few minutes later.

It was a first for our little puppy, Jazz, I looked for her right after the shake, and found her in my bathroom. She is totally confused, of course. Bogie and Lucy seem to have taken it in stride. They are begging for their lunch. I guess I should feed them, then straighten some pictures.

Bogie Is Home

Bogie came home from the hospital this afternoon. When the vet removed the sting ray chew from his esophagus, she also attempted to insert a catheter in his right leg. Unfortunately she nicked a vein in the attempt, so his leg has a bandage on it. They put one of those plastic cones on him to keep him from licking the leg or chewing on it. It looked really ugly, and limited his peripheral vision. So we exchanged it for a cloth one. Bogie will be looking like a clown for the next week or so.

We have trashed all of those "edible" chews. It was an upsetting and costly lesson to learn. At least he will be ok from now on.

Period of adjustment

Bonnie and I are so excited about our new family member, Jazz, that we decided to catch her puppyhood with a camcorder. So as Jazz, Lucy, and Bogie go through that period of adjustment to each other, I am trying to adust to making home videos with the new toy we just bought. This is my first attempt to capture their period of adjusment:

Jazz and Lucy are, of course, slowly warming up to each other. They are playing much more enthusiastically now, just a couple of days after I made the video. Bogie is accepting it all, or perhaps tolerating it--he's more than a little past the puppy play stage.

A Real Survivor

Bogie is almost 14 years old. Since the average life of a Shar pei is about 10 years, that is impressive.

But Bonnie and I wonder that he has made it this far. He has had at least 4 narrow escapes so far: One day we came home to find that he had swallowed a handful of Bonnies presription pills for high blood pressure. Vets at the emergency room induced vomiting, and he came out just fine. Then, he had an attack of "the bloat," in which his stomach virtually tied a knot in itself. Emergency surgery fixed that, and he again recovered just fine. Not too long ago he started to choke on a piece of rawhide chew--Bonnie's quick application of the Heimlich maneuver saved him. Today, he was chewing on a large piece of dried sting ray tail and, of course, tried to swallow it. The Heimlich did not work; we rushed him to the emergency vet, who extracted it. So Bogie survived again. We are, of course, relieved and thankful. Bogie survives to continue a long and happy existence.

Bonnie and I have learned our lesson, though. Chewing is the natural precoursor to swallowing. Swallowing is the natural consequence of chewing. You cannot count on a dog to reduce a piece of rawhide, or anything else to a digestable size before he tries to swallow it. So all of the 'edible' chew toys are now banished from our house. Other dog owners would be wise to follow the same course of action.

Welcome, Jazz!

The Poochie Williamson clan has a new Member. Her name is Jazz.

Jazz was born on May 18, 2008. On July 13, she left her home in Charlotte, NC, to join us in Yorba Linda. She is as loveable as she looks, and she is getting along well with the other members of the pack, Bogie and Lucy.

Bonnie and I are not getting quite as much sleep as we did before she came, and there are a few damp spots on our carpet. But we are really enjoying our new family member, and she seems to like us, too.

On the Leading Edge

For most of our lives, Bonnie and I have been on the leading edge of changes in society. We got a waterbed when they were still considered "weird hippy things." We took La Maze classes when they were recommended by only a few OB/GYNs. We bought a VHS recorder shortly after they first came out. And while the "in crowd" was still extolling the virtues of white wines, I was sampling merlots.

But one bandwagon that I did not jump on until this week was that of the users of cell phones. My problem was not an aversion to technology, but rather one of simple economics. As long as I was paying $30.00+ per month for a land line to my home, I saw no value in signing a contract to pay an additional $30.00 a month for a cell phone.

I counted up the situations in one year in which I might need to make a call when no land line was available. There were maybe two or three--once when on the way to a retail store, and unable to locate it, once when I was at the grocery store and forgot one of the items Bonnie wanted me to buy, once when I was stuck in traffic, and would be way late getting home. It hardly seemed worth $360.00 per year.

Besides that, many folks who already have cell phones really anger me. They take a call while dining in a restaurant. They check their messages in a movie theater. They gab on the phone while shopping for groceries (I am sure there is nothing so urgent that it could not wait until they get home). And, most aggravating of all, the yak into the little boxes while driving down the freeway at 40 mph, instead of the posted 55 mph. I do not want to become one of those crass inconsiderate jerks.

