...two to four days of my life just became much, much, much easier.

Thanks to all of my friends, I'm able to do what I want to be doing those days in the first place. But now, rather than them being crazy complicated, moving myself from house to hotel to hotel to hotel on a daily basis, I go from house one hotel, then move down the hall on the same floor one to three days later. It's easier in other ways, too.

I am blessed. So very, very blessed.

I already knew that. It still has the power to blow me away.

Reminder to self: pack the honey bees...and anything else likely to bring a bit of welcome delight.

Happy birthday to the remarkable malibrarian, iraunink, and Robin Abrahams. I am delighted and honored to share this special day with each of you!

I'm an Improbable investigator again, and this time with an actual story rather than simply a link helping to pass along a news report about putting colored glitter in rhinos' food to learn if one of them was pregnant.

Thirty-nine years. How the heck did that happen?

I love how clearly I still remember what it was like to sit around a campfire with a couple dozen fellow campers in the middle of 600 acres of wilderness at Bows Lake, outside Vanderbilt, Michigan.

Six hundred acres and then some. Most of the land surrounding the church's property was also undeveloped.

We listened to the radio broadcast, staring up at the stars and contemplating the wonder and reality of humankind being up on the Moon at that very moment. Stepping out of the lander and onto the surface. It still sends the very best kind of chills up and down my spine. Let's do that more. Let's do that lots more.

dhole has been on an archeology dig in Ashkelon since the beginning of June. He's been posting reports of each day's progress, usually with photos, and I've been reading along with growing interest and pleasure. He's just posted his final report, a thorough recap in pictures and prose. It's utterly delicious. Highly recommended.

You can also see his individual daily reports; they're not friends-locked or otherwise filtered.

Thank you, dhole!

batwrangler is much faster at putting photos online than I am. She also takes much better pictures than I do, though I do get designer credit for suggesting the corrugated backdrop.

It all adds up to Saturday's win-win.

(Clicking will take you to her Twinzy Toy Flickr gallery. Dr. Duck, Man-in-the-Moon, Mr. Tick Tock, Skater Doll, Pandora, and more. Thanks, batwrangler!)

She even brought Puccini, who was very well behaved and good company. And tasty pineapple zucchini bread. Life is good.

"'Twinzy' toys can be chewed and washed. Have been used by many a baby for teething purposes."

Yup, the copywriter got that caption right. It's under a black and white photo showing an adorable Twinzy Toy elephant and a familiar Twinzy Toy horse in the December 1940 issue of Baby Talk magazine. It's the upper right image in the auction listing picture. Image size: 2-3/8"x 1-3/4".

Baby Talk has a cover price of 15 cents and claims it was read by over 100,000 new mothers every month. The fact that my copy is stamped "Compliments of Dy-Dee Wash, Inc." suggests just where those 100,000 new mothers were coming from. The fact that there isn't a natural spot in the layout of the cover for a diaper service or other gift stamp suggests that they were trying to maintain plausible deniability, or perhaps just that it was a different time.

Google and Wikipedia is my friend: BabyTalk is America' oldest baby magazine. And, yes, even the publisher's website agrees that it was launched as a supplement to a cloth diaper delivery service. It was only 5 years old when this issue was published; Twinzy Toys were 22. "Many a baby," indeed.

I'll enjoy looking through the entire 40-page issue, and also the newspaper clippings tucked inside pages 16-17. They all appear to be from the Decatur Herald. My favorite for the "have times really changed" contest is the Your Baby and Mine column. The headline reads "New Mothers Always Feel Helpless and Incompetent" -- not quite how a headline writer would handle the topic today, but it's still a common experience. Myrtle Meyer Eldred's lead, however.... Well, it tells a different story:

"Every mother who brings home a 10 to 14-day-old baby from the hospital..."

Right. ( More from the magazine, including the Bundles for Britain campaign )

High 70s.

Sunshine.

Light, refreshing breeze.

