The Phone Book by Ammon Shea

The Phone Book: The Curious History of the Book That Everyone Uses But No One Reads by Ammon Shea is definitely the sort of book that you hear about and think it's quirky, but will never read. Well, that sort of book is catnip for me. 

Shea walks us through the history of the phone book (first it was just a list of people who had phones!) and reminisces about watching it decline. I don't actually remember when we got our last yellow pages, but we haven't had one since we moved to our current house. 

I recently saw this question on our town's Facebook page:

An answer: A cohesive directory of all the stores, restaurants, services that already exist. LOLOL. Suggestions were that the Chamber of Commerce collate this. 

Anyway, this is a surprisingly funny book because Shea makes snarky asides in footnotes and he's sort of a weird dude and some of that comes across. I was glad I took the time to read this because it really is true that a good writer can make anything interesting, isn't it? 

4/5 stars

Lines of note:

...I hope we can all agree that it's too bad that another one of the recommendations of the November 1878 telephone directory has not survived to the present day; the book advised that the proper way to end a conversation was with the phrase "That is all."  (page 19)

YES!! Sometimes I don't really mean it when I say good-bye, what I really want to say is that is all. 

You can still send telegraphs in many other countries, such as Telegrams Canada.*

*Its website says, "You'll see why even after 160 years, telegrams never go out of style!" which is a statement that makes me wonder what other things this company is delusional about. (page 49)

That footnote made me cackle. I looked it up, though, and it does appear as if Telegrams Canada is still in business, so maybe the company is on to something. 

When telephone books were in their infancy, there was no need of numbers - all one had to do was give a name to an operator, who would then connect the call. Many of the first telephone books had no numbers at all. (page 54)

Can you even imagine just a list of names? 

One of the first people in the late nineteenth century to recommend using numbers to indicate each and every subscriber was a physician in Massachusetts, Dr. Moses Greeley Parker. During an outbreak of measles in the city of Lowell, Dr. Parker worried about what would happen if more than one of the city's four operators succumbed to the disease. The telephone system would be paralyzed, since there were no surrogate operators who knew all the numbers and connections to replace them.

At first his suggestion was met with incredulity. Most people were of the opinion that subscribers would sooner give up their telephones entirely rather than submit themselves to the dehumanizing indignity of being identified by a number. Eventually, the obvious necessity of anyone being able to find all the subscribers in a telephone exchange won out, and numbers began to be used. (page 54-55)

Crazy. Social security numbers weren't even a thing until the 1930s. 

Since the lettering system in Chinese is ideographic (it represents ideas through pictures rather than through individual letters) it was not an option to have an alphabetized telephone book. So Wong would arrange the names geographically, based on where in Chinatown each phone was located. (page 71-72)

There's a great 99% Invisible episode on alphabetical order. I think about it a lot. 

I have a habit of smelling books before I read them. Perhaps I should call it by some other name than habit, something that denotes a degree of pleasure. It is not a fetish, nor is it a proclivity, as  I draw no illicit pleasure from it. I simply like to smell books before I read them. When presented with a new book (and I count as new any book that I've never held before), the first thing I do is open the pages to some random spot, insert my nose close to the binding, and take a good, hearty sniff. (page 126-127)

This is one of the weirdest things an author has confessed to, I think. 

...occasional visits to Gimbels department store on Eighty-sixth Street with my grandmother...(page 142)

iykyk

I've begun to anthropomorphize these books, and I wonder on occasion if they are curious and apprehensive about their fate...

When I happen across books that have been thrown away, I always feel a touch of despair that these volumes are so unloved that no one wants them...(page 178-179)

YES!! Maybe I'm weird like the author. 

Things I looked up:

cotter pin (page 24) - a simple, unthreaded metal fastener with two tines. It is inserted through a pre-drilled hole in a bolt, shaft, or clevis pin and its legs are bent outward to secure an assembly. It is primarily used to prevent other fasteners from loosening. It looks like a bobby pin. 