This week, though, I finally decided to get a cell phone. The main reason is that the "pay as you go" plans make more economic sense. I bought a Trac Phone and one year (400 minutes) of cell time. The whole package ends up costing about $10.00 a month--less if I subtract the cost of the phone. Not only that, if I have not used the 400 minutes when I renew next year, the excess rolls over. The benefits I get for the $10.00 a month seem worth the cost. First, the phone will be there in the 3 or 4 situations that I expect I will need it for. Second, since I will turn it on virtually all of the time I am away from home, Bonnie knows she will be able to reach me if an emergency arises. Now that the telephone companies are phasing out pay telephones, the cell phone becomes almost a necessity.

So far, the Trac Phone experience has exceeded my expectations. When I activated the phone and added the minutes from the card, I received 510 minutes instead of 400. Although I signed up on June 3, the renewal date is August 3, of next year, so I get 14 months instead of 12. That's hard to beat. In the 4 days I have had the phone, I have not used any minutes yet.

Some may say that 20 cents a minute is not a bargain rate. However, these are emergency minutes; they are worth more to me. Moreover, the big companies advertise 10 cents a minute, but they add a $1.00 surcharge for each day that you access the service. That means one five-minute call can cost 30 cents a minute. With the Trac phone there are no "roaming" charges, and long distance calls within the continental US and to some foreign locations are charged at the same rate as local calls. So for the usage I expect, the Trac Phone is a good buy.

Talking about the economics, have you noticed that most cell phone calls are "double-billed?" When you make a call from land line to land line, only the originator is charged for the call. But when a cell phone is the receiver, both originator and receiver are billed for the minutes. In the long run, it would seem the telephone companies would like us all to use cell phones, and eliminate land lines completely.

So I have arrived in the 21st century with respect to telephone service. But I am not giving you my cell phone number. I only want to receive those urgent calls from immediate family and very close friends. Everyone else should just call my land line number. If I am not there, leave a message on my machine. But don't look for my number in the telephone book; it's unlisted. Most of the time, I view the telephone as an intrusion.

Get Ready To Call Me Grampa

Bonnie and I received some wonderful news today. Our younger daughter, Heather, told us that she and Josh are expecting a baby in early December.

We were preparing to drive to San Bernardino to celebrate some family birthdays (mine, Bonnies, her dad's, and Josh's). Bonnie's was in February, and I was sick; mine was in March, and Bonnie was sick, Josh and Bonnie's dad have theirs in June. Our other daughter, Amber, her husband, Ron and Bonnie's dad met us at the restaurant. Heather and Josh drove to our place so the four of us could go the rest of the way in one car. Heather presented Bonnie a pair of booties with LA Lakers logos on them as she made the announcement.

The booties have the logo because Bonnie is an avid Lakers fan. In fact, she is watching a Lakers/Spurs playoff game as I write.

Bonnie is thrilled, of course, and I am excited, too, about the prospect of becoming grandparents. Watch for some pictures in December!

Teddy Roosevelt's "Square Deal"

On my Bullmoose Journal blog for October 2, 2006, I posted a picture of one of my favorite Theodore Roosevelt campaign items. This pin is 7/8" in diameter, but at least one exists that is 1 1/4 inches in diameter. The pin is pretty rare; I have only seen 2 or 3 in over 55 years of collecting. This one has it all--the picture, the date, the slogan, and even a carpenter's square to emphasize the slogan. In his 1912 Progressive Party campaign, Roosevelt offered "a square deal for every man and for every woman in the United States."

About six years ago, another pin with a carpenter's square on it showed up. It is also 7/8 inch diameter. This one bears the name Parker. Alton B. Parker was Roosevelt's opponent in the 1904 campaign. The phrase "square deal" has always been attributed to Roosevelt. But Alton Parker apparently used the carpenter's square first, albeit without the slogan. Except for the handful of these pins that appeared in 2002, to my knowledge it has not been seen before or since.

This "square deal" pin is a lot more common. It is 7/8 inch diameter, and was used in the 1912 campaign. Almost every collector of TR campaign items has this one.

Here is a fourth "square deal" pin. It is also 7/8 inch diameter. I found it on eBay a while back. It is the only one like it that I have seen. The seller probably did not even see the meaning, let alone consider it a campaign item. It can only mean "square deal," and is probably a Theodore Roosevelt campaign pin.

If you have a "square deal" pin that is different from these, please post a comment about it.

Admiral Nelson Again

In my other blog, Bullmoose Journal, I posted an entry about a character jug, depicting Admiral Horatio Nelson, that I acquired. I have been fortunate enough to win another item, an antique Staffordshire pitcher, relating to the Admiral.

