Bruce and Carol's bookcase with Emmys

"We moved from Southern California to Vancouver, WA a few years ago and trimmed our belongings mightily-- distilling by donation a couple of thousand books down to the easily re-readable few. This primary case has hardback Terry Pratchetts on the top row and halfway along the second, then a mix of Christopher Moore, Eric Sloane, Twain, political, religious, history, bio and autobigraphical books, computer graphics, dog guides and a few strays. We are serious readers but not always serious stuff.

Maybe weirdly, it was the Pratchett books I was concentrating on in the photo. A dear friend hooked me on the series years ago and we've shared Discworld anecdotes, enjoyed his signings, and then feasts featuring potatoes afterwards. So those books have become a vital refuge from the almost inescapable now. And then, I didn't want to slight the other books, and that opened the framing down to include the rows below."

Blogger's note:  After scanning the rows of books, my eyes were drawn to the top of the photo, where sharp-eyed readers may note on the bookcase the bases of some trophies.  I emailed Bruce back to inquire whether they would be of interest to TYWKIWDBI readers.  The answer startled me...

The bases on top of the bookcase are seven Emmy Awards that Carol and I received for our work as title designers (Cheers, As the World Turns, The X Files, Caroline in the City). With a partner, we designed and produced openings and graphics for over 300 tv series, pilots, specials and a few theatrical features.

 In that little corner of the industry we were able to create and pitch ideas (live action, animation, clip cuts, a mix), then produce sequences, direct, shoot, edit, animate, design logos, and work with terrific people. When we started in the late seventies everything was on film and transferred to tape and when we eased out of the business a few years ago, the last projects were pure computer graphics generated on home computers (at home) with the files laid off to digital media, not a camera in sight.

Since moving to Vancouver, WA we've only done a couple of pieces for the Portland PBS station and a pilot out of LA. This is our web site.

So that's us professionally.

Capewood's bookcase

"I actually built this beast myself about 30 years ago to consolidate my books. Some of the dimensions were specifically for my Encyclopedia Britannica. Since then I've also added Encyclopedia Britannica year books, I have most of them back to my birth year in 1951.It now contains most of my hardback collection and odd-sized books. Lots of atlases, a shelf of religious books, my leather bound Lord of the Rings, and Science Fiction Book Club of the month selections from the late 1960s. Plus knick-knacks. This lot represents a bit less than half of the books I currently own."

Steve Miller's bookcases

"I build book cases, but I can't keep up with the books. This one in the kitchen holds the "more-frequently referred-to" cookbooks. There are five shelves' worth elsewhere. I started cooking (and collecting) seriously after designing several cookbooks. I didn't know then I'd start designing furniture. Yes, the legs do curve on both outer surfaces."

"Nope, not more cookbooks. Not too sure what's in the boxes... This case is based closely on a Stickley D-handle bookcase, so it holds woodworking books. Occasionally, it's unloaded and hauled out for demos, since I now teach woodworking."

[Blogger's note:  I Googled Stickley + bookcases and found them being auctioned by Sotheby's !]

Stan B's bookcases

Except for the books on the floor and the last shelf, bottom right (the wife's interior design books), this is my collection of photography books (mostly monographs) that I've purchased since the late '70s. They're basically like poetry books that can be repeatedly seen and contemplated depending on mood- glean what you will. I buy only those of photographers whose various styles appeal to me, not because of potential value.

All the stuffed stuff and other crap "art objects" are also the wife's. The three and one half legged cat's name is Flynn- Nelson, our one eyed cat would not participate. The Hank Hill action figure on the upper right is mine...

Phone photo by: Lisa Wood (aka- "The Wife")

Nolandda's bookcases

Right bookshelf - more "serious" (i.e. pretentious) stuff

• Right bookcase, top shelf right : Only surviving photo of my maternal grandparent's wedding.
• Right bookcase, top shelf left : A photo of my paternal grandparent's wedding.
• Right bookcase, 2nd shelf from the top : literature. Here some mingling of my lovely and brilliant wife's books is evident.
• Right bookcase, 3nd shelf from the top : Philosophy, religion, etc
• Right bookcase, 4th shelf from the top : Languages (German, Spanish, Latin), travel guides, photo of vacation in Puerto Vallarta
• Right bookcase, 5th shelf from the top : Some non-fiction and Tolkien for some reason. A telegraph sounder I picked up at an antique store for 20 USD. Photo of wife's grandfather.
• Right bookcase, 2nd shelf from bottom : photos of wife's family, fossilized trilobite.
• Right bookcase, bottom shelf : Textbooks that might be useful as reference some day. Here the wife's neurology / psychology books have begun to creep in from the right.

