On the virtues of owning books…

A very good friend, and one who’s opinion, writing and general state of being I greatly respect, has recently posted a blog entry which calls into question my previous construct of her. She writes:

“I made a decision sometime in college to try hard not to be a person who accumulates books... ...There is no virtue in owning books. Repeat after me. There is no virtue in owning books. It is hard for me to remember sometimes, but there is really no virtue in owning books. Nope.”

Now I am, of course, kidding about having to reevaluate my opinion of her...she *is* brilliant and witty and generally fun to be around and/or read...though clearly misguided on this issue. I believe she may have lost the proverbial forest for the trees. So to I find myself pondering the nature of forest and her dark mantra, “There is no virtue in owning books.”

On one point, I think she is right: there is no (or little) value in an “accumulation of books.” There is, however, tremendous value in a collection of books. The collection does not need to be large, or valuable or contain “unique” items...it simply needs to be significant to the person who is building the collection.

I work with a woman who is building a suffrage collection. She has a fair amount of the major items one would expect to find but what makes the collection wonderful in her eyes (and in mine) are the items that are not “direct” suffrage material, but tangentially related in one way or another. For example, an item I found which she added without hesitation was a lovely, early copy of Maeterlinck’s, Life of the Bee. It is of the right period, but certainly not related to the suffrage movement, *except* that in the margin at the end of the chapter, “The Massacre Of The Males,” the first owner and a well known Maine judge wrote, “...When the suffrugettes get on top our life will be that of the honey bee - I have no doubt about it.” Suddenly, it is a brilliant addition to her collection.

I am working with another client who called one morning asking me what it would take to build a collection of the first editions of the Scribner’s Illustrated Classics series. This is, if you are unfamiliar with it, a great set of juvenilia. The series includes itles like Kidnapped, 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and the Scottish Chiefs and each books was illustrated by artists like N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish and Will James. They were all books that he had read and remembered fondly from his youth and he has had a great time building this small collection. He has had such fun with it that he is now looking at broadening the collection to included other artists/publishers from that era of illustrated juvenilia. It is a lovely and very fun collection...and great reads to boot.

I work with some clients who are building significant, valuable collections and acquire books with an eye toward long term returns on the investment. In these cases, the books bring both personal pleasure (they could clearly be investing in bonds/art/jewelry) and an eventual return. I work with others who are building collections that span “insignificant” to major items with the expressed desire to build something where, with a hat tip to Plato, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In these cases, it is planned that the collections end up institutionalized at some point in the future. For that matter, many of the volumes in the Huntington or the Morgan would not exist any longer, where it not for the obsessive collecting of just those two men?

My point is this, there is great virtue in owning books, both personal and, perhaps, societal. I suggest that the mantra of, “There is no virtue in owning books” is extremely misguided. I offer, as an alternative, the following:

A private library is the most significant thing most of us will ever create.

laugh or cry...

I am still up to my eyes cataloging the 150 or so items from the auction...nearly done and a post or two to follow on such things. I had to get this little gem up right away. Apparently a recent study has found that "more than half of students at four-year colleges -- and at least 75 percent at two-year colleges -- lack the literacy to handle complex, real-life tasks such as understanding credit card offers." The study examined three different types of literacy: analyzing news stories and prose, understanding documents, and basic math skills (needed, eg, for balancing checkbooks or calculating restaurant tips).

I know we have more important things to do, like tracking down "evil evildoers," but at what point does "our" inability to read/comprehend/calculate become important enough that a fraction of the saber rattling wasted in other areas will be focused on something silly...like schools. More to the point, what are the odds that, by the time the issue becomes grave enough to warrant attention from the emboldened masses it will be far too late? We live in the most driven, passionate, brilliant, apathetic, ignorant and xenophobic country...at least it is never dull.

We will pay $5000.00...

Still up to my eyes in the material we acquired over the weekend. There have been some genuine gems in addition to the expected items we were seeking. At least two of the lots were "books on books" lots and one included some early catalogues and a 1936 "Illustrated Price Catalog of Old Books Wanted," by American Book Mart. The image shown here is a full page reproduction, note the "We will pay $5000.00 for every copy of this edition." They were offering $3.50 for a fine first edition of Joyce's, Ulysses. A First Folio of Shakespeare was also worth $5000.00...though the Second Folio was would only pay $250.00.

