Posts Of Halloween Past

I've been busy this Halloween; here's a round-up of the Halloween posts I made this year:

1. Vintage Halloween party recipes, from this issue of The Royal Neighbor.

2. Halloween's a blast! Back when you could shoot children who annoyed you, anyway.

3. My review of the retro skeleton game based on Dark Shadows' vampire, Barnabas Collins.

4. My review of a gravedigger's memoirs.

5. Did you see the antique vampire killing kits up for auction?

He Feels Right At Gnome On Your Chest

Reading Gnome by BlueSunArt
See more Red T-Shirts

No-Good Dancing Donkeys

That no-good, rattzin-frattzin, lint-licking donkey -- but he sure knows how to shake a hoof:


More at ShelfTalker, who recommends searching Art.com for 'children's book', which can be printed as posters.

Contest Alert

This month Antique Trader is giving away a copy of Price Guide to Holt-Howard Collectibles and Related Ceramicware of the 50s & 60s. You can enter here, once a day for the entire month of June.

Finally, Religious Books Properly Shelved

A copy of With Christ in the School of Prayer in the sci-fi section at a local thrift shop.

The Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee

The Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee

Ho, for the Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee!
He was as wicked as wicked could be,
But oh, he was perfectly gorgeous to see!
The Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee.

His conscience, of course, was as black as a bat,
But he had a floppety plume on his hat
And when he went walking it jiggled - like that!
The plume of the Pirate Dowdee.

His coat it was handsome and cut with a slash,
And often as ever he twirled his mustache
Deep down in the ocean the mermaids went splash,
Because of Don Durk of Dowdee.

Moreover, Dowdee had a purple tattoo,
And struck in his belt where he buckled it through
Were a dagger, a dirk, and a squizzamaroo,
For fierce was the Pirate Dowdee.

So feaful he was he would shoot at a puff,
And always at sea when the weather grew rough
He drank from a bottle and wrote on his cuff,
Did Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee.

Oh, he had a cutlass that swung at his thigh
And he had a parrot called Pepperkin Pye,
And a zigzaggy scar at the end of his eye
Had Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee.

He kept in a cavern, this buccaneer bold,
A curious chest that was covered with mould,
And all of his pockets were jingly with gold!
Oh jing! went the gold of Dowdee.

His consience, of course it was crook'd like a squash,
But both of his boots made a slickery slosh,
And he went throught the world with a wonderful swash,
Did Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee.

It's true he was wicked as wicked could be,
His sins they outnumbered a hundred and three,
But oh, he was perfectly gorgeous to see,
The Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee.

From Enchanted Isles, Charles E. Merrill Books, 1954. Written by Mildred Plew Meigs, illustrated by Decie Merwin, via Flickr.

The Story Of Skippy

See The Story of Skippy and other vintage Big Little Books in this gallery.

High-Five Friday, February 6, 2009

High Fives go to...

1 Thanks, Cheetah Velour, for showing us damn funny books at the thrift shoppe.

2 We made the 100th edition of Make it from Scratch. Want to know what for? Well, go see it -- or must I do everything for you?

3 You really should go Jump with Joey.

4 Got tee shirts you want to sell, but they hold so many memories...? At re-shirt.net you list the shirts to sell -- but the stories live on forever.

5 I was going to post this KKK stunt here, but Deuce of Clubs has spared me all that typing.

"Mr. Frog led the angry beaver around to the front of his shop..."

So begins "Everyone Is Happy", from The Tale Of Ferdinand Frog.

Mess Around With One Of The "Mediums"

From that Scholastic Crosswords for Teen Agers book, one of the "medium" puzzles called This Or That:



Click for a larger scan; I'll post the answers in a few days.

Ferdinand Frog & Friends

The decorated endpages of The Tale Of Ferdinand Frog, Sleepy-Time Tales, by Arthur Scott Bailey, illustrations by Diane Petersen; Grosset & Dunlap, copy; 1918. As you can see, some child has colored in the characters a bit.

Using Peer Pressure To Hook Teens On Crossword Puzzles

The back cover of Scholastic's Crosswords for Teen Agers not only uses the "C'mon, join the crowd!" to push the crack of word games that is "crossword puzzles", but employs sexual dance euphemisms to lure the teens in:

Dozens of delightful puzzles

Tailored to your taste...and your tempo

Pick up speed as your do along:

Enjoy yourself with the "easies"

or...

