size and shade

I've always liked the mail in offer. I read a lot of my dad's old comic books from the sixties when I was a kid in the eighties, and I remember thinking about sending in for the special offers, you know, the body building booklets, magic tricks, correspondence art classes, just to see what would happen. I liked the idea of someone still being at the other end after all of those years. (I still like the idea of surprising things coming in the mail, but now, sadly, all mail is starting to seem anachronistic.) But I do wonder how many people took advantage of this one. The incredible hulk and body building seem like a natural fit, the invisible girl and magic tricks, I can see it. Thumb tacks and panty hose? Not exactly an obvious case of marketing symbiosis if you ask me. Still, I love the packaging, primary colors and sans serif, early to mid 80's I'm thinking? There is a bar code, and we all know the first standard bar code was scanned in Troy, Ohio on June 26th, 1974, but that they didn't really catch on until the early 80's.

Both companies, The American Tack and Hardware Co. and the Hosiery Corporation of America still exist, kind of, kind of like zombies. Both were bought out by private equity firms in the mid nineties. Hosiery Corporation of America became Hosiery Corporation International and went through chapter 11 in 2002, after being sued twice by the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive business practices, long story, but truly fascinating, no joke. It involves missing wills, a fatal bee sting (or was it?) and a litigious adoptive mother. Anyhow, I don't think either still make things in America. The remnants of American hosiery manufacturing still exist, mostly in North Carolina, but I think that might be a story for another day.

the park to myself, almost

What a lovely, drenchingly rainy day. I cooked some beet greens with bacon, black eyed peas and lots of hot red pepper flake and I'll probably eat it tossed with spaghetti and maybe bread crumbs later, but I think first I might put on my rain coat and go see a movie. What a nice rainy afternoon for watching a movie from the balcony. The park was pretty deserted today and there were so many worms! I was tempted to bring some home to live in the new raised bed I just finished yesterday, maybe I'll make a special trip for some next time it rains, which will probably be tomorrow. Is there anything wrong with taking worms out of the park? I don't think so. . .

It changes

This whole house burned to the ground, no one was home. It was a summer house, on the side of small mountain, and it was the middle of the winter. The fire department couldn't do anything. It had been snowing for days and the driveway hadn't been plowed. There was no one to plow the driveway, no one was home. This house burned completely freely, from start to finish, with no interference. It started, consumed everything it could, and went out by itself, steaming for days. I think it was a fuse, something like that, it was in the paper. It wasn't arson, it wasn't really even neglect. It just happened. It was an exothermic chemical reaction, acting on the material at hand, surrounded by a widening ring of snow. And in the end, every object was a fact. Every object had been one thing and now was something else. Every object had had a purpose and a life, a place, had all the attachments of the people who used them, remembered them, liked them or didn't. Every object is itself and is also a chain of everything it has ever been and everything it has ever meant.