Ripe blackberries make for slow walking up to the mailbox.

Yum.

Oh, look, there are some ripe raspberries, too.

Skater Doll is here and is happily getting acquainted with the other Twinzy Toys in my collection.

Label surprise

This is the label on the pull-toy Skater doll. It's unlike any other label in my collection! In particular:

1) The Twinzy Toy identifying information is typically hand-lettered rather than typeset when it appears directly on the toy or on the sewn-in label. Even the toys that have paper tags were created with a typewriter rather than actual typography.

2) None of the other Twinzy Toys mention the Squier Twins (that would be Blanche and Bernice, aka Auntie Blanche, my great-aunt and sister's Godmother, and Auntie Bun, my great-aunt and Godmother).

3) The drawing of the twins is unique to my eye. Now that I can see its detail, I know the art was also used on the cardboard topper on the two mint-in-package Twinzy Toys I have (a bunny and a small bag containing a block and a ball). On one of them, it's mostly a blue blob. On the other, there's some more detail, but nothing like the detail on Skater doll.

Very exciting! I'm certain the typesetting and printing was done in my Great-Grandfather's tag factory, the American Manufacturing Company. I have the ATF 1923 type specimen book that belonged to Charles Squier, the twins' father; now I have another example of some of the type he owned.

Click on the picture for a few more Twinzy Toy photos, including some showing the trade show booth banner that hung at the New York Toy Fair for many years between the 1920s and 1940s. One of these days, I'll take individual pictures of each of the toys, or, better yet, perhaps batwrangler will come down for a weekend and do the honors. Or another likely suspect, though the subject matter really does suit the bear maker best.

I suppose it's fitting that my first eBay Twinzy Toy success would immediately be followed by another. The second auction wasn't for another toy, but rather for the December 1940 issue of Baby Talk magazine. Twinzy Toys are mentioned in its pages, most likely in the washable toys article shown in the picture. A few of them look right, but I won't know for sure until the actual magazine arrives. I won the auction tonight at the minimum bid and quickly paid the seller. It's coming from Louisville, so I should have it soon.

I've had the Twinzy search set up on eBay ever since I finally registered for an account a year ago. Having the second hit show up just two days after the auction on the first hit ended was amusing. I almost find myself hoping that the seller noticed that somebody out there was interested in Twinzy Toys and added mention of them to her description. That would make sense. Otherwise, it was sheer happenstance, and that's just plain weird.

It's been a Yankee Doodle Dandy of a week, actually. An Ig meeting brought me over to Cambridge on Tuesday. Thanks to the luxurious hospitality at debgeisler and benveniste's in Middleton, I was able to stay in the Boston area for a mini-vacation through the holiday.

Pleasures included:
— an increasingly rare Wednesday night visit to the NESFA Clubhouse. Tim Szczesuil brought the Boskone 46 flyers, which arrived from the printer last week. Yay! (I've been somewhat over-committed on fannish projects of late. It's good to have one done, printed, and delivered.)
— a thought- and emotion-provoking afternoon at the Wedded Bliss exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum with Deb
— modest bits of work both professional and fannish
— the easy company of good friends
— apricot sweetroll; blueberry coffeecake; tabbouleh; fresh mango, peaches, and cherries; Italian beef; wicked pissah peppers; fresh French fries…yum. Serious yum.

Yep, it's a mini-vacation all right. One I'm treating more like a real vacation. It's a good one.

We're already talking about plans for next year. The Boston Pops Fireworks are well beyond anything I've previously experienced in the realm of exploding pretties that fill the sky with sparkle, smoke, and sound. And here I thought I knew from fireworks….

Being there in person does seem to be in order. Better yet, there's Sail Boston, part of the Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge 2009. Sail Boston runs shortly after the 4th, from July 8-13.