·  Left shelf - More guilty pleasures:

• Left bookcase, top shelf : Mostly general si-fi. Other misc stuff. Notebook used to record borrowing from my shelves.
• Left bookcase, 2nd shelf from top : Marcus Didius Falco series (Lindsey Davis), Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling)
• Left bookcase, 2nd shelf from bottom : Misc books, stack of dense European Literature left by Dutch exchange student
• Left bookcase, bottom shelf : Graphic novels / comics

·  Of course the Dungeons & Dragons stuff has its own bookcase in the back (with the board games) where it isn't immediately visible to visitors as these shelves in the parlor are.

Adrian's bookcase

YouTube link.

"Just showing what's on my main bookshelf at the end of 2012. Not every title is legible, but it's the best of several takes. There's one more shelf underneath (containing textbooks and magazines) which I chose not to include.

Happy to answer any questions."

p.s. - a video like this is a quick way to create documentation for insurance purposes in case of fire, flood, tornado, or other biblioholocaust.

Professor Batty's bookcase

"This is my personal shelf, my wife has her own. The top row are all Icelandic books, with many of the sagas and all of the translated work of Halldór Laxness. This is an active reference for my Laxness in Translation site. There is a fair amount of modern Icelandic fiction on the second row as well; the Arnaldur Indriason mysteries, Sjón's strange novels, along with the late Minnesota author Bill Holm's evocative essay collections. The rest of the case holds music-related books (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Björk), mythology (Robert Graves, Joesph Campbell), folktales, some modern fiction (Douglas Coupland, Jeffery Eugenides, Charles Portis), a variety of art books and some miscellany. Some of the more interesting titles:

Songs of a Sourdough, by Robert W. Service (1907)
The San Francisco Calamity by Earthquake and Fire, by Charles Morris
The Art Journal Volume XVIII, (1879)
After 1903—What?, by Robert Benchley (1938)
California and the West, by Edward Weston (1940)
Growing Pains, by Wanda Gág (1939) 

Most of these books I look at or read fairly often, I don't keep books I won't read again."

Rob's bookcase in Amersfoort

"I didn't do any tidying up, it's always a bit messy. A bookcase is a window in one's soul - I always look at them when I visit somebody. You can spot lots of atlases and historical books, a.o. about NY, Berlin. There are some photo books, books about science, travel, etymology, and even the Von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu I still have to read.

At the top there are two dinosaurs I made when I was (very) young."

Reposted from 2020 while I'm on summer vacation.  

Dora's rainbow bookcase

"This picture was taken a couple of years ago when my husband and I had just moved into our first home together and merged our books collections. Not knowing how best to organize them, I went for visual appeal. So it ends up being a mix of my favorite novels (best is the Dark Tower series), his technical and 'geek' reads (tons of Make magazines on lower shelves not shown because it didn't fit the rainbow effect I was going for), and baby books since we were new parents. As you said in your post, the rest of our lives are delineated by other bookshelves in other rooms."

David's bookshelves

I have one entire bedroom plus my dining area dedicated to some fifteen bookshelves. My large library has always been an integral and important part of my life and identity.

Instead of wide photos of lots of shelves, here are some pics of my “Special Bookshelf” containing books I’ve had the privilege of having signed by the authors. Most of these are science-fiction novels and some are from famous authors that have now passed on, including L. Sprague de Camp, Roger Zelazny, and Jack Williamson, or from once obscure but now well-known guys like George R. R. Martin (Game of Thrones). I interviewed most of these folks back in the ‘80s for a nationally syndicated radio show I co-produced, so most of these were personal signatures.

I also treasure several signed books on shamanism, alternative history, and visionary art from my friends, author Graham Hancock and artist Alex Grey. I’m including a pic of one of the books signed by Golden Age science-fiction author, L. Sprague de Camp and his wife Catherine. At the time I met them, he owned the Conan the Barbarian stories of Robert E. Howard and I got to go along to Cross Plains, Texas while they interviewed people who knew Howard back in the ‘30s.