Among the bits I catalogued today that made me smile...A lovey copy of Three Young Rats illustrated by Alexander Calder. The problem with a book like this is that it is impossible to catalogue it without collating it...and it is impossible to collate it without "losing" an hour or so. More to follow on fun bits of this and that...

Back after grueling auction weekend...

I am joking, sort of...but truly, really *preparing* for a large auction is a time consuming endeavor and actually sitting through a multi-day sale is...er...a challenge. We just finished a two-day, 1100+ lot book and ephemera auction. There were some nice, much needed, breaks (during the opera and stamps sections). I will be posting several follow-ups, I am certain…possibly with photos…but first, some quick highlights:

1: I picked up three posters (one print, two gallery show) and a book inscribed by Dali. The book, though not pristine, is signed in a remarkable fashion (4 letters spanning 24 inches).

2: A fine, first edition of Dylan Thomas’, A Child’s Christmas in Wales was among a dozen or so other volumes in a lot. The box was all “good,” the Thomas a gem.

3: Several really lovely fine press limited editions (including a personal favorite, Wilde’s Dorian Gray.

4: Several minorly significant A.E. Newton items and a slew of nice books on books items

5: About 50 lots went back with us…as I threaten, I’ll post a follow-up or two about the finds and the event itself. It was the first time this house allowed “internet bidders” and the dynamics were interesting…more on this later.

Updated blog list (repaired)

[N.B. for some inexplicable (read poor coding) reason, about a third of the list did not display in the first post...so it is gone, replaced with this enumerated list. Enjoy]

The bookish folk are becoming more…er…verbose. Here is a wee list of the book blogs that have crossed my bow recently. Most I read (or have at least read through the backlog as some are very infrequently updated), a handful have been suggested by others. I plan to keep updating this list periodically and will probably be grouping the blogs by focus area “to the right,” as it were (the goal being that it will be easier to find book blogs of interest). The following is in no particular order and additions are strongly encouraged (though, preferably, with cogent thoughts as to why). So with no further ado or gilding of the lily, I offer the following:

1. Bookfinder's Blog [One of the best hybrid [industry and personal] book blogs out there]

2. Book Ninja [funny, sharp and sporadically updated]

3. Beggars of Azure [runs a brick and mortar shop, writes well, posts with some frequency *and* is a fan of A.E. Newton...what more could one ask for]

4. Sarah’s Books – Used and Rare [young, funny, sharp, passionate and trapped in northern(ish) Maine…great fun to follow, highly recommended]

5. Rasputina's Rare Books [appears to be a collector's site, lovely images of some of her times]

6. Novel Gazing [In 1999, she won the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing and gave up physics for writing...engaging]

7. A Bookseller's Journal [interesting and updated frequently]

8. The Bookologist [online resource newsletter in blog form for online sellers...good info generally as well.]

9. Rare Book News [A really nice spot to keep a finger on bits of significant news in the rare book world...highly recommended]

10. BiblioBlog [interesting blog, religious spin, but of all flavors]

11. Bookmouth [writer and random creativity artist...rather cool]

12. Cat's Cradle Blog [no recent posts, but some nice content...perhaps they shall return]

13. Used Book Blog [also not recently updated...a trend, perchance]

14. Bookworm [“love of learning, love of books” love this site. Content rich, well crafted]

15. Booklust [“A bibliophile's musings on books, cartoons, art and stuff” ...great blog…great reading]

16. Bookslut [books, publishing, book culture, etc.]

17. BookBitch [prolific, sharp and witty...heavy on chicklit]

18. Holt Uncensored [blog of a former book reviewer for the San Fran Chronicle on the inner workings and seedy underbelly of the industry]

19. So Many Books [“the agony and exctasy of a reading life” very nice]

20. Brandywine Books [about books and bookish things, been around for years, far better than average]

21. Bookblog [interesting concept...basically an online reading club...well followed]

22. The Millions (a blog about books) [reviews and bookish thoughts]

23. Maud Newton [Brilliant and bookish, “occasional literary links, amusements, politics, and rants”]

24. BookSquare [a blog by and for writers...and those of us who like to snoop...nice “industry” inside spin]

25. Book Angst [not updated of late, but great backlog]

26. Chekhov's Mistress [great title, solid liberary blog, a bit of an acquired taste]

27. Buzz Balls and Hype [book reviews and bookish thoughts and musings]

28. The Happy Booker [another great blog name over a very funny blog]

29. Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind [great blog if your obsession is crime fiction]

