December 5, 1999
Greetings Accumulators!
New York City is ablaze with Christmas, Kwanzaa and Chanukah excitement!
Last night we took an extremely slow drive down Fifth Avenue (New York is
also ablaze with crushing holiday traffic) to admire the giant snowflake
suspended over the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. What a
lovely thing (I say this every year)! If you must go Christmas shopping
(not my favorite thing)the Apple is the place, for the sheer noisy,
crowded, abundant, bustling excitement of it.
FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF SILLY LUNCHEON MEAT
The Spam Museum is moving! Bet you didn't know (or even care, maybe) that
there was a Spam Museum. The current one is at Oak Park Mall in Austin,
Minnesota. But the new, larger and more glorious one will be in beautiful
downtown Austin, in a renovated Kmart building, and will include a visitor
center, offices and a 16,550 square foot museum. That's a lot of meat
viewing area! There will be interactive video screens, allowing you to
realize your lifelong dream of communicating with Spam; a "history walk",
which will take you through the story of Spam; a "state-of-the-art"
auditorium, where you will, no doubt, be able to enjoy many hours of
fascinating and entertaining Spam programming; a dining area, where you
will be able to get guess what for lunch; and a well-stocked gift shop,
where visitors may purchase fashionable Spam Souvenirs such as hats, golf
balls, t-shirts and watches. The shop will open in conjunction with the
10th Annual Spam Jam (don't ask!) on July 1, 2000, while the rest of the
museum will have to wait until later in the year.
WHERE'S THAT KID WHO GAVE THE BAD NEWS TO THE EMPEROR WHEN YOU NEED HIM?
DEPARTMENT
There's a new book out called "Clothing For The Elite: The Dutch Couturiers
And Their Clients", by Dieuwke Grijpma, that claims that a royal robe, worn
by six generations of the Dutch Royal Family, is a low-quality copy.
Grijpma says that the robe, originally made for King Willem's investiture
in 1815, and being a red velvet cape with ermine lining and 83 lions in
gold embroidery, was copied in the 1940s or 1950s by a Swiss tailor named
Erwin Dolder, who then switched the robes and kept the original. The
alleged copy is currently owned by Queen Beatrix. The book claims that
Dolder, who died in 1970, wasn't exactly secretive about the whole affair -
he regularly wore the cape to the cafes of Basel, Switzerland. I'm sure the
other cafe-goers looked at him sipping his hot chocolate in ruby red velvet
and ermine and surmised that something about him was not right.
TEEN-AGED GIRLS, GET YOUR BIDDING PADDLES READY
Fans of WB's "Dawson's Creek" have until this Wednesday, December 8 to bid
on a Ford Focus signed by the cast. Proceeds from the auction, which is
being held on www.Amazon.com/auction, will go to the American Red Cross for
the purpose of supporting Hurricane Floyd relief efforts in the Carolinas,
which is where the show is filmed. Clothing worn on the show is also up for
auction. No word on what happens when you take the car through a car wash.
CHEAP, BUT FUN
Before we had TV and the Internet, people passed the time by reading! Yes,
it's true, they read all kinds of books, including those el cheapo "dime"
novels. Now you can take a trip down memory lane by visiting Stanford
University's Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls site at
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/dp/pennies/home.html, where you'll find
historical information, a searchable index, and the texts of novels you can
actually - yes - read! It's a fun site.
LUCKY LITTLE TYKE
The Howard Miller Company, clockmakers, will award the first baby born in
the US in the year 2000 (sorry, West Coast!) a grandfather clock. If the
baby is a boy, he'll win the company's Millennium Edition Grandfather
clock. If it's a girl, she will be awarded the Windsor Miles Grandfather.
FOR THOSE WHO FEEL THERE'S NEVER ENOUGH CELEBRITY MEMORABILIA....
Butterfield and Butterfield is now holding previews for their December 14
auction of mixed celeb stuff. The batch includes a handwritten note by
President John F. Kennedy to his brother-in-law, the actor Peter Lawford; a
document signed by Benjamin Franklin and a manuscript written by Marilyn
Monroe about Christian Science, described as "quite sensitive".
GRANDMA, PART DEUX
The conclusion of "Grandma And The Schmattes, or How To Sell At A Flea
Market", in which my grandmother drives my brother, Arnie and me crazy (I
know, short drive) is now up at the Twin Brooks site. You can read it by
going to http://www.msjudith.net/other/112299.htm.
SPECIAL NOTE TO SOME ACCUMULATORS
Our Internet Service Provider is apparently having mail server problems.
Please bear with us. If you haven't received Newsletters #106 and #107,
you can read them in the Newsletter Archives at
http://www.msjudith.net/news/index.htm. Thanks for your indulgence while
we get this worked out.
My dear Accumulators, this newsletter is about to end, setting you free to
get out there and shop. I hope your week is full of great finds, super
bargains and delighted reactions. Happy hunting!
Best,
Judith
© 1999 Judith Katz-Schwartz. All rights reserved.
Antiques and Collectibles Newsletter #108
U.S. Library of Congress
ISSN 1520-4464
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