Popeye the Sailor Man

  This little weapon was found inside the wall of our house while the library was being built.  Circa late 1950's, I believe.

Heavy Metal

Damon and I went for a walk on the beach during lunch the other day and came across these two enormous pieces of iron in the sand.  We were about a half-mile away, but could not resist the urge to carry them back to the truck.  This was an agonizing endeavor and probably hilarious to witness from the window of one of the many beachside homes, as the collective weight of the two objects was over 300 lbs. 

  Both pieces were really interesting and I almost took them home to put in the yard, but figured I probably had enough giant iron rusting in my yard as it is.  Besides, these things were heavy, and at the scrap yard, heavy means money.  12 cents a pound for number one iron, to be precise, which at over 300 lbs., is pushing 40 dollars.  It's a beggar's ransom, for sure, but money is money and we already had a load of metal anyway.  Honestly, I just need excuses to go to the scrap yard.

  I love that place.  It seems to be one of the last vestiges of lawlessness and chaos left around here. The other day, one of the workers was telling me how the excavator operator dug into an RV with his bucket and hit a full sewage tank, which exploded from the pressure of methane gas inside and spewed stinking human waste hundreds of feet in every direction.  "You should have seen it," he said, laughing and taking long drags off his cigarette. "This place smelled just like somebody's rotten a##hole all day long."  And he was right.  I should have seen it.  And I'm really sorry I didn't.

Pipe Organ

Scotch Poem

  Found this in an old dictionary.  Handwritten poem on one side and typed on the other, only the typed version is not so good, as if the handwritten was the original, written by an actual "poet", and the typed version a sort of hackneyed reproduction. I guess it's open to interpretation. That is, if we have any Scottish interpreters about.

The Lamp Works

  Found inside the wall of a house under renovation in Rockland.  Actually, the house on Granite Street, where Damon and I tore the chimneys down a month or so ago.  This is a box that once held a small light bulb of the tungsten variety.

 

Laser Eyes

  He's Got those LaSER EyeS on ME.

Found In Books

  In an attempt to continue posting on this site throughout the winter, when the ground is frozen solid and metal detecting is an impossibility, I have decided to start adding "things found in books".  I sell used and rare books online and often come across interesting items, such as letters, photos, lists, and tickets, like this one:

   I found it while thumbing through an old book about India in Goodwill.  It's about eight inches long and three inches wide.  The passenger obviously traveled to or from Stanford to (or from) North Canaan.  This ticket was probably issued in the late 1800's and the trip probably took a couple of hours, which was sufficient time to settle into a few chapters on the history of India.  I am including a link to an interesting site on the history of The New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad Co. : http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/abnere2.Html