30. Atomic Books [“Literary Finds for Mutated Minds” books and banter]

31. Pod-dy Mouth [“Wading through the sea of Print-on-Demand titles, one overpriced paperback at a time--and giving you the buried treasure.” Great resource if you are into such thing]

32. Old Hag [reviews and community commnetary...good reading and good links]

33. Moorish Girl [She lives in the wrong Portland, but maintains an engaging blog]

34. Ignatius Insight Press [blog of the Ignatius Press...great blog if you are a Jesuit or are so inclined...recommended by one who should know (no, not me, I am barely convinced humans exist)]

35. Pinky’s Paperhaus [“Podcasting writers who rock” interesting concept for the ipod equipped”

36. Literary Dick [Great blog on and about the mystery genre and all things related]

37. Bibliodyssey [“eclectic bookarts” is in their description and it serves them well…lovely site, content rich, be prepared to lose time]

38. Philobiblion [History, books, politics...think feminist]

39. Using Books [a great blog on books and bookselling [and he rants less than I, a big plus]]

40. GrumpyOldBookman [He suggests he is an acquired taste, maybe...but he posts frequently, and they are cogent, funny and...er...long...great reading]

Addendum:
MetaxuCafe [the creation of Chekhov's Mistress' Bud Parr, a litblog network or...rather an aggregator of litblogs and the like...sacrifice an afternoon and poke about]

The coming dark ages...at least for personal archives...

It has been a bad few days for personal archives/ists. Nikon has announced that they will no longer be selling 35mm camera bodies (though they will still produce a professional model). This makes good business sense, sadly, as everyone (me included) continues to shift to digital cameras.

However, also recently announced is a new study showing that "burned" (as opposed to originally pressed) digital media has a 2 to 5 year life span (here, here). How many of us are backing up to magnetic tape?

The implications of this are really quite bad...imagine going back to look at the wedding/baby/family images you have so diligently been burning on CDs, only to find that the dye used in discs has so degraded that the data is lost. Forever.

And it is not just images. I archive my email and papers (all the way back to college (I still have most of the papers I wrote on an AppleII and its successor, a Mac+). I have them, still, because I archived them onto external drives (and have moved them periodically to larger, newer drives). Will I ever read/browse them again…who knows. But maybe my son will. Or his child. I *loved* finding my parents old papers (school, love letters, etc.). We are, sadly, creating a generation (or more) where all these tangible bits of our individual and collective “pasts” are being lost as bits and bytes fail.

It raises interesting questions…will our private/cultural histories be told by our lower classes, for their “histories” will remain while those of the wealthy(ier) will be lost in the ether. Should be all, to avoid the preceding, be actively supporting remote storage options like .mac (though if you stop paying, the data is, again, gone). Should we be thinking about our cultural/data histories as a valuable societal asset, such that there should be state supported public data storage archives (with all the privacy issues such an effort would entail). Maybe it is just cultural history Darwinism, those that are the most forward thinking, lucky or the like will be the ones who leave their mark for future generations…the rest of us will just be garbled bits of data, strutting and fretting across countless discs, signifying nothing

Jan. Baxter Society meeting...to Vietnam and back...

We had a wonderful presentation this evening by David Wolfe of Wolfe Editions (a fine press shop here in Portland). David recently spent a month in Vietnam in part to visit, in part to teach and in part to learn of their printing techniques. He did an amazing presentation, richly illustrated with many, many photographs.

A particularly interesting tidbit, in a country that has had woodblock printing since...well...ever, there are only three etching presses. Three. In the entire country. There is not a single litho press. The result, says David, is that their etching press "style" is similar to 1950s/early 60s in this country...full of experimentation with the media, etc.

Of personal interest/amusement to me, David did his entire presentation using a video iPod directly into an LCD projector. Very slick and very funny. Here is a "bibliophilic" society, largely peopled by confirm paper lovers (that is, ambivalent at best toward technology). David brought his bleeding edge video iPod and its two cables (power and connector to the LCD) in an antique cigar box. Just this subtly bizarre blending of technology and old paper (and old culture). A great presentation on all levels.