Mess around with the "mediums"

or...

Tangle with the "toughies"

Crosswords for Teen Agers, by Murray Rockowitz, copyright 1958 (TAB Books, published by Scholastic), 6th printing, May 1963.

Good Night, Nurse?

Back in September I promised I'd be reading some of my retro nurse novels; well, I just posted a review of Night Club Nurse at Collectors' Quest.

The Boys Refused To Do Their Homework

For some reason, they refused to do book reports on Old Yeller.



Via Flickr

"The Potato Babies, And How They Grew"

A story of grandma entertaining the kids with people and animals made from potatoes...





From The Maple Leaf Book Of Stories.

The Game Of Stickerchief

Found in The Book of Knowledge, Vol XL, The Game Of Stickerchief:

A splendid game that can be played by any number of children is "Stickerchief." It is quite as exciting as hockey or lawn-tennis, and it has the advantage of not requiring expensive balls, racquets, or sticks.

Stickerchief is played with a handkerchief and some short pieces of bamboo, of the sort used by gardeners to hold up tall flowers. A dozen of these bamboos can be bought at any florist's for one shilling.

One shilling? What am I, made of money?

Who compares hockey to lawn-tennis? Well, I might; I find neither "exciting."

Storky-Lork, Storky-Stork

I'm smitten with storks, especially the vintage variety, so you'll forgive me for sharing a nursery rhyme from Holland which seems to be uninspired, poorly translated, or both.

The Stork
Ooievaar

Storky-lork,
Storky-stork,
Steal a twig,
Stork loves babies small and big.

But, oh, isn't the illustration lovely!



In Tales Told in Holland, edited by Olive Beaupre Miller, illustrated by Maud and Miska Petersham, part of the My Travelship series, published by The Book House for Children, Chicago, copyright 1926.

The Executioner Returns To Popularity

Last week, a thrift store was over-flowing with old-store-stock copies of The Executioner series.



This week, they were all gone.

Lesson learned? That some book dealer thinks the books will sell.

Loser's End

I love the vibrantly illustrated covers on these vintage 1940's books. If only I had more shelf space :sigh:

Never Too Much Gay Head

I had to drop another 50 cents, even when hubby thought we already had this -- because you can never have too much Gay Head.



Now, you may be thinking that Dear Gay Head: Letters from the Mail Box answered by Gay Head (aka Margaret Hauser) is just another silly out-dated etiquette book for teens. Well, it is. But that's precisely why I love it. Exhibit A:

Q. I wanted to ask a certain girl for a date, but when I talked to a couple of the fellows in the gang about her, they told me she's a "square." I hardly know her, since she's a grade behind me at school, but I still think she's cute. Would I be foolish to go ahead and ask her for a date anyway?

A. You'd be more foolish if you didn't ask her for a date! Changing your mind just because a couple of the fellows said she's a "square" isn't straight thinking at all. Besides, don't you like to make your own decisions?

Why did the other boys call this girl a "square"? Because she doesn't interest them? Because they heard it from someone else? Whatever their reasons, it doesn't necessarily follow that your opinion would be the same as theirs. The only fair way to judge a person is to get to know him or her for yourself.

"Labeling" people is a habit to avoid. Who has the right to say what's genuine and what's synthetic about another's personality? Everyone has good qualities and bad qualities; all individuals have different interests and characteristics. And people value their friends for different reasons, too.

Develop your own beliefs and opinions, and reject unfounded hand-me-downs. You'll not only avoid hurting others needlessly, but you'll gain new respect for yourself.

Amazingly hip, that Gay Head. Note the troublesome areas she blithely skipped as she seamlessly melded teen lingo and lecture so that those kids would really hear her. Not to mention the homosexual double entendres!

Describe your favorite Gay Head parts and maybe I'll toss an award your way.

The Man Who Never Was -- Until...

The previous owner dared to defy the author, Ewen Montagu, and draw in the face of The Man Who Never Was. Now he was. Albeit in pencil.



I wish I knew the kid's name; he'd get 20 extra bonus points for the "nice head" comment with arrow.

SHATNERICA!

