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Birthday Problem
Suzy has her first birthday June 6th. This may sound routine to most of you but it has caused me considerable time and thought. I consulted numerous books on etiquette but was unable to find any information on what is considered the proper gift and how to go about wishing a dog a happy birthday.
If I give her an expensive gift she may think I am trying to buy her affection; then on the other hand, a cheap present may give her the impression that I am not fond of her. I have also thought about a birthday cake with a lighted candle on top. She would probably eat the candle and leave the cake. (A lighted candle might give her heartburn – I’ll have to check with a veterinarian.)
Perhaps she would like for me to sing Happy Birthday, but with a voice like mine, I am afraid to take the chance. She could panic and bite me on the leg.
I must say that I am baffled.
The Cause
In stone design we read the sign,
“End of the fray at close of day.”
What sort of men were living then?
To kill a foe so long ago.
We ask and pause, what was the cause?
In another age on history’s page
Brave men they fought and all for naught.
Midst shot and shell the valiant fell;
Good men were killed and graves were filled.
We ask and pause, what was the cause?
Those left behind will always find
Heart-rending sorrow on the morrow.
We wonder why men willingly die
And fight great wars all for the cause.
We ask and pause, what is the cause?
The Old Home Town
In the 1770’s J. F. D. Smyth, author of an account of American travel may have been the first traveler to visit Petersburg and describe his impression of it:
“The principal tobacco trade in America centers at Petersburg, or Bolling’s Point, which it is generally called… It is something remarkable that no child born at the place ever grew up to maturity, excepting the present proprietor, Mr. Bolling, whose seat overlooks Petersburg, and the adjacent country and river; which is occasioned by the insalubrity of the air, and the extreme unhealthiness of the situation.”
The following description of Petersburg was written in 1786 by Josiah Flagg, a young New Englander:
“This is the most dirty place I ever saw. Nine months of the year the mud is half leg deep, it is a very Sickly place owing in a great measure to its Situation, the Streets are very Irregular, and not a Respectable Building in the Borough, it stands upon the River Appomattox, the water thereof is almost stagnant as it is navigable for ships of 500 Tons one hundred and twenty miles, the Vapors arising from it contaminate the air, with the most pestilential disorders. Agues, and fevers of Every kind prevail.”
This was written a long time before pollution became a problem.
The Cartoon
No one knows where or when the first cartoon appeared. The earliest known (about 1360 B.C.) is a caricature of the unpopular father-in-law of King Tutankhamen. Much later, on the wall of his barracks in Pompeii, a Roman soldier drew a very unflattering likeness of one of his superiors, a centurion.
The first American cartoon, depicted a dismembered snake, and was by a very remarkable man – Ben Franklin.
Paperback Books
There are about 5,000 retail outlets selling hardcover books in this country but you can buy paperbacks in more than one hundred thousand shops.
The sales of Webster’s Paperback Dictionary have reached nineteen million copies.
Printer?
I constructed most of my own type cases; not because I am either a cabinetmaker or a good craftsman. Simply a matter of economics – economics by way of perspiration. When I made the cases I was in a hurry to use them so I didn’t bother to smooth off the rough places as I could always do that later. Now when I reach for a piece of type my finger often picks up a splinter instead. But of course I can always smooth off the rough places later.
It takes only two words to say THANK YOU.
“Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done.” – Stowe
It is Said That:
Before starting to write his New England histories, Van Wyck Brooks read for six hours each day. He went thru nine hundred books before one word of his story was put on paper.
James Joyce took seventeen years to write Finnegan’s Wake.
Credit for being the longest important novel ever published goes to Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust. It contained 1,307,000 words and was a 15 volume work.
How would you like to set that up by hand and print it, one page at a time, on a Kelsey exerciser?
If history has something useful to tell us – Let’s Listen.
The freshness of the morning
And the dewdrops every place
Helps us to face the future
With a smile upon our face.
Official Notice
Notice is hereby given that this paper is a publication of one Howard G. Radcliffe who operates his pleasure palace of printing (without authority of the king) behind the screen door at number on the north side of Street in the city of Petersburg, state of Virginia; which said city has been awarded the distinct Zip Code Number 23808 by the Post Office Department of the United States.
Set & printed by Howard G. Radcliffe
Petersburg, Va. 23803