Quick plug for an even better Fine Books....

Just when you thought the best print journal for the rare book community, Fine Books Magazine, couldn't get any better, it does. With the more recent issue they have gone with a "perfect" binding (no more staples) and a slightly heavier stock...content, of course, remains first rate. If you have not run across it, I strongly recommend finding a copy...I wager you will subscribe (like Doritos, you can't eat just one). On that note, it is also worth noting that they have just cut a deal with Ingrams so that you can no find them at Borders and Barnes and Noble. Happy reading.

Great is Peace...Hard is locating information.

I recently acquired a rather interesting book called, "Great is Peace," by Daniel Sperber. I have had a ridiculously difficult time locating information on the volume and would greatly appreciate any bit of info anyone knows. My tentative catalogue entry is below. If you know anything of this volume, I would love to hear about it. I have had a very nice exchange with the librarian at the Carter Library (a copy of this volume was given to Carter, Sedat and Begin), but I have been very unsuccessful in locating other background about it. It is, if nothing else, a beautifully crafted piece.

Sperber, Daniel (ed); Greenfield, David (photo). Great is Peace: Perek Ha-Shalom From the Talmudic Tractate Derekh Eretz Zuta. Jerusalem, Israel: Massada Press and Golden Pages, 1979. First Edition/Limited Edition. Tight, bright and unmarred. Slipcase bright and clean. Brown full leather boards, gilt lettering and decorative elements, brown endpages with gilt decorative elements, glossy descriptive piece bound in at front, top edge gilt, silk ribbon bound in. Slipcase is solid olive wood, brown velour lining, brass plaque on front. fo. np. Illus. (color and b/w plates). Text in English and Hebrew (unlike left to right, Hebrew right to left). Limited Edition, number 710 of not more than 1800. Hardcover. Fine in Fine Slipcase.
A copy of this book was presented to President Jimmy Carter and Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, by Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, at El Arish, May 27, 1979. The text is Perek ha-Shalom, a rabbinic treatise extolling the virtues of peace. A pristine copy of this exceptional and scarce volume.

for the love of words...

My son created the attached using some of the far too plentiful poetry/shakespeare/etc magnetic words we have inhabiting the various planes of our fridge. He is clearly a word artist. He also, clearly, knows how to pander to his father. He had been making funny and/or sweet sentences, but found the words limited...admittedly, I am biased, but I think he is wildly brilliant *laughing*.

old (odd) bits of wood...

My parents have the wonderful ability to find the strangest bits of this and that. For holidays I received one of the original shipping boxes for the Harvard Classics. It will, most likely, end up being used as a bit of shelving. It is printed on two sides as shown and the original paper packing lable is on one of the other sides. Strangely cool.

Poking sharp sticks in one's eyes...

Ok, so a client had the rather horrid event of having their credit card number stolen and used. They did the right thing and notified their card issuer (citibank) who did the right thing and refused the last "x" number of transactions. Unfortunately, one of those was her purchase of a nice Edward Weston title from me (there were two other "proper" charges similarly challenged). I received a notification of a chargeback request by my processing company and was offered an opportunity to challenge it, which I did.

I called my client, to make certain she was not annoyed with me for some reason *g*, and then reported to my company what had happened and why the chargeback should be resolved in my favor. She, in turn, told her company that the charge to me and two others were proper and should not be challenged. Easy, one would think.

Not so, apparently. My company, after an "investigation" decided that the chargeback was valid and debited me the price of her book AND a $10 "settlement fee" (apparently, if you challenge a chargeback, you have to pay for the privilege). So I tell them that the charge is valid, the other party tells them that the charge is valid...yet...er...does it really take much of an “investigation” to get to the…er…truth? There is clearly a level of complexity that I fail to see *sigh*. Then again, perhaps it is akin to OW Holmes’ overview of the law, “This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice.”

I have no fear of not being paid...my client is very embarrassed about all this and has been absolutely lovely throughout. I just don't see why this is so complex. Urgh.

Book blog update begun...

It is about that time again, I have received a number of new book blogs and related interesting sites in the last few weeks and I think a post listing them all...and perhaps even organizing them will be forthcoming in the next few days. If anyone knows of any that they particularly like and would like to have added to the proverbial list, please either comment or email me.

