The Difference Between Rat and Wrong

Our plans today were to drop some recycle off, go to the indoor fleamarket in Brunswick, and have lunch at a new Vietnamese restaurant that we finally managed to be able to go to when it's open and Carrie and I both have the day off.

En route we see a white rat scurry across the road in front of us in Lisbon. We, of course, stop so as not to hit it and decide because it's white, must be a domesticated rat that will not survive outside and therefore we must catch it. Which we do with only a little bit of fuss.

We check with a couple of different people in the neighborhood but they don't know of anybody keeping rats, let alone missing one. One lady mentions a relatively nearby, but out of our way, vet that works with the Lewiston animal shelter and we decide that would probably be the easiest thing to do. Unfortunately, while they do work with the local shelter, which is considerably out of our way, they do so only within certain programs and do not take in any strays anyway. Next we opt to try the one in Brunswick as that's where we're heading. Carrie gives them a call and, unfortunately truthfully reveals where we found the rat. They will not take in animals outside of their specified area.

A call to the Lewiston shelter confirms that they will take the rat, because we live within their specific range, and we decide to take advantage of their late hours to swing by after our planned trip. We make sure the rat has stuff to chew, air holes, and some soggy clover until we can get some tastier veggies from the restaurant.

We drop recycle stuff off at the recycle drop and head on to the restaurant. The waitress asks us how we're doing and Carrie mentions a bit of the adventure, still feeling a bit sore at the brusque treatment from the Brunswick shelter once it was revealed we were from outside the acceptable range. By coincidence the waitress's boyfriend has had rats before, and she was kind of thinking she'd like a pet rat, and they lived just a 15 minute walk away... When we leave the restaurant we walk her boyfriend to the car and turn the rat over to his new humans.

And the food we ate was really good too.

 We then go off to the flea market. I only buy one comicbook. I do find some books. I am very curious about the Zane Grey book, I only knew of his westerns. He's got a jungle adventure too! This was in a pile with three Tarzan books. I have them in paperback, but these were old (1917 & 1927) hardcovers. No prices on them and they weren't under glass or wrapped in plastic, so I figure I'll ask how much. I expect something along the lines of the prices I normally see, but they're at less than a tenth of what I thought they'd be. At or below the price I would pay for Tarzan paperbacks! One of these has lots of wonderful illustrations by J Allen St. John!

Carrie finds a number of interesting things, too, including pieces for a new prop she wants to build inspired by our photo shoot yesterday. And while at one vendor buying some goodies, the vendor turned to me and agreed on the low low counter offer I'd earlier made on the Phantom book he had.

Next stop was at the Goodwill store where, instead of the usual one if I'm lucky work shirt find, I got a week's worth.

If a black cat crosses your path it's bad luck. If a white rat crosses your path, it is apparently good luck.

No decaf for MECAF

Four wide aisles to go up and down.

adapted from the radio show?

she made the skirt herself

Another comics day today, for it's the annual Maine Comics Art Festival in Portland. We started out early to do the usual leisurely drive in to check out yard sales and flea markets where I bought a couple of books and a cast iron old fashioned mail truck.

MECAF had new digs this year a short distance from the old ones, but it looks like they managed to keep all the exhibitors in the same room for once. We met up with long distance pal EJ Barnes, who was one of the driving forces behind putting out the Luisa Felix tribute book. She now has about ten copies that have my autograph in them (I was a contributor).

I brought along some Samurai Slates and found them so well received that I ran out. And I still haven't sent copies to everyone on my mailing list as I ran out of the correct size envelopes. Guess I'll have to print up more. Lots of fellow mini-comic producers at the event and I came out with a bag full of trades.

Afterwards we went to Green Hand and got more books!

The Berry Patch

 Kemmer came for a visit this weekend. While Carrie was at work on Saturday we went out and hit some flea markets. Kemmer got a book. I got four books, three postcards, a toy mail truck, and some DVDs. Sunday the three of us went out to look at a couple of places we thought Kemmer might like to buy and live at, mostly as an excuse to go driving around and exploring. We found a yardsale where I picked up more books! Nine of them.

 I'd been eying this Circus Boy book for a while, first noting it last year, but the vendor was asking way too much for my wallet. It was still there the next time we stopped by and he still wanted a lot. It is because the TV show Circus Boy starred a young Micky Dolenz of The Monkees fame. I didn't ask about it the next couple of times, then did, then didn't. He finally offered it at $5.00 this visit.

