Checking In

Quietly and in small increments, the days lengthen.

A weeks-long deep freeze is starting to subside. 

Hello Folks. It’s Monday the 9th of February and I’m at work, helping students with their projects. Last night’s Bad Bunny performance is on everyone’s mind. My high school art students keep asking me how I felt about it and have been sharing their perspectives. Some kids are watching it on their phones for the first time or rewatching it. A few kids thought it was “mid” (and I definitely disagree as there was nothing “mid” about that Halftime Show) but what’s interesting is for the most part, kids who loved it or are even perplexed by it keep going back to rewatch key moments so they can discuss them or understand what they meant. They’re willing to look at it cinematically, which is very encouraging and shows a lot of intelligence on their part. Two different students separately said “People could study this like a movie.” Another said “This was Broadway at The Super Bowl.” Even students who couldn’t understand the lyrics seemed to understand the overall message (how could you not?) and those that have said this to me have reacted to it very positively. One kid said “It was all about unity and diversity and I loved that.” I keep telling them this: “What you just witnessed was a cultural reset. You may not know it now, but later you’ll realize that last night was one of those moments in pop culture history akin to Elvis or The Beatles on Ed Sullivan.” Yes, I told them to look those moments up and have been giving them cultural context. I’m still shaken up (in the best way) by Bad Bunny handing the Grammy to the child representing his younger self. The kids clocked that too and they all seemed to appreciate the message on the screens which read “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.” Guess what, folks… The kids are alright and I’m beginning to think we’re all gonna be okay. I, for one, have NOT been this hopeful in a long time. Thank you, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. We ALL needed that. Congratulations on a truly historic performance.

eBay Score: Kreskin's Krystal Game (1971)

Another Laugh-In magazine for my collection (1969)

Janet Jackson's Control LP is 40 years old this month.

Vibe Check... Quick Park Visit

New Jersey... Keepin' it classy.

Winter can be over now. No, really. 

I don't care what that groundhog said. 

Stay warm, folks. XO - CDM

Single Digits And Surprises

A surprise arrived at my door.

Below is a social media post I wrote about that...

Unsealed: A 104 Year Old Unmailed Letter

My friend Lorie is amazingly thoughtful and will send me vintage ephemera (which she knows I collect or use as collage material) on occasion. Yesterday a thick silver bubble envelope from Lorie surprised me at the mailbox. Inside was a gold mine of vintage photos and paper items (maps, pamphlets and the like) dating from the 1900s to the 1990s. Among the lot was a piece of sealed correspondence dated 1922. It was stamped but unmailed. Inside was a form letter to traveling sales ladies (addressed to “Madam”) from The Goodrich Drug Company. Goodrich sold cosmetics and toiletries and its employees likely went door to do or hosted sales parties on the order of Avon or Mary Kay. At the bottom it stated “You are going to make a mistake if you do not travel for us in 1923.” The hand written reply on the back of the letter is from one Mrs. Adams, having been addressed to “Sirs”. She basically said she’s been busy with “quite a little business to attend to” and will send the “vanity case”, which was likely a sales and demo kit, back to them if they want it returned. Mrs. Adams sealed her reply with a 2 cent stamp and never mailed it. I don’t know the full provenance of this artifact but somehow it ended up in a place where Lorie could retrieve it and send it to me. I opened it and now it’s being shared with all of you in 2026. Here’s hoping the statute of limitations on mail theft (which is a federal offense) have lapsed. Many thanks to Lorie for continuing to generously supply me with collage fodder and specifically this fascinating look into professional correspondence from 104 years ago. PS: I’m not cutting this up. The letter and envelope are safely archived in one of my postcard photo albums.

And then we got another foot of snow...

A few nice recent eBay scores above:

1963, 1970 and 1985 respectively. 

Paul Lynde was everywhere in the 1960s and 1970s.

No matter what sitcom of the past I'm watching, he 

manages to show up somewhere. Here he is in a 

1967 episode of That Girl starring Marlo Thomas. 

Back to the unrelenting deep freeze...

Winter can be over now. I'm done with it.