This is the first Independence Day that I've spent in the Boston area. Usually, I'm at Westercon. Last year, carnyjack and I spend most of the day leaving the country, heading north into Canada as we drove up for Baggiecon and the Winnipeg Folk Festival. I never really gave it any thought -- Boston is a great place to celebrate America's independence. I look forward to doing so again next year. With sweetrolls, and friends.

...an exceptionally warm winter.

I received my annual fuel oil budget statement in today's mail. ( Scary numbers behind the cut )

I'll have to figure out something. I'll simply have to.

I feel like I'm in an episode of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.

And I feel like the rest of the country, and much of the world, is here with me.

It's just starting to rain here at Toad Woods. A big wind came through, starting about 10 minutes ago, quickly growing louder, more intense, and louder still.

A few rain drops, and now a heavy downpour. Yep, there's the thunder. Rumble. Rumble.

My quick check while the wind was growing stronger turned up the weather advisory and weather alarm in effect. "Thunderstorms, some severe." Yep, I'd say they got that right.

It's all very fast. The initial heavy downpour that started two short paragraphs ago has already lightened to a steady soaking.

Too bad the squash and pumpkin seeds are still in their packets, sitting on the dentist's cabinet. They would have liked this rain if they'd been in the ground for a month now as they should have been.

The news is spreading 'round: Jack Speer died earlier today. On the Virtual Corflu, I heard he was doing poorly and had been diagnosed as terminal; I'm glad he and Ruth were able to attend Corflu Silver and help it shine.

Joe Siclari and Edie Stern told me my very favorite Jack Speer story just few minutes after it happened. The last day of Intersection (the 1995 Worldcon in Glasgow), they had the joy of seeing Jack jumping up and down in the Bouncy Castle that was set up in the exhibit hall. I so wish I'd seen that for myself! We ran 3 photos of Jumpin' Jack next to the GoH tribute Joe and Edie wrote for the Noreascon 4 souvenir book, so I can at least look at those in delight and appreciation.

In 1996, Jack was typically one of the last visitors to stop by the L.A. Con III fan lounge late at night. And he stayed up later still -- I remember him standing, listening to the filkers in the lobby as I was making my way back to my room sometime around 3 am after both closing and cleaning up in the fan lounge one night.

More recently, I had the pleasure Jack and Ruth's company during the drive to the Dead Dog dinner at County Line BBQ at the end of last year's Corflu Quire in Austin. That was the last time I saw him, and I'm glad it included some real conversation.

Sigh.

Sympathy to Ruth and the rest of the family, including his fannish one.

Geri

Skater Doll is mine! Yes, it's a Twinzy Toy.

Skater Doll, photo from William H. Bunch auction catalog This Twinzy Toy was part of the inventory from the Yellow Brick Road Doll and Toy Museum sold at auction during the summer of 2008 after museum owners Dorothy and Steve Tancraitor retired. It is the second Twinzy Toy I've found thanks to the internet and the first Twinzy pull toy in my small collection.

You may be wondering just what heck a Twinzy Toy is. Well, unless you've been to my basement Toy Room or remember my past mentions of my great-aunts and the Twinzy Toy Company they ran in a corner of their father's tag factory in Battle Creek, Michigan, in which case your memory has already told you why I'm so delighted with this addition to my collection.

Blanche and Bernice Squier -- Auntie Blanche and Auntie Bun -- started the Twinzy Toy Company in 1918. Yes, they were identical twins. They started making dolls and selling them to friends just before they went to college. They completed their freshman year, then decided that there was enough demand for their dolls that they would start selling them commercially instead of returning to school. That was the end of their college education, and the beginning of business that ran for roughly 35 years. They had a trade show booth at the New York Toy Fair for years, and Twinzy Toys were sold in department and toy stores nationwide. Marshall Field's was one of their many customers.

( Today, Twinzy Toys are all but unknown. )

The adventure even has its own lagniappe. I called minnehaha K. for eBay bidding advice. The situation was complicated by this being a live auction, and I'm an eBay novice to boot. It turns out that her friend, the Queen of PEZland, lives near Chadds Ford, PA, where the auction was being held. K. and Amy have been antiquing there!