Schuylkill River (page 28) - a river in eastern Pennsylvania in the United States. It flows for 135 miles from Pottsville southeast to Philadelphia where it joins the Delaware River as one of its largest tributaries

Karle Hoefle phone book covers (page 83) - From 1959-1971, Karl Hoefle, a commercial artist from Dallas, designed covers for Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages in several cities. 

photo of Thomas Dewey sitting on phone books (page 86) - Oh, man. Life magazine did Dewey wrong here. In 1944, he was the Republican governor of New York state running against FDR in the presidential election. In the March 20 edition of Life, there was a long article about Dewey in the governor's mansion in Albany. The caption reads: The Executive Chamber, rarely used except for clemency hearings, is a cavernous, mahogany-walled relic of past governors and state grandeur. Around window (clockwise) are portraits of Lafayette and Governors Odell, Cleveland, and Seward. The desk in this room is so large, the chair so deep, that Tom Dewey sits on two telephone books when being photographed here. (italics mine) Ouch.

My level of dedication is that I looked up the March 20 edition of Life to see this photo. YOU ARE WELCOME.

Princess phone (page 114) - The Princess telephone was introduced by the Bell System in 1959. It was a compact telephone designed for convenient use in the bedroom, and contained a light-up dial for use as a night-light. It was commonly advertised with the slogan "It's little...It's lovely...It lights"

By User:Mcheath - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25763482

A woman named Jolis Paons created an entire dress out of nothing more than part of a copy of the white pages (Indianapolis, I believe). From a slight distance it looks like a delicate fabric, light gray folded hundreds of times with crisp lines that make it look like a new and special material. On closer inspection, the numbers begin to become apparent, but it still doesn't look like anything like a mass of crumpled and folded paper, which is essentially what it is. (page 186)

I want to wear this dress. 

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

That an instrument as common and simple as the telephone needed instructions may come as a surprise, almost as if it turned out that nineteenth-century Americans needed written assistance to put on their hats. (page 37)

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Do you have a phone book in your house? When is the last time you used it? Would you wear that dress? 

The Enchanted Greenhouse (Spellshop #2) by Sarah Beth Durst

Just earlier this month I read The Spellshop, which is the first book in the Spellshop series by Sarah Beth Durst. It was just cozy enough for me immediately download the second book in the series, The Enchanted Greenhouse, as soon as I finished the first one. 

You may recall that there was an enchanted sentient spider plant named Caz in the first book. Caz was created by Terlu, a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium. She was convicted of illegal magic and sentenced to be turned into a wooden statue who was displayed in the library as a warning to others. Well, you may also remember from the first book that the empire fell. When that happened, the spell holding Terlu stopped working and Terlu wakes up to find herself on a mostly deserted island filled with greenhouses in the freezing cold of winter. 

And then there are more magical plants. And a grumpy gardener who bakes. I am verklempt. These books are so nearly perfect. I just wish Terlu had a bit more of an edge to her. She's kind of too nice and perfect and forgiving, which is a great tone for this type of cozy fantasy, but does sort of annoy me a tiny bit after awhile. 

But! You know what? If you like cats with wings, talking plants, ghosts of sorcerers, and a dream of living on island with just one other person, you'll like this book. 4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

But Terlu had pushed too hard to be friends and had ended up pushing her away. You’re a lot, Eilia had told her, after she’d asked to meet up for the third time in the same week and baked her a tray of ginger cookies with orange zest. It’s nothing personal, Eilia had said, but at this point in my life, I don’t have the time and energy for a lot. (location 1186)

I think I'm a lot? Probably.

A tiny dragon, about the size of a teacup, shot between the stalks. It breathed a candle-size spurt of fire at Lotti and then soared upward. (location 1989)

TINY DRAGONS! Bestill my heart. I didn't even know this was going to be a dragon book, but here we are.

After Laiken died, my father said his spirit lingered to lecture him about the care of orchids for three hours, before finally falling silent.” “Orchids are fussy,” Lotti said, dismissing the one she’d paused beside. (location 2300)

I knew reading The Orchid Thief would pay off for me eventually.

