Frog Applause by Teresa Burritt for February 01, 2024

Yes, but that just adds to the excitement.

Was the original owner also a contortionist who liked to read books sideways?

I had to, he wouldn’t give up the book.

It’s a smelly smell. The kind of smell that smells smelly.

I’ve never thought that way about books.

I do collect old coins. I have coins from the 1400’s to early 1900’s.

Sometimes when I look at those coins, I wonder what the people bought with them.

That thought has never crossed my mind, given the obvious nature of the situation. Read Beowulf or Le chanson de Roland and it goes without saying.

I like to read books by humorists writing before 1960. When I first ventured out of the Children’s Section of our library about 1960, I was enthralled by the existence of books in the Adult Section, especially those tending toward Humor.

At that time, many of those books were old editions and smelled old like old peoples’ houses. Years of heat in steam radiators caused them to smell that way. It was somewhat suffocating, might have warped my developing brain.

The books I liked were by George Ade, Don Marquis, Stephen Leacock, Ring Lardner, H.L. Mencken, Dorothy Parker, James Thurber, E.B White, and others. I determined I would someday read them all — or even own them.

Meanwhile I enjoyed humor books convenient to buy, those with collections by Art Buchwald, Erma Bombeck, Garrison Keillor, Dave Barry, and others.

Come time to further pursue those older books — most had been discarded from the public library shelves; and if reprinted elsewhere, were expensive or in .pdf. However, our local university has inherited books from private libraries — with “Ex Libris” stamps and collectors’ names. Many are nearly complete collections of humorist offerings.

And if I breathe in the covers and pages, many faintly retain the odor I remember.

…which has the stronger spine?…

… the contortionist…

…or the book?…

…you can dog ear either, I suppose…

…my old books seem to have a hint of vanilla…

…but that may just be me…

…when we moved into the house we are now vacating…

…I stored what I thought were all of my old comic books into plastic boxes with tight snap tight lids…

…alas to find some were left down I’m our damp adventurous basement just in cardboard boxes…

…gone to dampness is my Superman versus Muhammad Ali Neil Adam’s classic…

…my total original Watchmen limited series…

…my John Byrne Fantastic Fours…

…and Giant size X-Men #1 with the new X-Men…

…and my Incredible Hulk with the first appearance of Wolverine on the last page…

…Black mold…

…stuck together…

I have an edition of Shakespeare’s works that has an inscription inside the front cover. It was a prize awarded to a young girl in England in 1905. I sometimes think about her.

Everything is a book.

Often if there’s an owner’s inscription.

Only when I’m handling my Necronomicon. It smells like feet.

The smell of really old books and old people is not dissimilar. The faint scent of decay and a hint of mold permeate both.

Sometimes the inscriptions and margin notes are more illuminating than the book, itself.

Dead people don’t read books, do they?

Dusty, fragile pages of word salads, plots and devious doings.

I have a bunch of antique books written in the 1800’s! Amazing styles and stories to day the least! ☺️

I have an edition of The Pilgrim’s Progress that I got at a library used book sale. On the flyleaf is written “To George, from Mamma, Xmas 1904”.

I assume that both George and his mother are long gone, but haven’t thought about it that much.

Most books are about the dead or dying… wait… that’s all of us… yeesch

the book has stinkfoot

no

Almost every day, and not just books,

i come from a long line of dead people.

Have inhaled old books. No having to reshelve them afterwards

And the person who wrote the book is now dead. I wonder if they are a ghost writer…

I wear a mask when I read. Death is very contagious.

It occurred to me, but I think I was right side up at the time.

In the early ‘50s my local library had some books as old as 1900. I did think of that. I hadn’t learned the ins and outs of subtraction yer but I knew that my dad’s parents were born in 1896 and 1900 and that their parents were dead.

The smell of dying books is called bibliosmia. The sometimes sweet smell of a person dying is called Odour of Sanctity.

In fact, the medical explanation for the Odour of Sanctity is that it is nothing more than Ketoacidosis. Ketosis is a natural process that occurs when the body runs out of glucose and starts to metabolise fatty acids. This progression volatilizes acetone which produces a mildly sweet smell.

http://tinyurl.Com/mwmcw22z

Of course, death is all around us. The house I occupy was made by people long gone. The chair I am sitting in was my great grandfathers. Much of the music I enjoy was produced by people long since gone. Some would say life is built on the back of death. Must be one sturdy back. Maybe that’s why it’s turtles all the way down.

The smell of a book is part of the reading experience.

This guy represents the yellow wire to shoes like Maxwell Smart.

Shoes Rich enough to smoke a fatty cigar from Cuba

Bomb by ard.

Cut the end of your stogies with cuff links. The red wire is utterly nuts.

Howard’smyHero, get well and rejoin us if you can. Smell some books with us.

Old people smell like old books is what I’m getting from this.

I wanna kiss her belly.

If ever I thought about that while growing up, which I seem to remember doing, I likely said something about it!!

But, if ever I did, my mum would have told me to shut it!!

Of course Teresa would be a day late and a toon short … I mean after all, as I write this, it is February 2nd … so Happy Groundhog Day y’all …! Celebrate by reading an old copy of the Tibetan Book Of The Dead …❗️

T Ho Eskimo all the way to Texeco….

…this is our own little Froglandia Groundhog Day…

…we have a candle shaped like a Groundhog…

…if its flame sees its shadow…

…free beer at The Blackhorse Tavern (The BHT) tomorrow…

…in a free Stanley cup…

…complete with a Blue Jacket logo…

…and a blue jacket…

…and lets not skirt the issue…

…if you wear stockings with a slip…

…under your skirt…

…you’ll make our throwback Thursday two for Tuesday HUMP Day TGIF post Superbowl Monday double shot sundae next Saturday…

Let the record show that I checked in …!

( looking for another blue question mark )

Is it going to be groundhog day every day now?

Spring ôs blossom