Fourth Cone Restoration and the art of saving posters

I don’t know how it came up on my YouTube algorithm, but I’ve enjoyed watching these videos. And you will as well. Fourth Cone Restoration is a Los Angeles-based company that specializes in restoring old posters, photographs and advertisements for collectors and historians. Each video shows the poster as it arrives, along with all the…

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A little bachelor laundry and a good deed

I’ve pared my laundry routine down to a science. Put a bag of clothes in my car before I go to work, so that on the way home I can stop at the laundromat and launder my laundry. A separate tote bag for my detergents, my fabric softeners and my dryer sheets. And if I…

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Damn it, Chevrolet, you’re not supposed to make me cry … again …

Every year, Chevrolet puts together one of those “sentimental holiday” commercials. and I keep promising myself that they will not make me cry. And they do every time. Those commercials get me right in the feels. To recap … here are the Chevrolet holiday commercials from the past few years. And each one grabs your…

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Building a Book Lamp – actually, building a lamp made out of books

if you haven’t yet joined the Mastodon social media platform, you should do so. Mastodon is not owned by any specific oligcarch individual, it’s part of the federated internet where local communities operate the website and its neighboring branches. I’m on it (chuckthewriter@mstdn.social), and I recommend it. And in saying that, I can tell you…

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A Collection of Lenticular Canadian Christmas Coins

In 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint commenced a line of commemorative 50-cent pieces, each one featuring a Christmas or holiday-themed lenticular artwork. As you might know from reading my blog, a lenticular artwork features an image that, if you tilt the picture at a certain angle, the image itself will slightly move or show depth.…

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The Return of Operation Toy Train

There are holiday traditions that raise our spirits and prove to us that we can be kind and supportive to our neighbors and strangers. This is one such tradition. Ten national heritage and tourist railroads, including the local Saratoga, Corinth & Hudson Railway, will once more participate in the “Operation Toy Train” charity fundraiser. Each…

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Where are the eight great nitro-burning funny cars??

I swear I’m not hallucinating this. As a kid, I used to listen to the local radio Top 40 radio stations in the area – 980 AM WTRY (they had American Top 40 on Sundays, which was a plus) and 1540 AM WPTR (which had a range that could be picked up whether I lived…

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Oh, and these videos also talk about sawing wood.

There’s a whole subgenre of YouTube videos that are both completely relaxing and intriguing. I’m talking about lumber videos. These are the ones where someone finds a gigantic tree trunk or burled wood stump, then they take it to a gigantic sawmill and slice that bad boy up into fantastic planks. These planks have incredible…

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Trains to the New York State Fair would work … except …

I appreciate the New York State Fair. It’s my summertime happy place, where I can submit my crafts and photos for competition, I can eat wacky Franken-food, and I can feel like there’s not a care in the world. Traveling to the New York State Fair from Albany, however, does bring a series of options.…

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