Also, and apropos of nothing, I think I am going to update my links, etc. down the right side here and offer good places to poke about in a somewhat organized fashion (I am thinking that I will group bookish sites, bookish blogs and then blogs worth inflicting on oneself). No promises are made, but any links proffered will be considered *g*.

Cooking classes with bookish themes...

Well, it’s official. I will be teaching six cooking classes at Stonewall Kitchen here in Portland over the next several months. All of my classes have a biblio-culinary theme and will be at offered at the dates shown and between 6 and 8(ish)pm. There are a considerable number of other classes as well…but will clearly not be as entertaining as my own (though the food might be better…who knows). All are welcome, contact Stonewall through the link above if you are interested…they really should be a riot. Mark your calendars and try to join us...fun will be had by all (except, perhaps, me *g*).

The Joyce of Cooking - January 31

A biblio-culinary adventure "…between gormandizing and gormeteering" (Finnegans Wake, 407, 1-2) Authentic Irish cuisine straight from the pages of James Joyce. Starting with royal sturgeon caviare (and a secret to "making" the Irish double cream needed for the crème fraiche) and centering on lamb with rosemary, the meal will be supported by Murphy's Puffs (potato), something in a traditional green and we will finish with Trifle Gabriel Conroy. Food is essential to Joyce's writing…we will seek similar inspiration.

Thou Shalt Not Grill - February 23

Another biblio-culinary adventure, here taking the Mystery out of the perfect grill…with a smattering of other culinary mysteries. From a crab starter, we will grill pork tenderloin with a variety of glazes supported by coconut grilled pineapple and squash and portabella mushrooms brushed with oils. We will finish with a simple, but delicious sweet.

Call of the Wild - March 6

This biblio-culinary adventure travels with Jack London off the usual paths to the wilder side. An appetizer of rattlesnake or some similarly tasty critter (with chicken for the more timid), followed by venison medallions in a Vidalia Onion and Fig sauce. Side dishes will include wild rice and special mushrooms. We will finish with a pomegranate treat. It will be a delicious walk on the wild side.

Jewels of Tropical Cuisine - March 23

The spices and flavors of Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe fill this biblio-culinary adventure. A starter of shrimp skewers leads us to tuna, pork and chicken with mango and/or coconut. Lemon-saffron rice, cucumber salad and Jamaican gingerbread leaving us a little room for our finish, bananas flambé.

The Art of Cooking - April 6

This biblio-culinary adventure brings the subtle genius of Sun Tzu into the kitchen, using the principles of Art of War to bring complex meals to the table with ease. We will start with lobster bundles and maki rolls then an entrée of lobster and tarragon brûlée. This wonderfully rich dish calls for simple, elegant side dishes, which will be tactical surprises. We will finish with date and apricot stuffed pears.

One Morning in Maine - May 4

This biblio-culinary adventure starts at mid-morning but can sate a hungry appetite at any time of day. Geared for assistance from young helpers, we will start with mimosas and then dine on ginger waffles, sausage strata, savory Irish cheese scones and a variety of other side dishes and treats (with blueberries, for Sal, of course). We will finish with a palette cleansing fruit salad.

It was the best of opening lines, it was the worst of opening lines...

I just ran across a copy of KW Jeter's, Noir, a sort of noir meets cyberpunk novel (Jeter was a close friend of PK Dick, apropos of nothing). It is an interesting concept rather well executed...not brilliant, but engaging and well crafted. I mention it here because it has one of the all time great opening lines:

"At that moment, as the blue spark of sex burned a wire through his tongue, the heavens rained fire."

I have always thought that a strong opening line needs to grab the reader and engage them...it does not necessarily need to make sense *laughing*. I think what I love so much about this like is that it is a great example of that concept...it does not, word for word, make sense, but it absolutely gets its essence across to the reader.

Good book, great opening line, happy thursday to us all.

New and nice blog...

I clearly need to do another update of book blogs in the ether. Until then, I have just learned that my friend Sarah has her own very readable, fun and interesting blog which can be found here. Sarah runs an open shop, Sarah's Books, in Bangor Maine. If you are up in that neck of the (literal) woods, by all means stop by...if you can't make it to her, you can get a good sense of her charm, humor and knowledge by following her online. Best of all, she does not seem (yet) to post snarky, annoyed posts like *some* people.