 Of all my possessions, I think I’d grab these signed books right after rescuing the family photos if there was some disaster.

Zhoen's bookcases

"These are our bookshelves. Best part about our house over the last year and a half we've lived here, is not needing our old make-shift bookcases. So nice to think, "hey, maybe we need more books!"

"As for the books, I'll let them speak for themselves."

Chris' bookcase

"Here is a picture of my book case that I lost in the floods that hit southern Alberta this year The most ironic book was the first one that floated up at me: Fooled by Randomness by Taleb - one of my favorite books.

My bookshelf was a mix of finance-oriented books, good novels, knick knack curiosity books picked up at used book stores, and the occasional decoration that my wonderful wife put on the shelf to pretty it up. Lately the bottom two shelves were full of children's board books and early readers. I have finally gotten my oldest interested in reading Tolkien and hopefully Bradbury and Asimov soon. It is going to be fun going to used book stores to discover these books again.

In total the volunteers that helped me lift all the useful and useless memories out of my basement lifted thousands of books - God bless the volunteers that lifted my textbooks out. They were heavy enough lugging to classes, but full of water....

The things I was sad to see go were: my Economist magazines - I saved the ones that were 'historical,' culling them every couple of years; my small print finds like a collection of 22 proactive Canadians in the spirit of Bob Edwards; and compilations of Economist papers that I had personally compiled from all the AER tombs and painstakingly photocopied and bound for seminar course reading lists.

Really though I just realized that this bookcase was memories, and sooner or later it and the books on it were destined for a dumpster. The friends that came to help muck it out in the goo and stink and lift the water-filled books and couches up a lot of stairs ... well those I was glad to have. Heck of a wake for all those books."

Jerry's bookcase

This is my home-office bookcase. I'm a freelance writer, and I write about motorcycles. Most of these books are technical volumes, or about motorcycle history. Some are travel books, others repair and service manuals. A couple of items of note on the top shelf: two apothecary jars containing dirt from famous race tracks, both long since gone. The salt shaker contains salt from the Bonneville Salt Flats, where land-speed records are set. The piston atop on the the jars is out of an old motorcycle I used to race. The stuffed Opus the Penguin is…well, it's just there.

The Weaving One's library

"This is my library - the room I promised myself when I was just learning to read and realized I wanted my own books, not hand-me-downs or loans from the library. The only change I made for the picture was to shift my reading lamp out of the way.

Fiction (the first four shelves) is sorted by author, by publication date, except for Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover series which are in best-guessed chronological Darkover time, and the Star Trek books where author doesn’t really matter. Reference, non-fiction, and YA are on the fifth shelf, and the sixth shelf holds books I haven’t read yet. I read one, decide whether I keep it or not, and then shelve it or send it away. I don’t buy many paperbacks any more - I find them too difficult to read since my eyesight is poor. It took a long time, but I can now not finish a book. I don’t have time to read bad books any more.

I keep books I want to revisit, and I rarely lend - I don’t think I ever got past the selfish “this is my book and you can’t have it!” stage of my development. Too many not returned, or even worse, returned damaged. I’ll buy another copy and send it to someone if I really think they’ll love it.

The chair belonged to my mom’s mother, the rugs belonged to my father’s. The shelves are filled with treasures acquired on travels, at auctions, or (in the case of the Star Trek ephemera) gifts from friends and family. It is the only room in the house that doesn’t have a computer, stereo, or working timepiece. The clock on the top right was rebuilt by my dad, but I’ve never been able to get the weights re-adjusted so it runs anything but slow, so I wind it once a year just to keep it exercised.

What most people don’t know about me: I’ve been poor enough to go hungry but still found money to buy books. I have books I read at least once a year. I can read a paperback a dozen times without anyone being able to tell it has even been open. I have another book shelf in my living room with several of those green grocer bags stashed next to it - the bags are so if the house catches fire, I can get the books on it out of the house before everything else goes. And yes, I’ve timed it."

---The Weaving One

Ionut's books

"First of all, I know this it's far too affected to name these three books a "library," but that's what they are for me. Poor them, they don't even have a place of their own yet.

I relocated from Romania to the UK three months ago and unfortunately books aren't among the things you can bring with you in such an exodus. However, in accord with the radical change of scenery, language included, I have decided to start a new library from scratch. I too am devoted to that catchphrase that the library is the window to a person, and it is a wonderful and exhilarating feeling to start a new library in a new place.

