READING MATTERS

Here’s a list of things I am thankful for (2016).

Thank the lord I’m not an appraiser on “Antiques Roadshow.”  Otherwise, I could be the authority outed on national television just as the “american craft expert”  was in Portland, Oregon.  A customer brought in a ceramic “head jug” and the authority proclaimed it to be from the U.S. central eastern coastal region (the Carolinas are famous for these things), probably made in the late 19th century and worth in today’s market around $50,000.  Boy, did the owner’s eyes light up! He bought the piece at a garage sale for $300!

Unfortunately, the jug turned out to be none of those things.  It was made by a high school art student (Portland, Oregon) in the mid-1970s.  New appraised value: $3000 (which in my opinion is still too high.  I’d say closer to $400.)

Moral of the story:  NEVER buy art for investment! NEVER assume  - even when an “authority” tells you it’s value -  that you can convert your art object into cold hard cash.  Just love the jug for itself and if you’re trying to raise cash, trade in your baseball cards.

As seen on Antiques Roadshow

Next please.

I have enough trouble keeping up with my very lax standards of communication.  I long ago quit trying to keep up a mailing list and/or send out greeting cards.  I love those friends who do and I hope they forgive me for not reciprocating. 

When pigs were a symbol of good luck

I’m glad I don’t live in the late 1800s or early 1900s; my life would be different and I’d be mailing those cards out right, left and center. Advent of postage stamps brought mailing right into the mainstream and printing made card buying within reach of nearly everybody. 

Here are a few New Year’s greeting cards from that era (part of the National Library of Norway collection.)  Pigs were good luck and all animals and birds - living or dead - seemed to be good images for these macabre greetings.  

You may wonder how I happen to have this obscure but fascinating information at my finger tips.  I scan three or four on line news services daily.  One is hyperallergic.com aimed largely at the art and culture reader.  (Today’s top story:  20 Most Powerless People in the Art World. Hint: #6= All Poor People.)

Another source:  aeon (https://aeon.com), aims at ideas and culture.  You may notice a pattern here.

VOX.com - I call this my “real-news-lite" web site.  I was an avid remodelista.com follower but this year, they switched into a gear that I find tedious and boring and way too euro-centric.  Away-to-the-Garden.com is - as you might expect - a really good inclusive gardening blog.  It’s a weekly and I can’t be bothered reading closely in the winter - too depressing as I look out at snow. Today, I went to mainstreetartsgallery.com/blog/.  Main Street Art Gallery, Clifton Springs, is worth a ride to the country.  It’s a beautiful space; they’re learning as they go. I hope they begin showing a bit more intellectually stimulating stuff and I’m willing to give them the time to find their way.

If you have a favorite blog site/on line news service, share with the rest of us.  Meanwhile, Happy New Year, pigs and all.

P.S. I see that I've written repeatedly (!) about hyperallergic. No, I don't have personal interest in that web site.  I also follow City Lab, a web site for The Atlantic and occassionally one or two others. My husband reads all the national newspapers...we're a little like "Jack Sprat and his wife." Between the two of us, we can barely drag ourselves away from computer screens.  This sounds like a possible New Year's Resolution in the making.