Thing I looked up:

halophyte (location 3175) - a salt-tolerant plant that grows in soil or waters of high salinity, coming into contact with saline water through its roots or by salt spray

Hat mentions (why hats?):

On top of a pile of watering cans, gloves, hats, pine cones, and various glittering rocks—the dragons’ treasure—was the little resurrection rose. (location 2093)

The child, wearing a new hat and mittens, was skipping through the snow. (location 6354)

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If you could have a tiny dragon the size of a teacup as a pet, would you? Or would you prefer a cat with wings? They don't get along, so you have to choose. 

In Which My Small Town Auditions for Stars Hollow (and a Bookish Giveaway!)

I fear my Gilmore Girls reference may be too dated? Stars Hollow is the fictional town where Lorelei and Rory Gilmore live in Gilmore Girls, just to be clear. 

This past weekend my town hosted a Grown Up Book Fair event that involved roughly a dozen locations in walkable distance downtown. It was organized by a woman who owns one of our three coffee shops in town (I mean, four if you count Dunkin', but I'm not counting Dunkin', sorry) and hats off to her because this event was HOPPING. 

How much of this schedule did I participate in? As much as possible, I tell you. I don't know why I'm blocking out the business names except I'm still pretending there's a facade of privacy on this blog and that 90% of my readers don't know my exact address, let alone the incredibly accessible name of my town. 

 

The weekend began with Bookish Pilates for me at the local community center. The air quality was okay on Saturday, so I met up with my friend Gina and we did it! I've never done a Pilates class, so this counts as "try a new fitness class" on my goals list for the year. Woot woot! What makes Pilates bookish? Great question. The playlist was made of songs that were on movies or tv shows based on books. Pretty tangential, but the instructor was quite proud of it, so I feel obligated to share. (Her name is Abby and she is based out of The Place in Oconomowoc. She was great.)

I stopped at the Farmers Market to buy honey, and then I went home and changed clothes because I was a sweaty mess and I gulped down a Gatorade like I had not had water in decades. Then I met up with Anne and we started doing other things!

First up, DIY confetti bookmarks at the library. I thought this was such a genius event! It was a little bit messy and I'm sure they're going to be picking glitter confetti off the floor for the rest of the month, but I am in love with my bookmark. The library was also having its monthly Friends of the Library book sale and the place was hopping. The library isn't open on Sunday, but I saw them back at the fair on Sunday with a booth at the community center.

Then we wandered around the vendors. There were vendors at SO MANY places. I have to admit it made my heart swell to see so many people walking around with tote bags downtown. Parking lots were full, stores were busy hives of activity, and it was like I was living my favorite small town dream. 

Then Anne and I met up with some other folks for book trivia. I want you to know that our team kicked ass even though Sarah and Mark had "other plans."  We were the Octobooks (we sort of panicked when we needed to decide on a name - there were eight of us, so it sort of worked) and we took home first place. Look, it was great and I know I had hyped it up last week, but the hype really did pay off. (I lost a point because I messed up the order of New Moon and Eclipse in the Twilight series and I was almost sort of proud that I just couldn't remember. It didn't seem like anyone else at the table had ANY clue, so at least I had something.)

So, you'd think I'd have done my business at this point, but NO. Gina and I met on Sunday morning and we toured the vendors again and I purchased MOAR things. 

Here are some vendors I super duper am excited about.

Bewitched Between Bindings is a Milwaukee-based company that sells book-inspired candles by genre, author, or character. BUT! I don't want you to think this is just some random scent - she only creates scents if they are described in the book or she has heard from the author directly. I was so fascinated by this woman and kept calling her a creative genius. I suspect I will place a large order with her store around Christmas. 

Sunshine Cookies is a local place that had some very hysterical book-related cookies, but also had some truly divine macarons (I had a salted caramel one). Huge thumbs up. 

There were local authors, people selling Kindle cases, lovely stained glass with book themes, totes, stickers, greeting cards, and all sorts of blind dates with books. There were artists doing bookish flash tattoos. I think Gina might have actually gotten one if they had had any appointments left. 

There was a lady who will DISCOVER YOUR FOUR LETTER READING PERSONALITY. Stephany, are you reading this? You need to get her on your podcast. 