For the moment, it contains just a Romanian-English dictionary, the only book I had brought with me from Romania, and which I sometimes beg to no avail to show me some light in this bizarre language of yours; then Richard Wilhelm's I Ching, which I constantly study; and The Waste Books of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. The other two, Genghis Khan by John Man and Tropic of Capricorn by Simon Reeve are some "easy non-fiction" from the local library, and which is my version of escapist literature in the afternoon or evening, after strenuous mental activity in the morning.

It will be a pleasure to watch this new library grow, with impulsive additions as well as some necessary, well calculated "adornments" (meaning those books I will not read with urgency, but which have to be there) and everything fitting in like pieces of a puzzle, creating in time some kind of mirror in which I can look and always see my true self. Next on the list is a beautifully illustrated edition of H. C. Andersen, who will always be one of my favorite writers; van Gogh's letters; and some Borges."

---Ionut

Stan's bookcase

[In 2013 I introduced] a new feature ("Show Us Your Bookcase") at TYWKIWDBI, inspired by a Guardian essay last year:

Only a bookshelf can truly hold a reader's history and future at the same time... A lifelong reader myself, I've always had an obsession with seeing a person's bookshelf, to get a sense of what they've brought inside their home and their head. Bookshelves are universal in that almost everyone has one, and unique in that no two collections are the same... Sharing your shelf is sharing yourself – showcasing the building blocks that have crafted your knowledge, personality, and identity.

As I read that essay, I was reminded that as a young man I was always eager to examine the bookcases of friends and colleagues to learn more about them.  I confess to still doing that when I visit homes for holiday parties.

So I'll start, with a photo and a brief description (in case the image doesn't supersize) of one of five bookcases in my basement office.

On the top shelf are the complete novels of Agatha Christie, painstakingly scavenged from used-paperback-book stores over perhaps a decade.  Below that, D&D figurines and guidebooks (gathering dust) and a mix of sci-fi and miscellaneous books.

The third shelf down has the residua of what was once a complete collection of the Time-Life Reading Program, first acquired by subscription in the 1960s, then supplemented from old bookstores and the internet, then finally weeded down to just the ones I had rated 4+ after reading.  Behind that and to the right are the complete works of John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson in used paperback and hardbacks, from bookstores and eBay.  Also a stack of favorite sci-fi stories ruthlessly ripped out of annual paperback collections because I didn't want to save the whole book.

Below that the Random House Dictionary that I grab when I need something quickly (the OED doesn't fit on the shelves) and some reference books and small books.  Under that a shelf of mostly nonfiction and archaeology, and finally a tall shelf with notebooks, photo albums, and office supplies.

Scattered on the shelves are some non-book items, including pix of my late father, some geodes and knick-knacks, a spritz-bottle for chasing away cats, and a treasured piece of mortar from the Berlin Wall ("ein Mauerspecht"), pried loose in the dark of night from the East side (!) of the wall in 1989.

The rest of my life is delineated by other bookcases and shelves, but this will do as an introduction.

If you'd like to participate and share your stuff with other TYWKIWDBI readers, here are the guidelines:

1)  Participation is strictly limited to faithful readers of TYWKIWDBI who consistently identify themselves by names in comments.  For this feature "Anonymous" readers are left out (because we wouldn't know which anon was which).  But you can join in if you access the comments via the Anonymous choice on the pulldown, and then sign your name, as Swift and others do.

2)  The photo(s) can show a single shelf (if that defines you), or a bookcase, or even a wall or room (I will take some liberties in cropping images).  Email it to me at the address in my bio in the right sidebar [retag4726(at)mypacks.net] or provide a link to an online photo by writing a comment on a post.  You can tidy up a shelf, but don't create an artificial one - this is the equivalent of a come-as-you-are party.

3)  I'd prefer that you not include yourself in the photo (this is not a "bookshelfie"), but a pet would be fine.

4)  Include a few sentences or several paragraphs re things interesting or unusual, but I reserve the right to edit down rambling dissertations and confessionals.  I will proofread your text for any obvious typos and add italics to book titles to standardize the formatting.  And I may truncate text that starts to ramble or gets too personal (or promotional).