The pitcher is about 7 inches tall. The images on it depict both Lord Nelson and Captain Hardy, who commanded HMS Victory at the battle, although the crude depictions bear little resemblence to the famous officers. It was probably made in the early nineteenth century.

It's not hard to find items commemmorating the achievements of Admiral Nelson. Many were produced in 2005 in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the famous battle. But I prefer the older ones. That's why I was attracted to this pitcher.

I may be able to date the piece more accurately if I can identify the pottery mark on the bottom of the pitcher. It looks to me like a stylized "JC."

If someone knows something about the pitcher or the pottery mark, please post a comment.

Return to "Our Boarding House"

When I was very young, I enjoyed the comic strips in the daily newspaper about as much as every youngster did. They were all different back then. We had Dick Tracy, Lil' Abner, Mutt and Jeff, Smokey Stover, and a host of others that are long gone. Probably the only one that is still around is Blondie.

At first, I paid little attention to "Our Boarding House." On week days it was just a single panel, although it was a full sized strip in the Sunday edition. It had too many words, and folks just seemed to be standing around and talking. But as I entered my teens I began to read the strip daily. Maybe it was the fez that he wore around the house that caught my eye. I became fascinated by the interaction of Major Amos B. Hoople, his boarders and friends. They all seemed so human, in an exaggerated way.

Major Amos Barnaby Hoople

Our Boarding House was syndicated as a daily cartoon in hundreds of newspapers from 1921 until 1981. During the 1920's and 1930's, boarding houses were an institution in our society. The boarding house was the home away from home where men lived to save money until they got married and moved into a home of their own. Women in the same situation usually "took rooms" with a family. Boarding houses were often a second source of income for a family struggling to support the household.

Our Boarding House told the story of wizened homeowner Martha Hoople and her quirky stable of boarders. It appeared for four months in 1921 before the Major ambled obnoxiously back into estranged wife Martha's life after a ten-year absence.

Major Hoople's disagreeably daft personality was quickly embraced by readers. Aside from his affinity for cigars and the weathered fez donning his balding head, Hoople was best known for stretching the strip's text bubbles to the bursting point with his long-winded speeches, littered with colorful non-words like "harumf," fap," and "egad," about the astounding ten years he spent away from his wife. He considered himself an expert on every subject, and was always on the lookout for a new get-rich-quick scheme.

I searched the web for Major Hoople images, but I had only modest success. This cartoon seems fairly representative of the style.

I did find, however, a Canadian company that sells a book of Our Boarding House cartoons. The company is Lee Valley Tools. Here is a link:

[http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=52679&cat=1,46096,46100&ap=1]

I ordered a copy, and look forward to experiencing once more the remarkably colorful speeches of the good Major. My wife just told me that I am starting to look like him--fap!

THE MCKINLEY CRUISER

I have been collecting postcards that depict battleships, cruisers, and destroyers built prior to 1920 in all navies. It took a while, but I finally obtained cards with photographs of each of the battleships that were commissioned in the U.S. Navy. After that, I started to search for postcards that depict Navy cruisers.

On one of these searches, I located a card depicting the Warship “McKinley” at anchor in Whalom Park, near Fitchburg, Massachusetts. A close look at the card reveals that the “warship” is really just a big model. Although it resembles a cruiser of the ‘great white fleet,’ it has no guns.

The pseudo-warship puzzled me, so I decided to see what I could find out at the Fitchburg, Massachusetts web page and other sources. The Fitchburg Historical Society has a photograph of the cruiser proceeding from the upper common. I also found an archived article in the New York Times of October 29, 1896, that provided some more details about the cruiser.

The “McKinley Cruiser” was built in Fitchburg in 1896, for use in the Republican presidential campaign of that year. It was made from a flat construction car of the Fitchburg and Leominster Street Railway Company, and transported on streetcar trucks. The cruiser was forty feet long and carried four guns in sponsons, two turrets on the deck, boats, an anchor, and other fittings. It carried a 125-man crew composed primarily of members of the Fitchburg Athletic Club and prominent young Republicans from Fitchburg and vicinity. There were two companies of sailors in full uniform carrying oars with torches, a company of engineers carrying the sailing light colors, a company of marines with torch guns, and a drum corps of twenty men. The crew was led by a captain, a lieutenant commander acting as executive officer, a full staff of lieutenants and ensigns, a chief engineer, and marine officers.

