Night Owl Cards

  Earlier this year AT&T ended directory assistance for landline users. A couple years before that it ended the service for wireless callers. Dialing "411" or "0" for information was a way of life for phone users for decades. I remember dialing "0" as a kid and "0" was the most fascinating number on the dial because of its special ability, you could get another human on the other end just by pressing a single button (or making that rotary dial spin all the way around). I didn't use "411" but I became aware of it later, and thanks to a couple of musical references (Mary J. Blige's debut album, "What's the 411?" is now 30 years old), I knew it meant the key to unlock information. In today's internet age, a service like that is pretty meaningless since we're all staring at screens. I can't imagine people are still dialing 411 or 0, although I guess other phone carriers still offer it for a fee. I am pr...

  I'm in a writing stage that often happens around this time of year where ideas don't come easily and time is short.   I am fortunate to have a lengthy backlog of posts and several post themes. But even with those aids, it takes time to find the right one, expand on an idea, track down the cards, scan/upload the cards, and write, write, write.   Sometimes, like yesterday, I am down to the final 40 minutes before work or some other obligation calls, when I strike upon the right thing. But NO TIME!   So, that's why there wasn't a post last night but there is one now.   Several years ago, it's been nine to be exact, I wrote a post featuring all the Topps cards in which the card number on the back matched with the year of the card. For example, card No. 52 in the 1952 Topps set is Don Mueller. I showed each of the cards all the way up to the most recent year, which at the time was 2014 Topps.   I resolved to update that post yearly. Then I forgot. The next ti...