history museums observations

What Do Hart to Hart & Scooby Do Have in Common?

What Do Hart to Hart & Scooby Do Have in Common? Hubby and I have recently discovered old television shows on Tubi, an online streaming channel. We’ve been watching (reliving, really) Columbo, Fantasy Island, and Hart to Hart on the channel. I could probably write blog posts on all of these shows (like one on poor Mrs. Columbo, who is the never-seen but long-suffering wife of Columbo who keeps getting left behind on cases he…

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family history observations pragmatic historian preservation

The Quirks of Our House

As I sift through and pack things in our home for our eventual move, I’m trying to look at the house from the perspective of new owners. We’ve made a great many improvements to the place since we moved in roughly 29 years ago. We gutted, insulated, rewired, and sheetrocked most of the old part of the house, which was built in 1894. We also removed the rotted front porch (trust me when I tell…

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family observations reading thought fodder

When Does a Book Become “Literature” or a “Classic”?

Hubby and I stopped at Savers yesterday. We like to pop in now and again, a habit that has carried over from our business, when we were looking for mid-century modern housewares and décor to clean up for resale. My favorite part of the store, no surprise here, is the book section. I typically wind up finding (relatively) current fiction to purchase. Yesterday’s find was “Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell, a book that was recommended…

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