Back in the mid to late 19th century, French ex-pat astronomical artist, Etienne Leopold Trouvelot, created these pastel drawings from his observations of planets and galactic occurrences. Years ago there was a fantastic exhibition showcasing his work at the Science, Business and Industry branch of the NY Public Library. Sadly, Trouvelot is known less for his artistic abilities and more for his earlier endeavors in entomology…gone very very wrong. We actually have him to thank for the scourge of Gypsy Moths in this country.

There are various telephone poles around this little river town, and they all wear the history of their secondary usage with pride: Lost Kitten, Backhoe for Sale, Firewood, Church Supper, Brush Hogging…

It’s state fair season. And so it’s also the time of year when 4H clubs compete with the giant squash, and Aunt Bertie’s cherry pie and, best of all, the butter sculpture. You heard right. Up until today I had never thought about such things, but as I was going through a stack of old NYT, my eye caught a headline in the June 28th obits: Norma Lyon, Sculptured Butter at Fairs. Well gosh be darned. There she is, astride a life-size butter bull!!! She was known simply as The Butter Cow Lady. She looks pretty happy in all these photos. Just goes to show you… RIP Norma.

The first image is from a mathematics book. It’s a page in the back of the book which reveals answers to the arithmetic problems from the front of the book. The second image is of a page, one of several from the back of another book, advertising volumes in different price ranges. This one being 75 cents. What I want to know is, why were Nelly’s days so dark?