I know the Freemasons are a controversial lot, but when it came to this drawing tube I didn’t care. I don’t know if it’s made from celluloid or bakelite, but it is durable and compact. I found it years and years ago (for a dollar) when there was a sort of thieves market across from the old, and more official, 26th street flea market. I never really knew what the square and compass represented for the Freemasons until I read up on a little history. I just thought they spent a lot of time drawing. Duh.

I know, some of these items are decidedly creepy. But if you don’t think about their use, they are quite striking. As a small bit of trivia, Elvis used one of the small glass ones (shaped sort of like a duck) before every concert.

Before you bake that cake, do you need to know if that egg you have falls into the jumbo, large or medium category? Well, plunk it down on the Acme Egg Scale and rest easy. I wish I could convey the coolness of the weighing mechanism. This is my friend Dave’s scale. He has chickens, so probably uses this instead of just admiring it. If you too have chickens and need a scale, these are available on ebay.

These three beauties are nasal irrigation devices. I’ll let your imagination do the rest. And, for goodness knows why, I happen to have quite a few of these.

“Made in America by Men Who Know Pens!” Do you think such men still exist? For now, the final post of things on a card. The stitching on this one is lovely.