The Death of Common Sense

Obituary printed in the London Times

Interesting and sadly rather true.

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
– Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
– Why the early bird gets the worm;
– Life isn’t always fair;
– and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;
I Know My Rights,
I Want It Now,
Someone Else Is To Blame,
and I’m A Victim
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

How to Date a Photograph

The title sounds like I am going to tell you how to say “do you want to go out with me?” In reality I would like to give you some pointers on how to determine the relative age of a photograph. You can not always tell by the condition of the photograph so get to know the style of dress and items in it such as old cars, household items even hairstyles. You will sometime come across a hairstyle that sticks out but remember there were always fashion rebels.

Vintage Photographs of Women a YouTube Presentation

I am starting to get the hang of doing YouTube videos. I just finished on on ‘WOMEN’.
Since I have big lot ending on eBay today and more to come. The lot is all women but that is just one of the numerous lots you will find at Vintage Photographs.

Turn your sound on this plays to the song Say Hey I Love You by Michael Franti & spearhead. I heard this song while watching one of my favorite shows, Weeds. They played it when Nancy Botwin , actress Mary-Louise Parker saw a Flash  Mob performance.

 

Making the Art Your Friend

I have been working on selling photographs for so many years that they have become my dearest friend. The more time you spend searching and scanning old black and white photographs the more you see and learn. It has become a daily learning experience in both recognizing the general decade of a photo and picking out the subject matter that make a photo more desirable.

It seems like everyone, not just the die hard collector love photos with cats and or dogs in them. Most any animal is looked for. Cars are also something that is desirable. After six years of appraising thousand of different photos with cars in them I am still not very good when it comes to giving the correct model and or make. If there is a license plate I can make out, the year is usually a given 🙂

I was thinking that I could do some self teaching on this topic and use this forum to share the information and perhaps get some information from anyone who comes by or wants to study these fantastic machines with me.

I am pretty good with dogs – I have a book and the internet at my fingers to research them and have been doing that for years. Again the automobile just passed me by. The fact that my brothers were always in the garage as we grew is of little help. I have a large group of photos taken at a car show here in Pottsville Pa a long time ago and I figured I would start with those. I will be scanning many of them to put at auction on ebay anyway so this can be a two part experiment for me. And learning is always my favorite past time.

If this works out I will try to do something similar with the dogs. I don’t know how the blog works. Is it best to keep this one going or should I make a separate blog for this.
Thinking about it and I guess that 2 blogs would make it easier for anyone who might be interest in the subject matter. Not to mention I confuse easily.