Irregular ren-ditions / 2

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A collection of links and information from recent journeys through life and the internet. Irregular describes the schedule and the path.


A Century of Dining Out – So if you miss eating out as much as you did pre-pandemic here’s a treat. Peruse menus from 1841 – 1941. You can admire them for the art or for the dinner faire. There are menus for restaurants and banquets. Be sure to check out the Broiled Squirrels a la Maitre d’Hotel at the Fifth Annual Reunion of the Railroad Conductors’ Life Insurance Company. For a deeper dive check out the other Grolier Club Online Exhibitions. Thanks to Paul for sharing a link to the Magazines and the American Experience Exhibition which I originally intended to highlight here.

All Aboard! –  get these free sample train coloring pages from the Dover Coloring Book series. I used to sell lots of the nature related ones and the best thing about them was they usually included a permission statement on the first page for copying for personal or classroom use. You can sign up to regularly get these samples somewhere, but you’ll have to explore the Dover site for that. I have saved far too many of these files by right clicking on the coloring page and saving it to my computer. You can just print the .jpg file out or paste it into a Word page so you can easily manipulate the size. You can get more at http://www.coloringbookday.com/ .

Audubon’s Birds of America at Bowdoin College – One of the silver linings to the COVID disaster is that fascinating on-line opportunities have proliferated from colleges, non-profits, and individuals. Bowdoin college has these and some pre-covid recordings to watch in it’s page-turning events. It’s probably enough to say I was attracted by the idea that each event shows a page of Audubon’s double Elephant folio (that’s a BIG book), but what got us there on March 5 was an opportunity to hear our friend, Scott Weidensaul share the story of the book, Birds of Maine. His presentation will appear there if it hasn’t already.

Emerson and his Friends – The story went something like this when a customer noticed the Emerson pins available at the Walden Pond gift shop where a friend of mine works. He asked, “How about pins for Lake and Palmer?” With all my study of Emerson lately I completely forgot about them. Seriously, the link takes you to a Royal Albert Hall performance. I missed one of their performances at the Rock Festival at the Pocono Raceway in 1972 (I do have a limited double album vinyl press their performance released in 2019). My girlfriend at the time took me as a graduation present but storms and technical problems extended the concert to well past when we could stay with ELP playing at dawn the next day. I finally got to see Palmer a couple years ago after both Emerson and Lake left us. He played a short set before Todd Rundgren and Yes and I would have rather he kept playing rather than Todd for sure and even Yes. You can get an inkling of his performance starting at 1:01:48 in the Albert Hall Performance. Funny, my favorite was always Emerson, but I have a new appreciation for Palmer as well as Lake through his performance in several concerts available on youtube and his solo of one of my favorite ELP songs, You Turn Me On.

AAPA February Picks

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Most of my picks can be read by clicking on this photo to enlarge it. Poetic Voices you see only the cover of the small booklet, of course, though it was the cover that caught my eye..

I was honored to be asked to provide the February Picks for the American Amateur Press Association which distributes members’ printing and writing efforts each month in a “Bundle”. You can see my article and other AAPA stuff here.

Irregular ren-ditions

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A collection of links and information from recent journeys through life and the internet. Irregular describes the schedule and the path. It’s a sort of occasional Magical Mystery Tour that helps me share these links as well as preserve them for myself.

Fasnacht with cup cheese. An annual specialty for me from my great grandmother’s traditions.

Today in History, February 17 – The House of Representatives, breaking a tie in the Electoral College brought an end to one of the most acrimonious presidential campaigns in U.S. history and resolved a serious Constitutional crisis.  I learn lots of things from the Library of Congress. Most come by way of email lists I have subscribed to or the inevitable rabbit holes they lead me down. Since there is a somewhat, I believe, false lull in the political turmoil (at least by comparison of the past four years, this link struck me. It sounds too much like today though it refers to 1801. You’ll have to click on it to see who the declared winner was.

Virtual Woodworking Show – In January of 2020 I finally got to travel to the Woodworking Show in Timonium Maryland after missing it because of work even though I worked in the area very close to when it was held. I traveled with Mike and his wife Lois from our scrollsaw club unaware that he would die just two months later. It was a good day. This year the show is virtual and stretches over all the weekends in March. Visiting the vendors is the best part and free. Classes cost a little something but are worth it.

Perseverance – Seeing a live space event, like the landing of the Mars Lander Perseverance on February 18 can still bring tears to my eyes. Being a part of these great explorations is pretty amazing these days watching it live from the Jet Propulsion Lab control room via my iPad. With this link the adventure can continue as you can virtually follow the rover around mars. I’m sure there will be additional Reflection links for the Mars Helicopter that rode along and of course pictures.

Bang – Whether they truly were “America’s answer to Black Sabbath” or a misfire, Bang was a Philadelphia group I discovered browsing the LP bins in the early seventies when an interesting dust jacket would result in a purchase. I rediscovered that they still have an internet presence with some free ringtone downloads if you’re into that kind of thing. Maybe it’s time I abandon the old man ringtone I have… a ringing phone. And on YouTube there are some songs from the album like The Queen.

