Hallowe’en Suggestions

Hi kids! It’s Halloween time again (or Hallowe’en, if you celebrated this back in 1905). I consulted with Mrs. Herbert B. Linscott’s Bright Ideas for Entertaining to find some fun party tips for you this year. First, some decorating ideas: ~~ Have mirrors everywhere: big mirrors, medium-sized mirrors, and little, wee mirrors, all reflecting and […]

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How to Distinguish Death

This week’s selection is from Professor T. W. Shannon’s Nature’s Secrets Revealed: Scientific Knowledge of The Laws of Sex Life and Heredity or, Eugenics. You never know ~ this might come in handy someday. 1916: How to Distinguish Death As many instances occur of parties being buried alive, they being to all appearances dead, the great importance […]

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Building a New Disposition

This one seems appropriate to start out the new year. It’s from Vivilore: The Pathway to Mental and Physical Perfection, which was written in 1904 by Mary Ries Melendy. I wonder if folks one hundred years ago resolved to do this or that around December 31st? 1904: Building a New Disposition I. Never look on the […]

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Advice to Cooks

This past weekend I found the perfect birthday gift for my dear friend Sarah. The Thermo-Spoon, in its original package and still containing the illustrated recipe book, looked as if it had never been used in the thirty-some-odd years since it was marketed. I don’t know why ~ according to the instructions, as you stir […]

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Home

I’m back from my “oh-my-gawd-I’ve-actually-been-to-ten-states-in-two-weeks” summer trip. Don’t ask. While gone, I thought fondly of friends, loved ones, and my sweet pup, and couldn’t wait to be back in my own apartment. Here’s an excerpt on the joys of home, from The Household Guide, or Domestic Cyclopedia, written by Professor B. G. Jefferis and J. L. […]

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Hello? Anyone “At Home”?

Q Dear Miss Abigail: What was the meaning of “at home” when visitors presented a calling card? Were some people at home to visitors on designated days? Signed, Win A Dear Win: You got it, babe. Here’s a little description of this long-forgotten tradition (hoorah for us). It’s from a book titled Correct Social Usage, which […]

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Sidewalk Manners

I think there are two types of people in the world: those who never move to the side to let another walker pass easily, and those polite, considerate, charming, lovely sidewalk shifters who gladly step aside when confronted with someone straight ahead. I’m a shifter, of course ~ always have been, always will. Who knows […]

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