Friends, it was a great time. The vendors were super friendly and excited to be there. The attendees were polite and patient. There were long lines at some places and everyone was just so chill and happy to be there. If you can get yourself to a grown up book fair, I recommend it!

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On to the giveaway. As I was wandering about, I was making purchases. I have two fun collections to share with you.

Collection #1 - The Purple Bookshelf

A heart-shaped bookshelf ornament, stickers, two pens and a highlighter, a lovely bird magnet, some reading tabs, and a notebook all in a purple pencil case. I don't know for sure, but I bet I'll add some merchandise about how awesome my town is, too. 

Collection #2 - The Orange Cat

A glasses wearing cat asleep on a pile of books ornament, stickers, two pens and a highlighter, a lovely bird magnet, some reading tabs, and a notebook all in an orange pencil case. I don't know for sure, but I bet I'll add some merchandise about how awesome my town is, too. 

Do you want a chance to win one of these delightful packages? Fill out the Google form.  Deadline is Wednesday, August 5. I'm happy to ship internationally. I'll probably remind you between now and then. 

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Have you been to a grown up book fair? Would you be a good addition to a book trivia team? Do you know the order of the books in Twilight? 

Five for Friday, Edition #46

Let's see if I can come up with five topics. Can I do it? 

1) I was driving to work earlier this week when a sedan heading in the opposite direction flashed its headlights at me. The driver was warning me about a sheriff's car parked on the side of the road. How kind! There are nice people left in the world. 

2) Friends, the air quality is poor here right now because of wildfire smoke. I am struggling. That is all. Even in the house and at my office, I feel slightly nauseated and there's a smell that is permanently in my nostrils. I can't imagine what it was like at the point of origin in Canada and I have so much sympathy for people who work outdoors and the poor animals who live outdoors. I have taken to wearing a mask when I'm walking around campus and taking Hannah out these days. I feel like I have a better understanding of The Road now. 

3) This weekend! It's a big one in our town. There's a big fundraiser situation at the local community center tonight and Saturday there is an Adult Book Fair and there are lots of activities around town, including vendors, local author book signings, "Bookish Pilates" (I have no idea what that is, but you better believe that I signed up for it), DIY bookmarks at the library, and BOOK TRIVIA. My excitement about the book trivia is pretty high. I'm trying to get the best trivia team possible, but people keep telling me they "have other plans." *sigh* I guess that's allowed.

4) One of my goals this month was to text at least one person every day and that person could not be my  husband. This means I have taken to just randomly texting my friends and family random questions. What was the name of the dance club we went to in college? What is your interpretation of the song "Don't Take the Girl" by Tim McGraw? Do you think that she died in childbirth? How many mittens could we make from the fur I brush off my cat in a week? 

Hey, if I text you a random question, it just means I love you.

5) Random songs Spotify has recommended to me in the last two weeks:

"Love Song" by Tesla - Do I secretly love this song?

"Hey Cinderella" by Suzy Bogguss - It's not even a secret that I love this song, but I had forgotten its existence. How did Spotify know?

Every fucking George Strait song in the world until I finally blocked him as an artist. I just feel like he's a second-rate Garth? 

"The Irish Rover" by the Pogues - I have to admit that my Pogues knowledge is pretty much limited to "Fairytale of New York," but maybe they are my new favorite band?

"The Unicorn Song" by The Irish Rovers - At this point, I thought Spotify was punking me because this song is such a throwback to my childhood. HOW DID IT KNOW?

"If I Had a Hammer" by Peter, Paul, and Mary - Speaking of throwbacks from my youth, this gem was immediately added to my daily playlist. It's the hammer of justice/It's the bell of freedom - Listen, I can pretend to be Mary Travers when I'm driving to work. 

I just looked up my top song for the month and it's Billy Ray Cyrus. I'd be embarrassed, but Some Gave All is a dope album and he had some great singles. ("Could've Been Me" is the song, but "Words by Heart" is also up there.) Speaking of embarrassed, as soon as Toby Keith died and I wouldn't financially support his anymore, I immediately unblocked him on Spotify and started listening to his songs again. The musical heart wants what the musical heart wants.