All readers should feel free to comment on these book posts both re the books chosen and the story lines accompanying them (unkind comments will be zapped as soon as I see them).

If you want me to modify what I've posted, let me know.  

Originally posted in 2013; reposted in 2018, 2020, and now in 2024.

Notice to regular readers

June is the traditional month for graduations, weddings, and family gatherings, and I'm going to honor that tradition by taking several weeks off from blogging.   In my absence I think I've arranged for my favorite group of posts to be reposted - the "readers bookshelves" series that I inaugurated in I think 2013 and have reposted at least once in 2020.  It is the one subsection of TYWKIWDBI that is truly unique, and these are the posts that I most enjoy.  I'm hoping this reposting will give new readers a chance to see what the old-timers lives were like.  I am willing to accept new material for the series (or updates from the old-timers), and there should be some guidelines accompanying the first post of the series.  It might be best to refrain from sending lots of pix while I'm gone because they might overload my emailbox (which only has a capacity of 100 MB).

The other aspect of my vacation from blogging is that your comments (on old posts or the new ones) will probably not be curated until I get back to my desk, so don't interpret silence as rejection.  I'm looking forward to getting up and walking around and actually talking to people and seeing what this thing people call "real life" is like.  Bye for now.  Stan.

Addendum:  the “readers bookshelves” reposts are not posting.  Thought I had them scheduled for this week.  Not sure what’s wrong.  Expect silence on the blog a few more days.

Built-in bookmarks

Every now and then one of the books I get from the library has a cloth bookmark stitched into the binding.  To be quite honest, the amenity is superfluous, because I always have a paper bookmark that I can jot down notes and page references on - but I really do like these cloth ones.  They seem to hearken back to an earlier era when books were crafted and stylish rather than mass-produced.  I don't know whether these bookmarks constitute a significant expenditure in the production scheme, but I wish more publishers would incorporate them.

Addendum: a Google search yields many articles about things left behind in books returned to libraries.

John Farrier can probably add some salient comments.  The Oakland Library list is immense.

"Intertwining" illusion

What you are looking at is four concentric circles of boxes.  Credit to Baingio Pinna.

Why prior generations were happier

Working together we can defeat socialism

Via.

Interesting footwear

Might give added gait stability, like using a three-point cane.

Found at (where else?) the Awful Taste But Great Execution subreddit.

Where to hide stuff in your home

Allegations of treason in Canada

From an article in Politico:

OTTAWA — The capital of one of the world’s most stable democracies is gripped by growing panic about foreign agents working in elected office. A bombshell report by Canadian lawmakers has unnerved Parliament Hill, alleging that unnamed politicians have been covertly working with foreign governments.

The revelation in heavily redacted findings released this week by an all-party national security committee adds intrigue to a separate and ongoing inquiry into foreign interference in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 elections.

The new report from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians is the first to suggest that lawmakers in Canada’s parliament may have helped foreign actors meddle in political campaigns and leadership races. Heightened anxiety in Ottawa about foreign interference comes in the middle of historic global elections where factors such as artificial intelligence and emboldened foreign powers are testing the resilience of democratic systems.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been on the defensive since the allegations broke Monday. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on the government to name names...

The all-party NSICOP said Monday that it has reviewed intelligence that suggests “semi-witting or witting” parliamentarians have worked with foreign missions to mobilize voters during a political campaign; have taken cash “knowingly or through willful blindness” from foreign missions or their proxies; and have shared privileged information with foreign diplomatic officials.

More at the link.

Wealth Inequality in the United States

About 6 minutes long, and worth your time.  But if you are in a hurry, start at the 1:36 mark.  The last five minutes is stunning.

So there's fire in Dolly Parton's pajamas?

There's a term for the type of grammatical ambiguity in this headline, but I can't remember the word.  Not "eggcorn."  Something else.  (And since this was in the New York Times, I can't help but wonder if it was intentional).  What is the term?  Then I'll write some more about it.

Addendum:  Hat tip to reader Brad, who remembered the term "crash blossom."  See my previous posts "Two 'crash blossom' headlines" and "Crash blossom of the day."  And way back in 2010 I posted this list of crash blossom headlines (selected favorites in boldface):  (I double-dare you to read the 16 boldface ones out loud without laughing.  It has never been accomplished).

