Fast Rooster, an oil painting by Bob Cantor

Congratulations to Bob Cantor, whose pencil sharpener collection was recently featured on the website “Obsessionistas: collectors and their collections.”  Unfortunately, I can’t post the link to Facebook, because for some bizarre reason they’ve flagged it as abusive.  But I can post it to my blog, and post this link to Facebook.  I hope you enjoy Bob’s little bit of fame.

http://www.obsessionistas.co.uk/collections/2011/6/18/pencil-sharpeners-0031.html

P.S.  Thanks, Bob, for the plug in your entry!

“A tour group will expand to the width of the sidewalk.”

I came up with Mangin’s First Law of Tourist Behavior after a few years of contending with the tourists on my way to and from work at the Library of Congress.  I try to avoid running into tourists, especially tour groups, by avoiding First Street NE and SE, which runs between the Capitol and the Library.

But this isn’t going to be a rant about tourists.  After all, they do help the economy around here.  And it is a little cool that people come from far away to see what we live with everyday.  I’m writing this because this morning, despite my best efforts, I found myself in the middle of a tour group of high school students.  I went up to the tour group leader who was holding an open umbrella.  I smiled and said, “I have this law of tourist behavior that says that a tour group will expand to the width of the sidewalk.”  She replied, “I know!  I keep telling them not to do that!”

Before I could thank her for being conscious of other people trying to use the sidewalk, she pointed to the Adams Building (of the Library of Congress), and said, “Is that the Supreme Court?”  I was happy to point her in the right direction.  But not as happy as getting to say my piece to a tour group leader, and (bonus!) finding out she understood my position!

Fifi Le Pink Poodle

The Kinetic Sculpture Race is hosted by the American Visionary Art Museum.  The sculptures are amphibious, human-powered works of art.  The race covers 15 miles through the streets of Baltimore, and even a little dip into the Chesapeake Bay.

This year’s race was fantastic in every sense of the word, from the sculptures to the attendees to the city sights all along the race.
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Abbie, I mean, Miss Abigail shows great enthusiasm in sharing her story of collecting and a sort of notoriety which resulted

Abbie Grotke is a friend and colleague at work who, like me, has a rich life outside our place of employ.  She has gone from a collector of old books on etiquette, home economics, and marriage manuals to a web author to a newspaper columnist to published author to the subject of an off-Broadway play based on all of the above.

Today, at the Enoch Pratt Light Street Branch (where another friend of mine, Jan Westervelt, is the branch librarian), Abbie regaled a small but enthusiastic audience with her stories about the amazing trajectory of her life that all started with a collecting obsession.  In addition to being treated to an entertaining talk, I felt somewhat validated in my own collecting habits.

I have reviewed Abbie’s book, Miss Abigail’s Guide to Dating, Mating, and Marriage already, so you can read what I had to say about it here.   But I will say that her hilarious review of etiquette and romance through the last couple of centuries is well worth the read.  At times, the advice makes you want to howl at its naivété or its inappropriateness for modern times.  Other times, it makes you think, “some things never change.”  Either way, her breezy style makes it a fun read.  The book is available at  Amazon.com.

There are two websites for Miss Abigail:  Abbie’s original site, and the site that was created for the play.  Here both URLs:

http://www.missabigail.com/

http://www.missabigailsguide.com/

More photos from today’s talk can be found in this set in my Flickr photostream. You won’t want to miss some of the book covers.

>> More Books and Recordings

Water tower in Montgomery Hills

Once upon a time in the 1970s, the Montgomery Hills neighborhood of Silver Spring, Maryland got a new water tower.  Not only was it enormous, but it was painted an unsightly bright orange.  One day, large black letters appeared across its middle which said, “The Great Pumpkin,” no doubt a commentary on the water tower’s appearance, and of course, a reference to the TV special in which Linus van Pelt spends Halloween in a pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin to rise again.

The Great Pumpkin

In a way, the Great Pumpkin has risen again.  Eventually the tower was painted over with a pale blue color, and the Great Pumpkin of Montgomery Hills was forgotten, except by people like me who like a good prank.  Now, many years later, the words are becoming visible again, thanks to the deterioration of the pale blue paint job.

I wonder if anyone has a photograph of the tower when it was orange and the words were still clearly visible across its mid-section?  If so, I would love to see it.