The auction house doesn't do their own shipping. If the timing works out, Amy will pick up Skater Doll from them and ship it my way. If not, I'll use the commercial shipper used by many other auction house customers. I hope Skater Doll visits Amy's PEZ collection on its way to me, but it's a win just to be back in touch with her.

The auction notice sent me searching. Much to my surprise, I found Laura Adams recent post about visiting Quaker Park in the Northside Irregular. The park includes the land where the tag and toy factory stood, and her report includes a photo of a Twinzy Toy Historical Marker I didn't know was there! Like most historical markers, it contains an error or two. "They lie like hell" was how my father put it when I read the text to him over the phone. But this post is already long, so I'll leave the details of that for another time.

...make that 63. The auctioneer is moving things quickly. That's a good thing, considering the 500 lots on the block today.

And now, 62. I'm going to stop reading LJ and keep a closer eye on the auction site.

61.

...to never, ever go to a toy auction in person. It's hard enough to resist pushing the "bid now" button on my computer screen while watching and waiting for the single item I'm there for to come up to bid.

I do love living in the future, though -- living in the future and having friends and loved ones who turn bad ideas into good ones.

I'll explain more in another 283 items. In the meanwhile, what were your favorite childhood toys? I never had a Barbie doll, not a single one, and I don't remember ever wanting one. But Pepper? Pepper was a great doll. I so envied her hair -- you could curl it up over your finger, or under around it -- every curl always held in place the way they never, ever did with my own hair. There are several genuine Pepper dolls out there. Ideal apparently kept changing her hair -- blonde, brunette, redhead, short, then shoulder-length. All in the pursuit of more sales, no doubt.

Pepper was Tammy's little sister, but I neither my older sister or I had a Tammy doll and I was never interested in Tammy. One doll was enough. You got one doll, then expanded out with clothes and accessories for her. That was the norm for the late 1950s and early '60s neighborhood that I grew up in.

Sue's doll was "Jill" doll, of Jan, Jill, and Jeff fame. I mostly remember the Jill and Jan wardrobe shown in the top image here. (Jan's name was on the other door.)

This palomino horse was quite likely the toy I played with the most. I had it for years and never tired of putting the bridle on, taking it off, attaching the stirrups, adjusting the cinch strap, and more. Whatever vinyl they used for all those little bits certainly had endurance. One of the connection points on the bridle eventually broke, but not until years after I'd stopped playing with it regularly.

Edited to add: My palomino couldn't have been Dallas, since he wasn't introduced until 15+ years after I played with mine. And further reflection recalls that my horse's main and tail were hard plastic, not hair. But the one-leg-raised pose is the same, and all the fiddly bits, too. I suspect a reworking of an earlier toy horse and accessories lead to the creation of Dallas. Darned if I can remember my horse's brand name, certain though I am that it had one.

What were your faves?

Oops -- that post about this weekend's Reno in 2011 activities was supposed to go on the Reno in 2011 community rather than here. My apologies to all who end up seeing it twice as a result.

In other news, the septic tank turned out to have only three covers rather than six -- there's one large center cover and two smaller covers at each edge. Work is underway to have risers installed on the two covers we can get to without cutting five feet into the concrete apron that's most likely been in place ever since the house was built. I could spend more money and have a third riser installed as well. That would be the safest approach, providing easy access to every point that the system might clog, but it's also the most expensive. And a snake out from the pipe in the basement or underneath the garage is likely to deal with that problem...if it ever arises.

So I'll take my chances, keep the cost as low as possible now, and do what most needs doing, which is pumping the tank out and making sure we have access to pump it out regularly in the future.