Blind Bishop Appointed To See

L.A. Voters Approve Urban Renewal by Landslide

Patient At Death's Door - Doctors Pull Him Through

Stadium Air Conditioning Fails - Fans Protest

Queen Mary Having Bottom Scraped

Fund Set Up for Beating Victim's Kin

Never Withhold Herpes Infection From Loved One

Autos Killing 110 a Day - Let's Resolve to Do Better

Blind Woman Gets New Kidney from Dad She Hasn't Seen in Years

Flaming Toilet Seat Causes Evacuation at High School

Defendants Speech Ends in Long Sentence

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers

Stiff Opposition Expected to Casketless Funeral Plan

Collegians are Turning to Vegetables

Quarter of a Million Chinese Live on Water

Farmer Bill Dies in House

Eye Drops off Shelf

Reagan Wins on Budget, But More Lies Ahead

Miners Refuse to Work after Death

Two Sisters Reunited after 18 Years in Checkout Counter

New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks

Deaf College Opens Doors to Hearing

Prosecutor Releases Probe into Undersheriff

Old School Pillars are Replaced by Alumni

Sex Education Delayed, Teachers Request Training

4-H Girls Win Prizes for Fat Calves

After Detour to California Shuttle Returns to Earth

Air Head Fired

Alcohol Frequently Seen In Cases (from the Colorado Daily News)

Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft

Ban On Soliciting Dead in Trotwood

Bank Drive-in Window Blocked by Board

British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands

British Union Finds Dwarfs in Short Supply

Chef Throws His Heart into Helping Feed Needy (from the Louisville Courier Journal)

Child's Death Ruins Couple's Holiday

Deer Kill 17,328

Drunk Gets Nine Months in Violin Case

Drunken Drivers Paid $1000 in `84

Enfields Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide

Enraged Cow Injures Farmer with Ax

Heat Wave Linked to Temperatures (from Daily Sun Post)

Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors (from the Providence Journal)

Include your Children When Baking Cookies

Infertility Unlikely To Be Passed On (from the Montgomery Advertiser)

Iraqi Head Seeks Arms

Jerk Injures Neck, Wins Award (from the Buffalo News)

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks

Killer Sentenced to Die for Second Time in 10 Years (from the Post News)

Lack of Brains Hinders Research (from The Columbus Dispatch)

Lansing Residents Can Drop Off Trees

Lawyer Says Client is Not That Guilty

Lawmen from Mexico Barbecue Guests

Legislator Wants Tougher Death Penalty

Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half (From the Valley News)

Lung Cancer in Women Mushrooms

Man Jumps Off Bridge. Neither Jumper nor Body Found

Man Minus Ear Waives Hearing (from The Sun)

March Planned For Next August

Messiah Climaxes In Chorus Of Hallelujahs (The Anchorage, Alaska Times)

Milk Drinkers are Turning to Powder

New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group

New Vaccine may Contain Rabies

Official: Only Rain Will Cure Drought (from The Herald-News, Westpost, Massachusetts)

Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over (from The Overland News)

Plane Too Close to Ground, Crash Probe Told

Prostitutes Appeal to Pope

Putting Mattress On Floor Prevents Fall From Bed (from the Associated Press)

Queen Mary Having Bottom Scraped (from The Times, in the U.K.)

Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge

Safety Experts Say School Bus Passengers Should Be Belted

Shot Off Woman's Leg Helps Nicklaus to 66

Some Pieces of Rock Hudson Sold at Auction

Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says

Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim

Steals Clock, Faces Time

Stolen Painting Found by Tree

Stud Tires Out

Study Finds Sex, Pregnancy Link (Cornell Daily Sun, December 7, 1995)

Survivor of Siamese Twins Joins Parents

Teenage Girls Often Have Babies Fathered by Men (The Sunday Oregonian)

Two Convicts Evade Noose, Jury Hung (Headline from the Oakland Tribune)

Two Soviet Ships Collide, One Dies

Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead

War Dims Hope for Peace

Woman Improving After Fatal Crash

Addendum:  one on a book cover, posted at Creative Bloq, via Neatorama. 

Here's one I spotted today (March 25) on Google News:

Just to clarify: it's the tornado that's expected to last for hours. not the homes.  And here's an old one I posted back in 2010:

Reposted from 2020 because I needed a laugh today.

Addendum:  Found this one at Bad Newspaper.