The Millenium Edition of Shatnerica is out!

What's the Encyclopedia Shatnerica, you ask? Well, it is everything you'd ever want to know about the Shat. And then some. It's enough Shatner to fill a whole book, for crying out loud.

Pop Quiz: How Well Do You Know Your Victorian Rooms?

From our incomplete set of The Book of Knowledge encyclopedias, circa 1910, this picture exercise on page 3175:

What Is Wrong In This Room?

This picture has been drawn with seventeen things wrong in it. It will interest you to find out these mistakes and write them down, comparing your list with the correct listing appearing on page 3285.

Luckily we have the volume with page 3285 -- and I'll present the answers in a few days or so.

Mixed Fortunes

What's this old gypsy fortune telling book got to do with one woman's Uncle Stuart & his knickers and another woman's parent's marriage? Read it, if you dare.

How Your Brain Gets You To See The Parade

From The Teacher's Guide to Discovering Our World, Book 1, copyright 1952.

Book Boards At School

Introduction To Economics, by Alvin S. Johnson, Ph.D., copyright 1909 and 1922 by D.C. Health & Co. sure looks like your usual old, unloved school text, complete with water damage (mildew & bent boards), but I didn't just throw it away... If I had, I hadn't taken the time to look at it, I would have missed the fabulous doodles inside the cover and on the front free end page.



Inside the front board, the illustration features "John Tards" at a streetlight, looking quite drunk. The streets appear to be cobblestone -- or uniformly lumpy. The city backdrop is darn-near a big city skyline.

On the front free end, beneath the title "Economic of Fr nk Jones" (a teacher, perhaps?), several comic versions of a man's face (also one lady) and the very stylized full-view (from the side) of one man.

These could be attempts to draw very popular comics at the time, but they still please me greatly.

The doodles are presumed to have been made by the former owner, Gordon A. Martin, a university student & an Alpha Psi Delta member (at whatever university was in Grand Forks, North Dakota, at that time).

Susan Has A Headache

What will stop it, once and for all?


OK, so this photo captioned "Until The Doctor Arrives" (from 1954's The Family Physician) is all about first aid treatment for poison, but just saying that would be far less fun.

Your Homework

From Making Words Work, 1942, a "Thinking about the picture" assignment:

HELLO, JACK!

Thinking about the picture
Is Jack having a good time? How can you tell? What is he doing?
What kind of boy do you think he is? What kind of day is it?

Dad Always Used To Make Jokes About "The Naughty Nurse"

I'm pretty sure these old nurse paperbacks have good nurses in them, but at 50 cents each I couldn't pass 'em up... Now that the kids are back to school I plan on killing a few hours reading them just be be sure. And that feels really naughty.

Puppets & Puppet Masters

I don't normally promo the sales of other dealers, but Will at Hang Fire Books took part in my birthday celebration, so he's like family -- like that crazy cousin your parents are always rolling their eyes at but is the most fun to see at extended family get-togethers (sorry, cousin Lisa). Anywayyyy...

Will's got a special going on. He's clearing out the current listings in his eBay store (except the "Prints, Plates and Ephemera" catalog) so you can make him offers he can't refuse -- yes, even the pulps!

So I just made an offer on Puzzle For Puppets. I loves me puppets, and me puzzles. Keep your fingers crossed that Will likes my low-ball *wink*

Warbots With Lips

This weekend we were out at the thrift shops, and I found this lovely example of a bizarre cover -- here's a detail:
I didn't buy the book -- there's only so much bad sci-fi that I can read at a time. Turns out, this is the third in a series, and the publisher did the cover in both silver leaf AND embossing, so they were pretty sure it'd make some money. Maybe the book had something better inside than the cover lead me to believe. About all I could gather from the cover is that the book contained 'warbots', and showed us a prime example of a warbot on the cover so readers would know what they were getting into. There are a few things we can learn about warbots, from the cover:

• Their metal 'skin' isn't enough of a functional covering; they require clothing be worn as well; sleeves optional. Or, maybe putting on sleeved clothing is foiled by those kick-ass knuckle studs -- warbots tend to shred sleeves while dressing.
  
• Their most vulnerable part, their brain, it exposed in a very prominent part of the body, under a fragile bowl of glass. Why do futuristic robots always put the brain up there?
  