In other, other news, it's been a roller-coaster of a week -- lots of hard news, lots of fun and good news, all coming one after the other, back and forth and back again, loop de loop all week long. I'm a bit dizzy and exhilarated from the ride, and hope the weekend brings a few quiet joys my way. I have rather a lot that needs working on, as usual. But it's all rather fun stuff, so that's a win. In addition to the PROmote work, I'll also be turning more of my design attention to the Hugo program booklet for this year, the one given out at the ceremony that lists the nominees and such. Reminder to all that the Hugo Voting Deadline is just 10 days away -- midnight PDT, Monday, July 7th. For details, see the Denvention 3 Hugo page. Vote soon, rather than at the last moment, to minimize the risk of delivery failure.

Coming Soon to a Convention Near You Rennie, the official Reno in 2011 carpetbag created by Brad Foster made his/her/its debut on Memorial Day weekend as TR Renner and Mark Herrup launched the first of many (many!) Reno in 2011 bid parties.

Are you heading to ConRunner, Midwestcon, or ApolloCon this weekend? Reno in 2011 agents will be in England, Ohio, and Texas, listening, talking, and partying with fans. They'll gladly take your money, too. :-)

Look for our UK Agent, Steve Cooper, at ConRunner in Wolverhampton. It's the first non-US convention we'll be at, but it's far from the last! The vote is in Montréal, after all....

On Saturday night, Jim Mann, Laurie Mann, and Ben Yalow are hosting a Reno party at Midwestcon in Cincinnati. Look for flyers announcing the room number, or just ask -- last year, three different people I didn't know each told me where the Montréal and Australia parties were. Nice!

ApolloCon Fan GoH Anne KG Murphy is representing Reno in Houston-- we'll likely post a special report about our activities there sometime on Saturday. Maybe even with a picture or three....

If you're like me and spending the weekend at home, wishing you were at any or all of the above, please take a minute and swing by the Reno in 2011 website for a quick convention fix. We've updated it with links to pictures and mini-reports from Balticon, BayCon, ConQuesT, Marcon, WisCon, and Fourth Street Fantasy Convention. There are a few other new things, too -- where we'll be next, an updated supporter list, agents' names, and such. As always, we'll gladly take your money on the website, too.

Seriously -- many, many thanks for the active, positive support we've received this past month, the first month of the bid. The Reno in 2011 Worldcon bid already has over 160 Supporters, Friends, and Really Close Friends. Your contributions make the parties and other fun surprises possible. I'm looking forward to helping us all have a mountainous good time in Denver.

See you on the Funway!

Here at Toad Woods, I have propane gas, a septic tank, and a well. My childhood home had a cesspool until the city finally connected all of the houses on the street to the sewer system long after I moved away. Before moving here, I'd been on city sewer systems all of my adult life.

( The septic tank is something of a mystery to me. )

There's now one cleanly-cut hole in my driveway. Sure enough, there's the septic tank about 18 inches underneath it. There's even a cover, an access point to the tank, in the part that's now uncovered.

Only it's a "small cover," not one of the main ones.

I asked the obvious question: "How many covers does a septic tank have?"

The guy who'd just spent the previous hour cutting the pavement and digging the hole thought for a moment, then described the six covers in the top of the tank. Newer tanks apparently only have two big ones, but my tank? My tank has four little ones and two big ones.

I feel so special.

Note to self: when reading something that sets off my hair-trigger suicide alert radar at screaming "red alert" levels, stop and check for context in minimal impact ways before escalating to more direct reality checks. Especially when nothing that friend has ever posted or said before set off the radar or otherwise suggested they might be at increased risk.

More about the minimal impacts, triggers, and my reactions behind the cut. I name no names, though some will be obvious to those who have one or more chunks of context. ( Which is funny, really, given that missing context is what triggered today's false alarm. )

Bath now, I think. Lush bath. Then on to the work at hand. The work, and the amusements, too. Life's full of both. That's a darned good thing, especially given the hard times and tragedies it has such a nasty habit of bringing our way.