The cruiser took part in torchlight processions in Fitchburg, Leominster, Lancaster, Clinton and other towns. The McKinley supporters even attempted to take the cruiser to Boston and then to Salem for a parade. The plan was thwarted when the West End Street Railway Company refused to handle the cruiser, claiming that the company had no legal right to transport the car, and expressing concerns about liability in case of an accident.

After the campaign, the McKinley cruiser was placed in Whalom Lake. Since it was not seaworthy, it could not be floated, and was not at the shoreline. It was installed on top of pilings, similar to an offshore oil rig, but with its hull partially submerged so as to appear to be floating. It was placed far enough out in the lake that the various steam launches (Naiad, Margaret, and others) used by the park to carry passengers on scenic lake tours would pass between it and the shoreline. Strings of electric lights were strung upon it, and it was illuminated at night.

On July 4 of 1908, the cruiser was set afire by pranksters. It burned down to the water line, leaving a platform almost flush with the water’s surface. Almost immediately after the fire, plans were made and executed to replace it. A floating replica was made and put into the lake, apparently during 1908. There are some subtle differences between the original and the replica in appearance. The first picture in this posting shows the replica; the others, I believe are all of the original cruiser.

Unfortunately, the replica fell into disrepair. It sank in either 1915 or 1922, and was never replaced. Visitors to Whalom Lake today, I am told, can see the cruiser lying on the bottom of the lake. If we could re-float it, the McKinley Cruiser would probably be the largest McKinley campaign item of all.

Philosophy--It's questions, not answers.

I have decided to find my own “inner peace.” I’m toying with the concept of meditation, and I have also started trying to see “the big picture” through an informal study of philosophy.

I began to read The Secret, just because it was on the best-seller list, but it turned out to be full of B.S. It’s folly, of course, to expect to find a “secret answer” to life’s conundrum in a single book by a babe who’s after a buck. I have to learn to ask the right questions in order to pursue meaningful answers.

I found a great “starter” book that is helping me to do just that: Why Is There Something, Rather than Nothing? 23 Questions from Great Philosophers, by Leszek Kolakowski. In about 200 pages I am sampling ideas of the big thinkers from Socrates to Nietzsche. It’s available on Amazon.

Silver Apples of the Moon--Irish Classical Music

A few months ago, while riding in my car, I heard a Suite for Strings, by Joan Trimble, on the local classical music radio station. The suite, based on traditional Irish melodies, was delightful. The announcer stated that it was on a CD entitled Silver Apples of the Moon. If you like the folk music-inspired compositions of Ralph Vaughn Williams and Gustav Holst, you will find this recording truly enjoyable.

On this CD, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Fionnualla Hunt plays:

1. Meath Pastoral, by Arthur Duff
2. Mac Ananty's Reel, by John Larchet
3. The Dirge of Ossian , by John Larchet
4. O'Carolan Suite in Baroque Style, by Thomas C. Kelly
5. Suite for Strings, by Joan Trimble
6. Irish Suite for Strings, by Arthur Duff
7. Elizabeth MacDermott Roe, by Aloys Fleischmann
8. Three Pieces for Strings, by Thomas C. Kelly

I searched for the CD on Amazon.com. There is another CD with the same title, containing electronic music by Morton Subotnik, but I already own that one.

I found only 3 copies of the Irish Chamber Orchestra audio CD, released as Black Box Classics, BBM1003, ranging in price from (can you believe it?) $80.00 to $120.00. Apparently it is out of print. My pocket book cannot stand the $80.00+ price, so I did some more research on the recording.
I learned that the Irish Chamber Orchestra has its own web page.  Since I first wrote this post, they changed their URL: (http://www.irishchamberorchestra.com/).  However, when you click on the Order CD tab,Silver Apples of the Moon is not among the currently available CDs.

Happiness Is An Audience

If happiness is having an audience, I am happier today. Some new guests visited my other blog, Bullmoose Journal. Not only that, they posted comments.

The entries that seem to have caught attention are the one in which I challenge the concept of the "fair tax," and the one in which I dispute the existence of a consensus on global warming.

Everyone is quick to form opinions on those subjects, yet few people have a formal education in the underlying sciences, or even a solid informal understanding of those sciences.

Before anyone can tackle concepts such as global warming and fair taxation, he needs to understand more fundamental concepts such as supply and demand, cause and effect, and the difference between climate and weather. Most people don't have a clue. They cannot distinguish between sound science and faulty.

The politicians and the media take advantage of this ignorance by inundating the public with (often irrelevant) statistics and (usually convoluted) mathematics.

People get caught up in all the emotionality; they don't stop, analyze, and do the simple arithmetic.