Okay, great, that was five meaningless things. How's your air quality? What is your interpretation of the song "Don't Take the Girl" by Tim McGraw? Would you do book trivia with me if you weren't busy tomorrow? 

Photo Every Day: June 2026, Week 2

Thursday, July 9
When I took Hannah out this morning, it started raining on us. Hard. I got her to do her business, we raced home, the rain stopped 30 seconds later, and it rained no more for the rest of the day. Just our luck, I guess. I had to dry Hannah off with a towel and we made it into a game where I covered her and asked "where's my puppy?" and her little tail would wag and she would throw the towel off. I'd cover her again and the whole thing would repeat. 

I follow a lot of pet rescue places on social media and there have been a lot of "look at my rescue dog coming out of its shell" posts recently and, while I am so happy these dogs are happy, I sometimes wonder if Hannah might have been better off in a family with kids and other dogs and less neurotic humans. But then she plays with me like this and realize that Hannah is better off with us than she would be with so many other people. But I still wish she didn't look so worried all the time. 

Friday, July 10

Whoops. I forgot to take a photo. Enjoy a picture of lilies I took on Saturday instead.

Saturday, July 12

I had to pick up Zelda's steroid at the vet and as I was coming home, the gas tank fell below a quarter of a tank, which is when I feel like I need to fill up, as a responsible adult human. This was in the parking lot of the gas station where I stopped. USA! USA! Ugh. 

Sunday, July 13

I see that I keep forgetting I'm doing this photo every day exercise. I finished the graphic novel Raised by Ghosts today. The only photo I took all day was of the artwork at the front of the book. I love a pig, you know? 

Monday, July 14

There have been some very lame photos this week, so let's try some better ones? Maybe better ones?

First up, sunrise over the Rock! There's a mama duck with her ducklings. I was cooing over the ducklings. Hannah was not impressed. (We are standing on a dock. This is as close to the water as Hannah will get.)

It's crazy hot here this week and Hannah does this thing where she pretends she's super excited for a walk, but as soon as we get to our neighbor's yard, she lays down. IN THE DIRECT SUNLIGHT. When it's in the 90s. What a dog.  For anyone keeping track, note how Hannah is once again refusing to make eye contact with me. 

Who made homemade ice cream this weekend?! IT WAS ME!! YOU GUYS, IT WAS SO EASY. We have a KitchenAid bowl thingy and I chilled that bowl for about 48 hours. Then I made the ice cream base which I took from a random Reddit comment: 1.5 cups milk (I used whole), 1.5 cups heavy cream, 1/2 cup sugar, 2ish tablespoons vanilla extract (measure with your heart). For fun, I also split open two vanilla beans and threw them in. Heat this over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves. Then you let that base chill for at least three hours. I put a piece of saran wrap right on top of the liquid mixture and then covered the bowl with a lid. 

When it was done chilling, I took off the saran wrap and the gross film stuck to the saran wrap! Win! Then I put the freezing KitchenAid bowl thingy on the KitchenAid and turned it on to speed 1. I dumped in the base and let it churn for 23 minutes. It was probably done at 20, but I wanted to be certain. It was a very soft serve at that point, so I popped it into a freezer safe container and froze it overnight before I took it to book club. 

It's a LONG process, but it's very very easy. 

Tuesday, July 14

This is what I saw as I was leaving for work today. MY PRECIOUS BABY GIRL. May we all be as relaxed as my cat someday. 

Sometimes people ask me if the dog and cat get along and I have to say that they sort of coexist in each other's world without much interaction except for when we first come downstairs in the morning and we greet them and Hannah gets so excited that she tries to stick her muzzle in Zelda's belly. Zelda does not care for that. But, look, if the cat were scared of Hannah, she would not be passed out like this at a height that Hannah could easily get her.

LOOK AT HER BELLY. (It's a trap. Don't touch it. You will get bit and/or scratched. She has all her teeth and all her claws and she's not afraid to use them.)

Wednesday, July 15

I went to the bookstore after work. I got a book. And some tiny books!

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Have you ever made homemade ice cream? What's your favorite recipe? Do you buy a lot of books? What's the last book you bought?