Mt. St. Helens salt and pepper shaker

This salt and pepper shaker set attempts to commemorate the natural disaster that was the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.  It is made from actual volcanic ash from the event.  When the little shaker is stacked on top of the other, it shows the volcano as it looked before it exploded.  When it is taken off, the set shows what it looked like after it had spewed volcanic ash, steam, molten lava, and tons of boulders.  The ash plume alone reached 80,000 feet in the air, and was deposited in a number of states.  After the eruption was all over, 57 people were killed.  The after effects to the environment and the economy were felt for years afterward.  Somehow, a pair of salt and pepper shakers seems rather trivial for the enormity of the tragedy.

More photos:

• Certificate of authenticity
• Before the eruption
• Underside of the shaker

>> More Salt and Pepper Shakers I’ll Never Use

The Ocean Krewe at the Takoma Park Mardi Gras Pub Crawl

On Tuesday night March 8, Bob and I participated in the first annual Takoma Park Mardi Gras Pub Crawl.  We went out with Jennifer Cutting (whose idea it was) and her friends to celebrate Mardi Gras in Takoma Park.  The week before, Jennifer had given us a song to learn, called “Vive L’Amour,” or “Mon Aimable Brune.”  It’s a traditional Cajun tune.  We went over to her house the Sunday before to rehearse and to get our costumes.  I brought a triangle and my banjo ukulele.  I didn’t think that the triangle fit the music well, so I learned the chords to the song.  Bob brought his shaky egg.  We worked on the song so much that it was stuck in our heads for days after.  Even now, I’m afraid to listen to the song again.

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Demonstration of the "Pick Your Nose" cups at the TTRS

The Tacky Treasures Road Show (TTRS) is the highlight of the year at Julie’s Tacky Treasures.  Devotees of tacky treasures gather, present their finds, and await an appraisal of their tackiness.  Laughter and goofy prizes abound.  The Tacky Treasures Road Show is modeled after the PBS program “Antiques Road Show,” except that in this case the question the appraiser always asks is, “Do you have any idea how tacky this is?”  I love the sound of that, so I do it almost every year.

Mock outrage at an entry which I had given to the contestant for Christmas.

The most recent TTRS at this writing was held on January 22, 2011.  It was the largest audience I remember; about 50 people came to the house.  It was the first show at which someone had the audacity to enter an item that I had given them as a Christmas present. I would have been more outraged if I hadn’t been toying around with putting one of my husband’s gifts to me in the show. Lucky for us, I found two other entries that I liked better.

It was a remarkable TTRS, but most of all because someone entered the largest tacky treasure ever. The contestant could barely get it into his mini-van. And it was tacky. Boy was it tacky. Of course it took first prize, and it will be remembered forever in the annals of tackiness.  Read the Tacky Treasures Road Show report for 2011 to find out what it was.

I’ll keep doing these shows on an almost annual basis, as long as people keep saying to me, “I saw this incredibly tacky thing at the store [or flea market or mall or online], and right away I thought of you.”

Inflatable snowman hunter, seen in the Forest Glen area of Silver Spring, Maryland

Out for a walk on this sunny but cold Christmas Eve, I came across an abominable snowman of a different sort.  I’m not a big fan of giant, inflatable yard decorations in the first place.  But a snowman in a blaze orange hat, camouflage vest, and carrying a rifle is just too tacky.  And to make things worse, it’s next to a giant inflatable assemblage of adorable wildlife.

To make matters worse, on the other side of this yard, which is not that big, there’s another giant inflatable.  This one is a snow globe with Santa flying in his sleigh, pulled by a couple of reindeer.  So, when the hunter snowman is finished knocking off the deer and raccoons at close range, is he going to go for Santa’s reindeer?  I wonder what the small children of my neighborhood must think of this display.  I hope they have visions of sugarplums tonight, and not visions of dead reindeer in their neighbor’s lawn.

More tacky photos of this display, plus Christmas around our house:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tackyjulie/sets/72157625539489637/

Handerpants

These tighty-whiteys for your  hands are just too much!  I can’t top the promotional information on their website, so just go there for an informative video on all the uses for Handerpants™.  Suffice it to say, if you give these as Christmas presents, you will never be forgotten.

http://www.handerpants.com/