Sometimes what's in the back of a daily newspaper is more interesting than the headlines.

Some things never change! The ads found in Strange Red Cow and Other Curious Classified Ads From the Past, by Sara Bader, are pretty much what you'll find today (whether in a newspaper, or on-line). Lost items, found items, things for sale, and, of course, the search for the perfect mate. By keeping the original spelling and language of the various ads, the author kept the 'flavor' of the time in which it was written. This was a lot of fun to read.

From the book on classified ads I seemed to wander on to obituaries. I certainly pay more attention to them than I used to do! Turns out, there is quite an art to writing a good obit, which I learned in The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries, by Marilyn Johnson. There are names for each part (sort of like diagramming a sentence). There are conventions for obit writers (the first one started on a dare, but it was very successful and so they continue). I was especially touched by the response after 9/11 and the "Portraits of Grief" published in the NY Times. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but altogether a good read.

It's always fun to share some of these 'finds', too and before we could just click a mouse, we sent a paper copy. In the old days all copies were made by hand, hopefully by scribes with good handwriting. Ditto paper was step forward, but copies were fuzzy, and would fade (or run). Fortunately someone was thinking about a better way to make copies ... faster and of decent quality. Copies in Seconds: How a Lone Inventor and an Unknown Company Created the Biggest Communication Breakthrough Since Gutenberg -- Chester Carlson and the Birth of the Xerox Machine, by David Owen, is the biography of that man. His childhood was harsh, he was earning money to help support his family by the time he was eight, and he rarely was around kids his own age. He would later credit this for his perseverance and ability to work alone. Designing, improving, and selling his machine made for an interesting read.

Reading Hermit With Dog