• They do not require physical ears or noses, but they need REAL HUMAN MOUTHS AND EYES to operate, or at least to put fear into the hearts and minds of their enemies, who will cry out, 'dear god, what horror of nature is this, wearing a vest yet neglecting a hat for his brain?!!?'
  

The cover of Warbots #1 calls them half-human, half-machine...If you could only use half a human, would the eyes and lips be high on your list of parts to keep? I mean, laser/xray/infrared eyes would have been my choice, but nobody yet has hired me for the warbot design department. The series ran for 12 books, which is a pretty good run for a little-known sci-fi series; maybe I should overlook the cover and go back to get the book.

Marvels From 1954's The Family Physician -- Or Bad HMO?

Within the pages of The Family Physician, by Dr. Herman Pomeranz & Dr. Irvin S. Koll, 1954, there are many things to marvel at. On the inset photo page between 142 & 143 we find the following marvels:

A Miracle Of Modern Science

Nail swallowed by four-year-old boy was successfully withdrawn from his duodenum when doctors induced him to gulp chocolate malted milk containing magnet attached to a thread. X-ray shows magnet in contact with nail, which appears as curved line beneath it.

Self-Operation

Photograph shows doctor removing his own appendix; assistant and nurse helped him to hold instruments. He did this to "get patient's attitude."

If I had to choose between gulping chocolate milk with a magnet & thread (just like mom used to make!) or operating on myself, I'd gulp, baby.

I can't even understand the "get patient's attitude" dealio-mcbob. I mean are there patients who actually operate on themselves? Or was the unnamed doc responding to those patients who, like visitors to art galleries, think they can do that themselves.

Doctors Recommend You Lose Your Marbles

Inside The Family Physician, by Dr. Herman Pomeranz & Dr. Irvin S. Koll, 1954, comes this exercise to strengthen your feet. (Or so it says; the whole section is a set of incredulous health & beauty moves for women, including the old 'slap under your chin' exercise).


It directs you to:

Scatter marbles about floor and try to pick them up with your toes. Curl toes around marbles, hold them for a few seconds. Alternate feet. Do this for about five minutes.

Nowhere does it say to remove the marbles from the floor, which isn't very safe, Doctors. Tsk tsk.

An old ex of mine would have been excellent at this. He could pick a pencil up with his toes and write -- as in long to-do lists & full-length letters. Creepy.

...But, he did have beautiful, shapely legs, as attested every Halloween with his cross-dressing costumes. (Yeah, I think we know why he's an ex; no woman wants her man to draw more wolf-whistles for his legs than she can get.) So perhaps a lady could do well to improve her toe dexterity.

Modern Woman Monday: Consumption Information Gives Me The Vapors

From pages 96 & 97 in Pathfinder Physiology No. 3, Hygienic Physiology, by Joel Dorman Steele, PhD., 1888.


First an illustration of the "deformity" of tight lacing of corsets (which I've already disputed -- NWS), then this gem on "consumption":

Consumption is a disease which destroys the substance of the lungs. Like other lung difficulties, it is caused by a want of pure air, a liberal supply of which is the best treatment that can be prescribed for it.*

...* If I were seriously ill of consumption, I would live outdoors day and night, except in rainy weather or midwinter; then I would sleep in an unplastered log house. Physic has no nutriment, gaspings for air can not cure you, monkey capers in a gymnasium can not cure you, stimulants can not cure you. What consumptives want is pure air, not physic, plenty of meat and plenty of bread, -- Dr. Marshall Hall.

I've always heard consumption and the vapers were catch-alls for undiagnosed illnesses, like cancer, and/or diseases in the minds of fragile women. But in case I am wrong, anyone tried monkey capers for their consumption?

Teen-Age Know-How From 1946

From my collection of etiquette books, a few pages from Your Manners Are Showing, by Betty Betz (1946).

First, how to be a proper street walker, for him and her.




Don't tell naughty jokes!



I'm not sure if this last one is to say that eating while walking in public is rude (who hasn't eaten an ice cream cone thus?) -- or is a warning to ladies to satisfy her man at home...


Charmed? I'm sure; but find your own copy on eBay.

Dance Lessons From Betty White

I have a HUGE crush on Betty White, so I want this.