An accidental death mask

"The handwritten French label on the reverse of this tiny plaster cast explains its history. In 1878, a stone Roman burial sarcophagus was found in the gardens of a Paris convent. When a tiny Roman child died 1800 years before, cement sealing the sarcophagus leaked inside and formed a mould of the child’s face. This plaster cast was created using that mould sometime between its discovery and 1920. The translation states the child was buried with a perfectly preserved small glass bottle. However, there is no indication of the cause of death."

Via the ArtefactPorn subreddit.  More information at Memoria and Damnatio Memoriae. Preserving and erasing identities in Roman funerary commemoration.

Girls' "tomato clubs" (1910)

"In 1910, Mare Samuella Cromer, a rural schoolteacher in South Carolina, organized a girl's tomato club so females aged 9 to 20 could “not learn simply how to grow better and more perfect tomatoes, but how to grow better and more perfect women.”

Soon, there were tomato clubs in a number of states. The idea was simple: Teach rural girls how to plant and grow tomatoes, then harvest and can them, and sell them for a profit. The only work the girls didn't do themselves was the plowing of their individual 1/10th acre plots.

In one notable example, a girl harvested 2,000 lbs. of tomatoes. After sales, she earned a profit of $78 (about $2,470 today). This was *real* money for girls who came from hardscrabble backgrounds.

In 1915, one tomato club girl was quoted as saying the work was “long and sometimes tiresome...It has been a way by which I could not only have my own spending money and pay my expenses at the Farm Camp, but I also have a bank account of sixty dollars." (About $1,881 today.)"

Text and cropped image via the InterestingToRead subreddit.  While looking for the source I found The History of Tomato Clubs, Tomato Club Canning Equipment, Early 20th Century, and the Wikipedia page for Home demonstration clubs.

A "rider on the storm"

"Here, I report on a rare case that implies the upper limit of the seabird capacity to tolerate a storm. A GPS-equipped streaked shearwater (Calonectris leucomelas) was apparently caught in a huge typhoon, showing swirling flight high over the mainland of Japan. It finally came through without landfalls when the typhoon returned to the sea...

...the overall direction of the bird's movement overlapped the path of the typhoon, with a sequence of five anticlockwise circles  50–80 km in diameter. While swirling, the movement speed of the bird was between 80 and 170 km h−1, with a GPS-based altitude record of up to 4700 m. These speeds and altitudes were much higher than those recorded during regular flights (flight speed: 10–60 km h−1, altitude: <100 m...

...the horizontal movement directions and high speeds of the shearwater were likely to be passively determined, whereas the altitude might have been partially self-controlled. It remains unknown whether the bird could not or chose not to escape from the typhoon; once caught in the storm and displaced toward land, it might have been safer to stay within the storm rather than to resist it until it returned to the ocean with reduced wind speeds. This speculation was supported by the fact that the bird landed on the water as soon as it returned to the sea..."

Full scientific report at Ecology.

The astronaut wears Prada

"In a press release, Axiom said Prada would bring expertise with materials and manufacturing to the project.

One astronaut told the BBC he thought Prada was up to the challenge due to their design experience.  That experience has been built not only on the catwalks of Milan but also through Prada's involvement in the America's Cup sailing competition.

"Prada has considerable experience with various types of composite fabrics and may actually be able to make some real technical contributions to the outer layers of the new space suit," according to Professor Jeffrey Hoffman, who flew five Nasa missions and has carried out four spacewalks."

"Blackwater rivers" are "jungle tea"

Many rivers are dark enough to be called “blackwaters” and for some, it even gets into the name. One of the largest tributaries of the Amazon, and the fifth greatest river in the world by discharge, is called the Rio Negro because of the organic matter that darkens its waters. Yet even among these, the Ruki stands out.

Like other blackwater rivers, the Ruki gets its color from dissolved organic compounds (DOCs) in its waters. Ironic as it may seem, its lack of sediment also contributes. Although soil darkens a clear mountain stream, it’s seldom as black as the tropical forest matter that gives the Ruki its color. The Ruki runs through nearly flat territory, so it doesn’t scrape up much sediment.

On the other hand, the heavy rains in the area wash DOCs from plant material on the forest floor. During the rainy season, the same flatness causes large areas to flood, and remain underwater for weeks, leaching even more compounds out. “The Ruki is essentially jungle tea,” Drake said.

More information at IFL Science.