Kittentits by Holly Wilson

We read Kittentits by Holly Wilson for my IRL book club. Wilson is a local author, as in, she lives in my town and works at the university where I work. I consider her one of "my" faculty, since she's in one of the departments that I collaborate with regularly. So I'm going to be honest in this review, but I want you all to know that I know Holly and like Holly and we had her come to our book club to talk about the book.

It's 1992 and ten-year-old Molly is struggling. Her mom died when she was a baby, there was a fire at the last place she lived that killed people, including her cousin, and now she's attached herself to an ex-con who lives with her family in a halfway house. I don't want to talk about the rest of the plot of this book, but it is absolutely batshit and I honestly did not know what was happening half the time and the other half, I had no idea what was about to happen. There is a World's Fair in Chicago, a hot air balloon accident, a lady in an iron lung, conjoined twins, lots of tween cursing, and a seance co-hosted by a real ghost. I mean...this review says it all:

Here's the thing. This is not necessarily a book meant for me. Molly's really grieving and there is not a single responsible adult who is helping her out. There are some people who might be offended by the language Molly uses (as a 10-year-old!), but that language was pretty common in the 1990s, at least with a particular class of people in some geographic circles. It felt like this book was a bit of a fever dream to me and I honestly felt like after about 60 or 70 pages, this was just a story Molly was telling herself instead of real events. It hasn't been since The Library at Mount Char that I felt so off-balanced by a book where I couldn't possibly predict what insane thing was going to happen next. 

Kevin Wilson (he of Nothing to See Here fame) wrote in a blurb on the back that Kittentits was "wildly funny" and I have to admit that I found it unbearably sad and not funny at all. I just kept thinking about how Molly really needed just one person to pay attention to her. BUT! I also did not find Nothing to See Here particularly funny, so if that is a book you enjoyed, maybe you would enjoy this one. 

There are many things I did like about this book. Molly's voice is crystal clear. The cursing is creative. I really loved how many interpretations of the book there are.

1. Holly herself said that the events in the book happened in her mind. Molly may not reliably retell the exact details, but the events happened.

2. I think Molly's mom died and then she was involved in a fire and the rest of it is just a dream Molly had. 

Is it weird that I disagree with the author's interpretation of her own book? Maaaaybe. 

It's really an interesting book and I thought we had an interesting discussion about it, so it might be a good book club book option if you're looking for one. Just, you know, with the caveats about the things people might get upset about. 

(Also, does anyone want to get sad that this book - set in 1992 - was tagged as "historical fiction" in Goodreads? The 1990s are historical? I'm basically prehistoric at this point, I guess.)

3.5/5 stars, but 5/5 for having Holly come to our book club

Lines of note:

The VCR's built in and there's a chair and study table, a READ poster with Bo Jackson reading The Old Man and the Sea. (page 34)

Why is this a line of note? Because I talked with Nance about The Old Man in the Sea just last week (the comments of this post). Also, do you remember when I down a rabbit hole about READ posters when I reviewed Dear Fahrenheit 451?

I've been staring at the sky waiting for the mail guy for hours. Now I'm on the porch floor gargling my spit and scissoring my legs. (page 56)

Gosh, do kids even know what it means to be this bored in this day and age?

One day I ask Evelyn where does wind come from and she says the ocean and I say Eff no, I say it blows from the vast flatness of the Great American Plains. (page 62)

Who can possibly know where wind comes from? It is one of those things I will never understand. 

But the camp brochure, the Quaker girls: they wore their hair in beautiful smoothed ponytails and carried what I discovered later were lacrosse sticks. Behind them were other nice-haired girls eating apples, like they had gotten back from picking these apples then spread out these blankets to sit. Their teeth were big and white biting into the apples, two or fewer cavities in those mouths for sure.

In real life I'd never seen girls like this before, all cereal with no sugar, no marshmallows. Girls I knew were white girls like me, all ratted hair and pebbles sunk deep into the skin of our knees. Or Black girls, cleaner but lippy. Not afraid of anything. (page 263)

I loved this description so much. Do you ever remember looking at college brochures and thinking "I do not look like these people"? Or how all wedding photos looked glamourous and perfect and thinking that you would never having those types of photos? But then!! I was in a college brochure! I was in glamourous wedding photos! But I still sort of see myself as the white trash girl with the ratted hair, too.