 I kinda like some of the James Bond movies, though not to the extent I did when younger. I don't think I've ever read any of the actual books though. At used bookstores they tend to get higher prices or quickly snatched up, so I was pleased to find these at a yard sale. At fifty cents each I was going to take a chance on all of them. But when I picked them up I noticed water damage and some mildew. Carrie said they were salvageable, and the price was dropped. I paid only a buck for the bunch.

 The Postmaster was two dollars, but as my email address is Postmaster Keith and my blog ID is Postmaster, I couldn't resist. It's next in line to be read, but I'm not sure how much I will actually be able to get through. It does have some interior illustrations too.

click on a pic to supersize it

The Berry Patch

 More about books

 

 As mentioned earlier, I have been buying books at yard sales, flea markets, and the like. The first one shown here is an advance proof of a biography of one of my favorite authors, Edgar Rice Burroughs. First biography of his I've ever read, let alone bought. Odd, considering what a Tarzan fan I am.

 And don't forget, in honor of Tarzan's 100th anniversary, there is a new postage stamp coming out on August 17th.

 In my earlier post about books, I mentioned a yard sale I bought the 1800's dime novels at. I went back this weekend and found two Lone Wolf novels. Earlier this year I discovered reruns of the old b&w tv show based on the series and a few months ago TCM was showing some of the movies. Both these books feature "scenes from the photoplay". The second book had the front half of the dust jacket tucked inside of it. No dust jacket for the other one.

 

There are a couple of tv series from my childhood that I actively seek books from. But for some reason I've decided to pick up other tv themed books. I won't get just any. I turned down Lassie and Dr Kildare ones offered. But recent purchases include Land of the Giants, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Mission: Impossible. Never high literature, but usually fun nostalgia.

As a child I also watched a lot of old movies. That's where my love of Tarzan started. The actor who played Boy in those films went on to star in a series of movies based on the Bomba books. I have long wanted to read one of them, but not been willing to pay the antiquarian bookstore prices of the only copies I'd ever come across. Well, a recent find at a flea market was one from that series in hardcover with dust jacket mostly intact. At only three dollars, I snatched it up. It was about the level of writing I was expecting and felt no need to buy any others. Until I found two more at a buck each.

to enlarge any image, click on the author's favorite word

Turner Classic Mainstreet

 

Carrie noticed that the public library in Turner was having a book sale today, so we decided that was what we would do for our day off. When we arrived in town we noticed the sides of the main street were packed with people. They were getting ready for a parade. We barely managed to get in the general area of the library before all available parking was gone. The sale was in the basement of the library itself, and very well attended. We both got several books, and one of my purchases was another boy's adventure novel from the 30s.

 

After we left the building we realized leaving wasn't going to happen soon, so we went across the street to check out the cemetery. A few headstones had artwork, most of which featured roses. There were also some that had fancy shapes like these two. While we were here, the parade started.

 

 They had horses, tractors, classic cars, fire engines, and hookers.

To enlarge any picture, click on something green.

The Berry Patch

back cover

inside front cover

 I seem to be finding old books recently. Flea markets, book stores, yard sales are the locations of these finds. All at good prices. Most of what I have been picking up relate to old movies or tv shows from when I was a kid. The two pictured here are very much an exception to that, being from 1884 and well before television.




 A local yard sale was featuring finds from an old house that had been closed up for 80 or so years. They had a box of paperback books like these for a dime apiece. I anticipating the writing to be horrible, but ten cents each? I wanted a couple at least. I chose two that I thought were in better condition and had better graphics.


I started reading one of the books. The writing feels stilted, as much of the writing from the time does, with the extra burden of mass produced hack work. I expected this and was not put off by it. The subject matter is what keeps me from enjoying it. Rather primitive form of a romance novel.

 I've scanned the ads from Doris' Fortune to post here, but in doing so I have damaged the book, causing the cover to come off. The inside pages are stapled together, but the cover was glued on. 128 year old glue doesn't hold up to much handling. I am not going to post any interior scans from Lancaster's Choice.

 For a larger view of any of these pages, click on the letter 'K' in the pic

Booked Solid

Saturday was our day off together and Carrie noted a number of flea markets and craft fairs being held mostly in the Augusta area. The first one we stopped at wasn't even on the list, but was the best one for me. 30 different Edgar Rice Burroughs paperbacks for $25. I owned most if not all of these in the past and only recently decided to start collecting the Tarzan novels again. With this purchase I now have 17 of them along with 11 of the Mars series and 2 of his westerns.