Emerson’s Complete Works – In 12 volumes that you can read online or download from the Internet Archive. This search gives you a complete matching set from the Boston Public Library.

Common Press Model

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I finally finished repairing the Common Press model that I bought on eBay. When I purchased it there were some pieces missing and it was assembled incorrectly. Actually it was designed incorrectly with the frame being reversed. The leg to the far left was turned to the right and intruded into the space where a printer would stand. When I looked up pictures of the same model on the internet this was the way all were assembled, so I assumed it was perhaps the design of a press I was unfamiliar with. That part was broken loose from the rest of the press and I even glued it that way at first, but became less and less happy with it and decided to break it loose and reverse it to be assembled as shown. The finish on it is inconsistent, but rather than restore it fully by removing the finish and starting over I decided I liked the “used” look instead. I did much of the retouching and the staining of the new parts I added with a brown magic marker which I even described to the Scrollsaw Club members as cheating, but the result worked in the end, I think. I reversed the screw a bit so that it doesn’t actually press on the tympan, but there was some damage present because the small range of motion prevented it from being fully withdrawn. The last part was to tie the strings to facilitate cranking the bed back and forth.

Wish You Were Here

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I’n not there either, I’m not gambling so I’m home like any sensible person would be during a pandemic.

Among my too many collections I have a large stack of unsent postcards accumulated by me and generations of family before me. I could never find takers for the collection so I decided to force it one at a time on unsuspecting friends and acquaintances. Throughout this month or more I’m going to write one a day if I can and send them randomly with short messages either serious or not, since the post cards vary as well. Some are intentionally funny or strange and others weren’t intended to be that, but time has altered their meaning. It’s also my way of supporting the post office, though I’m also using some very old stamps that were paid for in the previous century.

If you want to be sure to get one please message or email me… or send me a request on a postcard.

Craftsmen Imperial 5″ x 8″

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Bought with everything needed to get started. That’s what the previous owner had in mind, but life got in the way, so I wound up with this little press. It came complete with a home-made boxcar which would allow me to more easily print from photopolymer and although I’m a fan of metal type it’s nice to have the option. At this writing I haven’t tried that yet, but it’s nice to have the option.

Dancing Rainbow Press 6.0

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Some time in the early to mid 1970’s I got a Kelsey 5×8 straight from the factory. The Dancing Rainbow Press was born, unfortunately getting its name from a terrible poem I had written that had its own cartoon character as well. It was located in a small unfinished room behind the bathroom at my apartment in Reamstown. It moved back home to my parent’s house in Mount Airy (2.0) when I did. There my wife to be and I printed our wedding invitations and moved it with us (3.0) to our first house on Walnut Street in Ephrata.

When we moved to Old Mill Road (4.0) it was set up in the basement. Our son, Ben is shown printing on it above. Use of it, however, languished and the press and most everything else was sold a decade or two later. Though I hadn’t printed for so long I soon missed having a press and as a replacement started volunteering at the print shop at the Historical Society and at the Ephrata Cloister. Some years passed and while volunteering at the Cloister I met a guy who said he had some printing equipment to sell. I had already bought a couple small presses for use at the historical society, but wound up sharing a large acquisition that outfitted a new shop at my training center in the old Recreation Center building on Cloister Avenue (5.0) in Ephrata.

Me printing on the 1850’s Bronstrup at the Conestoga Press.

Due mostly to the COVID19 pandemic the center was closed and I moved the shop (6.0) into an undisclosed location in a small rental space in Ephrata. The Dancing Rainbow shines albeit underground again as pictured at the top of this article.

Sigwalt Nonpareil No. 23

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I bought this for a steal thinking it was a Golding, but paid a fair price or better for a Sigwalt. Since the manufacturer intended the parallel I can be forgiven. They were direct copies of the Golding Official #2. I was in search of an 1800’s tabletop press and may have gotten it just slightly. I got the look for sure with the decorative painting still intact on parts of the press. These were first made at the end of that century in 1899 and well into the 1900’s, but best I can find the round bases like mine came first and were replaced fairly quickly with square bases. Since they don’t have serial numbers there’s no way to better date mine. It prints pretty well and is great for demonstrating when drawing attention to our time period at the Conestoga Press.

Demonstrating letterpress with my Sigwalt outside the Print Shop at the Ephrata Cloister.

Ukulele Number 12

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Fastest I ever bought a uke. I had 5 or ten minutes to spare at an NAGT Eastern Section Meeting in Maryland while people were gathering to eat at a restaurant there when I decided I could run a block or two down the street to a music shop prominently displaying a UKULELE sign. We had passed it multiple times traveling from the hotel to the meeting. I rushed through the door and saw this Cordoba 24C spalted maple with a cedar top Uke and bought it before the guy at the store said hello. I had seen this new model in Ukulele Magazine and instantly fell in love with the wood. It’s the only ukulele I can think of that I may prefer the back to the front. When I got back to the restaurant everyone was seated and I proudly displayed my latest catch.