Then after he's done Bozo the Clown will come out and make jokes to the audience, he'll go down our line and shake each one of our hands. (page 311)

Bozo the Clown recently came up in the comments section of Elisabeth's post. I just did a rabbit on Bozo and learned a lot. Strap in.

The character was created by Alan W. Livingston, and portrayed by Pinto Colvig for a children's storytelling record album and illustrated read-along book set in 1946. The character first appeared on US television in 1949 portrayed by Colvig. After the creative rights to Bozo were purchased by Larry Harmon in 1957, the character became a common franchise across the United States, with local television stations producing their own Bozo shows featuring the character. Local TV stations could put on their own local productions of the show complete with their own Bozo. Harmon bought out his business partners in 1965 and produced Bozo's Big Top for syndication to local television markets not producing their own Bozo shows in 1966, while Chicago's Bozo's Circus, which premiered in 1960, went national via cable and satellite in 1978.

YOU GUYS. THERE WAS MORE THAN ONE BOZO. 

Obviously the one in Chicago was the best and most famous (say the Midwesterner). 

Things I looked up:

Blue Sunshine (page 49) - Blue Sunshine is a 1977 American horror film written and directed by Jeff Lieberman, and starring Zalman King, Deborah Winters, and Mark Goddard. The plot focuses on a series of random murders in Los Angeles, in which the only common link between the perpetrators is a mysterious batch of LSD that they had all taken years prior. There's something about bald people? This film has a cult following and I sort of feel like I want to watch it? But that's crazy because I've watched a total of two movies in the last five years.

ear trumpets (page 58) - I had NO IDEA this was a thing. a tubular or funnel-shaped device which collects sound waves and leads them into the ear. They are used as hearing aids, resulting in a strengthening of the sound energy impact to the eardrum and thus improved hearing for a deaf or hard-of-hearing individual. Ear trumpets were made of sheet metal, silver, wood, snail shells or animal horns. They have largely been replaced in wealthier areas of the world by modern hearing aid technology that is much smaller and less obtrusive, albeit more expensive.

A sound trumpet does not "amplify" sound. It takes the sound power received over a large area and concentrates it into a smaller area. The received sound is louder, but no power has been created in the process. DID YOU ALL KNOW THIS AND NOT TELL ME?

from Cattle Kate to Sheriff Bridger (page 68) - Cattle Kate is a western wear store in Boise, Idaho. It's named after Ella Watson, a woman who was lynched after being accused of cattle rustling, but was probably killed for standing up for herself in a male-dominated world. Sheriff Bridger may or may not be made up.

Wolfgang Paalen fumage (page 182) - Paalen's technique, which Paalen described as “dictation by candle,” in which he would hold a candle flame up to a treated canvas while the paint was still wet, marking the surface with soot; painting with smoke

Paalen, 1937

Anton Chekhov's The Seagull (page 316) - a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. The Seagull is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatizes the romantic and artistic conflicts among four characters

Hat mentions (why hats?):

Resident Friend Liesel was here before the fire, a snub-nosed woman who wore braided wicker hats. (page 57)

green pointy hats (page 68)

white paper hats (page 73)

sea captain's hat (page 145)

fat guy wise men with hats like giant red pin cushions on their heads (page 303)

winter hat (page 305)

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Have you ever had an author come to your book club? Do you think this seems like a book you would enjoy? 

Photo Every Day: June 2026, Week 1

Warning: A lot of caps lock in this post. I feel PASSION. (And I learned blogging from this lady here and reading her Instagram post that included caps lock and parentheses made me feel SEEN. This post is dedicated to Amy, she who has no idea who I am.)

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Wednesday, July 1

Driving home, I saw a family of sandhill cranes. I didn't get the whole family because they were scared of me, but what a pretty sight. You can see two big ones here and a baby's head!

Thursday, July 2

I drive by this beautiful church on a hill when I drive from work to the place where I get my hair cut. Today I had a few extra minutes and I stopped to take a photo of it. 