[Addendum - 1/5/06 - After reading my post announcing her new blog, Sarah posted an entry in which she was wildly flattering of me. The moral, I believe, is that being trapped indoors in northish Maine in winter can play tricks with one's mind *g*. While I can clearly no longer vouch for her judgment about humans, her opinion on and about books is above reproach *laughing*. [Note to self: Send Sarah more regular checks]

packing books....revisited

I realize in rereading my post on book packing that my tone was unduly snarky and I apologize. I was, for better or worse, a bit upset that 3 of 4 packages arrived “minimally” packaged (and two did not included an invoice)…something that is fine for lots of reading copy books, but risky for more valuable volumes. I received a very nice response in which “Quillhill” asked if I would explain how I pack books (and managed not to call me a twit, which was nice).

We are *very* conscious about our “brand” and consider our packing important both as a means to protect a given book as securely as possible and as a way to project our “image” to a customer with whom we wish to leave the most favorable impression possible (in a medium where many dealers complain of a lack of customer loyalty, we are hovering around 70% return rate with client’s who come to us from the web initially, so the method appears to be working). I guess what I am saying is that a well packed book protects the book *and* effectively “shows” the client how seriously we care about their new book, our relationship with them and other, ethereal aspects of our approach to books and our customers. So here is how I pack various boxes:

We pack nearly all our books in new “U-Line” white presentation boxes (these are triple walled boxes with a crush rating above 275 pounds (and an average cost of about $0.45). We also use some scalable brown corrugated boxes for thicker tomes (especially early medical volumes) and/or orders of several books. We wrap each book in clean, new newsprint and then again in a sheet of black tissue paper sealed with a round sticker with our sphinx logo. The book is then wrapped in small-cell bubble wrap in both directions (typically two squares in one direction and two-three in the other) and placed in a box that fits it closely. This is key…the box should be only slightly larger and then the voids filled with either a bit more bubble wrap or bunk paper. We then lay in our printed invoice and a half-sheet “About Us” descriptive statement. We were lucky to inherit a tape machine from my wife’s parents when they sold their company, so we use white paper tape to seal the package. It is not quite the Tiffany’s “blue box,” but it does make a very nice, clean presentation.

We do use envelopes, on occasion, for overseas shipments. There is a very nice “Global Express” envelop that is the cheapest date in town to get a book to many countries if the book will fit. When we do use the envelopes, we wrap the book in about the same way as above but, and this is the critical issue, we sandwich the book between two bits of cardboard slightly larger than the book and taped tight…this protects the corners from getting bumped. I have sent a few dozen books overseas this way and have never had a book damaged (fingers crossed and knocking head against wood).

The only other packing trick/method I can think of is that when packing sets, we double box. We wrap the books in sets of two or three as above and pack them closely in a squarish box. The inner box is then placed in a larger box with about a 2-3 inches on all sides filled with “popcorn.” We also use this method when packing a very dense single volume or two volume set. It is *very* effective at protecting heavy masses from shifting and damaging their corners and/or slipcases.

If we were shipping books under $20 or so, I think wrapping them in paper and then a padded envelop would probably be just fine. When shipping books over $75, however, it just seems too risky not to pack them as safely as possible. The cost, both in time and materials, is very minor against the risk of damage and/or return. Personally, I really like packing books…it is strangely fun…very much like wrapping holiday gifts.

USPS comes through....finally

I shipped a book (with tracking and insurance) just prior to Katrina to a wonderful client who has the pleasure and misfortune to live in New Orleans. The good thing is that her house made it through pretty much intact, though her formal gardens were a largely lost (making the rather scarce gardening book all the more important). So we waited…and waited…and waited…to no avail. As we approached the 180 day deadline, the PO suggested that we file a claim as the last tracking data showed it to be in Memphis one day before the storm hit. So in mid-December we filed our claim and the PO paid it without a problem.

Imagine our surprise when my client went to the PO and was handed the book. She called (and emailed) me to say, “the box itself is in perfect condition as though it was mailed yesterday.” There is, apparently, no indication as to where it was lurking, but it was dry and safe and, after over 4 months, in her hands…far too cool.

Interestingly, the PO does not have a mechanism to take back such payments..so we are donating the payment to a library relief fund down there.