A General Update

 Now that it is warm again, everything is blooming like crazy.  We've had such wild temperature swings: I hope these hopeful buds don't get zapped by another drop.

 JB brought in a bunch of treats, including gluten-free and gluten-rich muffins.  This is just what we need to get us over that Wednesday hump!

 A robin built a nest in the Pusey pit tree.  The best views are from Map Collection offices.  The mapsters will be making videos when the chicks hatch.

 JB also added to his rotted fruit sculpture, which he now claims is a totem pole.  Anthropologists of the future will be puzzled!

Reading Has Sex Appeal

Some class is having students do papers on Harvard University as a brand.  This reminded me of my small collection of old advertisements for the Harvard Classics.  This first one was one of the earliest, and I stupidly did not take down the source.  Since then, I've used all the indexes that include ad text, but I still can't track it down.  I was able to find a better copy in a book*, but the book gave no source information.  I love this ad, because it touts the Classics as a marital aid.

(For a larger image go here.)

I have other, less racy examples too.

 Life, September 28, 1922 page 27
(For a larger image go here.)

Life, Novemeber 23, 1922 page 27
(For a larger image go here.)

*Those were the good old days: a happy look at American advertising, 1880-1930, by Edgar R. Jones, Simon & Schuster: New York, 1959, page 310.

Easter Parade

This Easter Sunday, Rosemary and I wanted to get an eyeful of Easter finery, so we headed out to the Anime Boston convention. (Although I don't follow anime, I respect most costume-based activities.)

We encountered these three ladies from Quebec on the Green Line.

 

People  were happy to pose for us.

Some shots were more casual.

Check out all my photos at my Picasa Web Album.

No Turkey

I've been searching for the turkey reported to be in Harvard Yard.  No luck.  But today I spotted a lovely crane.

In more serious news, JB has both a dried lime and a dried grapefruit at work.  It doesn't make for a pretty picture.

Our special germ-detecting camera proves that this is a case for the Health Department.

This is one toxic fruit sculpture!