Friday, July 3

I went to our new local bookstore after work to order a book. I bought a book! Woot woot! Anyway, at the register, there were teeny tiny things and I could not resist. The quarter is obviously for scale. (What am I going to do with these things? I have no idea. I give it a week before the cat has batted them under the fridge or something.)

Look, the title Moby-Dick should technically have a hyphen. I KNOW. 

Saturday, July 4

For non-American friends, this is PEAK USA. We were celebrating 250 years of the Declaration of Independence, which is when my good friend TJ (Thomas Jefferson - known as a rapist of women who he enslaved) told the British to suck it. I went to a parade and a cookout AS IS MY AMERICAN RIGHT. Do I sound obnoxious? This is how I think the rest of the world thinks about us. And the rest of the world is right, I think? 

Anyway, THE PARADE. I have thoughts about parades. You need to be ON THEME. What I mean by this is that, if you are doing an American Independence Day float, you need it to be red, white, and blue OVER THE TOP. I want flags and bunting. I want streamers. I want the vehicle pulling your float to be one of those colors. (A black pickup on the Fourth? Pfft. GTFO.) I want music* BLARING. I want some sort of crowd participation. Chucking candy? Great. T-shirt cannon? Very on theme. Dogs teaching children a dance? AMAZING. 

*What I really wanted was Sousa marches. What I got was a lot of "God Bless America," "Proud to be an American," and the national anthem. Fine. I guess. Also, THIS IS THE YEAR CHICAGO HAS BEEN SINGING ABOUT. 

Hey, if you are doing a float for a parade and want me to consult, I'll only charge $100 an hour because you're a loyal blog reader who is reading this absolute trash nonsense I'm writing. But, for real, for real. I have parade thoughts. 

This one is visually pretty good (SMOKE! ROCKETS! black pickup pfft), but there was no music or crowd work. 

Also, this might make us all feel a little better about the world, but the Republican float had a giant inflatable DT and when it went by, there was a notable chill in the air. And this is a Republican stronghold. No chill in the air for the Democrat float because the people on the float were too busy handing out candy for anyone to realize they were Democrats. 

(I have such complicated feelings about this country.)

Sunday, July 5

Is this the ONLY photo I took all day? Yes, yes it is. I guess if you're going to do only one photo, you do a good one. My precious, precious baby KITTEH. 

Monday, July 6

I went to a fitness class at a local park after work. Was it in the high 80s? Sure, but I had plenty of water with me. This is our view. Can you even imagine? So beautiful.

Tuesday, July 7

A note on platforming. Getting Hannah to climb on things is one of the greatest joys of my life. BUT. There are so many caveats. Because of her dodgy back, I don't want her to jump very often. Because of her innate timidness, she doesn't want to climb on things that are much taller than this rock she's posing on below. Because we don't want her on furniture in the house, we don't want her to think she can climb on just anything. So this is sort of complicated.

I basically only have per platform on rocks and tree trunks. If she were a different dog, I'd have her up on picnic tables and chairs and the like, but I have This Dog and I have to work with her physical limitations and fears. But if you heard a woman squealing with joy in the six o'clock hour this morning in a park in southeastern Wisconsin, it was me BECAUSE LOOK HOW ADORABLE SHE IS. Those ears! The absolute sass of refusing to look at the camera! That grey muzzle! This is why I think it's okay to spend hundred of dollars a month on my precious girls. 

Wednesday, July 8

Friends! The price of a first-class stamp (and postcard stamps, if that's something that you are interested in) from USPS is going up by FOUR CENTS on July 12. If you are anything like me, this news sent you into a state of PANIC. 

Yes, I went to the post office after work and purchased TWO rolls (100 each) of first-class stamps and 30 postcard stamps. JUST BECAUSE. I'm hoping these rolls get me through the end of the year. Sorry, friends, you'll be getting flags on your holiday cards because I am not buying fancy ones just for that purpose. 

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Okay, who wants a teeny tiny book? Tell me what book you want in the comments and I'll try to find it for you. They had all sorts of books, not just classics. Do you have parade thoughts? What role do horses and cows play in the parades you go to? (There was also a BABY GOAT.)