Nifty packaging in today's mail

I received a package in the mail today and it came with some nifty bonuses. First, taped to the front of the envelope was an old banner for the Arizona Odd Fellow, dated March 15, 1924 — more than 102 years ago! The monthly newsletter cost $1 annually and was "devoted to the welfare of Odd Fellowship in all its branches." The two mottos across the top, bookending the eyeball and the three interlocking links, state "We Seek to Improve and Elevate the Character of Man" and "We Can Be Odd Fellows Only While We Act Like Honest Men."

Then, when I opened the package, it immediately appeared that I had been sent the wrong book. I was not seeking 1973's Pablo, Boy of Mexico / Eskimo Family / Yasin of Arabia (part of the My-Fun-to-Read Books series by The Southwestern Company). Though I'm sure that would be an interesting book to research.

Turns out that gutted pink book's covers were just being used to protect the actual book I was hoping for: Meet the Werewolf by Georgess McHargue. That book is part of a post for another day. So stay tuned. In the meantime, I'll make good use of of those pink covers to protect something I send out in the mails. I wonder how long we might be able to keep it circulating that way?

Poe-fect summer snapshot

This is probably the best photo I'll take in 2026. 

Cats Spice, left, and Smoky, right, are looking out the kitchen window at Poe the fledgling raven, who is sitting on the outside table to stay cool in the blazing heat and/or get my attention so I'll bring him/her some Temptations cat treats. Sitting in the sink and looking directly at me, annoyed, is Monkey, who wants me to turn the faucet on to a drip, so that he can get some water. (Photo taken on July 14.)

Poe may be moving on and has only been a seen a couple times in the past week. Perhaps he/she has found some other ravens to live with.

Arizona's bicentennial meteor crater

While we're slouching toward the next month's semiquincentennial — 45.5% of respondents to an LNP | LancasterOnline poll said they were "indifferent" to America's 250th birthday as it undergoes what is arguably a slow civil war — the celebrations of the United States' bicentennial were much more robust in 1976. 

For example, Arizona's famous Meteor Crater had its own bicentennial-branded postcard 50 years ago. 

Published by Petley Studios¹ of Phoenix, printed by Dexter Press and with a photograph courtesy of American Airlines, the back of the postcard has a somewhat amusing caption:

"The world's best-preserved impact-collision crater pocks the earth about six miles south of U.S. No. 66 between Flagstaff and Winslow, Arizona. Energies released to form this crater (sixty stories deep and 4,150 feet in diameter) were greater than our nuclear blasts. Diamonds were formed instantly, limestone was popped like popcorn, and iron meteorite was vaporized."

Footnote

1. Anne L'Ecuyer's blog The Posted Past ("We trade loneliness for connection, one postcard at a time") has an excellent, detailed post about the history of Petley Studios. It begins: "Bob Petley launched Petley Studios in 1945 with twelve comic postcards. Then, he spent the next four decades photographing the mid-century Southwest from behind a windshield."

Related posts

• Hoping to see UFOs for 1976 bicentennial Independence Day
• Some Phillies Fever from the Bicentennial summer of 1976

Ingredients list found in the parking lot of a Circle K in Florence

This small piece of paper was on the ground of the parking lot at a Circle K in Florence this morning. I am, of course, that guy who would pick it up and take it with me, even though it's been trod upon and could potentially be covered in mysterious bacteria from outer space that turns everything into triffids. But an ephemeraologist must take these risks.

Here's a transcript of what's on the paper:

Ingedients [sic] list

Hot Honey

Unbleached Bread flour, Purified Water, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Kosher Salt, Active Dry Yeast, Roma Tomatos, Onion, Garlic, Roasted Fresno Chiles, Pasteurized Milk, Vinegar, Citric Acid, enzymes, Pork, Honey, Basil

So, what does all of this make? How does the pork fit in? Why are no quantities listed? And it's Hot Honey — what? Is this a from-scratch pizza? A stromboli? I really need some culinary experts to provide insight in the comments section. 

Also, I hope the person dropped this after the trip to the grocery store.

Related posts

• Grocery list left behind on shelf at the supermarket
• Ephemera seen on Weis parking lot at 8:32 p.m. on 12/11/18
• Painted rock in parking lot of Fry's grocery store in San Tan Valley
• In which my wife comes up with a new category of ephemera

Feral cats, March 2026

Put it in the Louvre. That's Mamacita on the right. In the center is her older son Creamsicle 

and on the left is her younger son Splash. 

Cats are a primary reason I don't write 10 blog posts a week. In addition to taking care of the indoor cats, we have "regulars" in the neighborhood feral community who get from us the food and water they need to subsist in the harsh desert climate. (I realize that I repeat myself when it comes to these cat posts, but c'est la vie.)

Here's the current March 2026 rundown on the feral/community kitties:

1. The matriarch is Mamacita and we've known her for more than four years, since she was a kitten. There a great picture of her at the bottom of this May 2025 post. 

2. She's often seen with her older son Creamsicle, who is the cat we see most often. He hangs around in the mornings, sits in the firepit when he's trying to be sneaky and catch a bird and looks for shade on hot afternoons. 

3. Splash is a black-and-white tuxedo cat and is Creamsicle's younger brother. The two brothers often come for breakfast together in the mornings. Splash, as I'm sure I've noted before, got his name because, when he was a kitten, he fell into the pool and did tiny paddles all the way to safety before I could even get into the water to save him, which I would have.

4. Blue-eyed Gumball has been coming around for almost two years. I think he was an abandoned or lost pet. He often spends the entire day sleeping in a chair underneath the patio roof. Temptations are his favorite food, and I usually have to distract him with Temptations and a stern look when I'm feeding other cats, because he likes to chase them.

5. Meowmix starting visiting around the same time as Gumball, and the two of them get along relatively well together, especially given that they're both tomcats, so I wonder sometimes if they were essentially abandoned together. Meowmix is much more mellow and always runs off after he's finished eating. He's a sweetheart and is the only feral cat, currently, that lets me pet them.

6. Marmalade first started visiting in December, as I noted in the Christmas post, and he's yet another tomcat. And yet another cat that I suspect may have been abandoned or lost. He's extremely not neutered and loves to spray, spray, spray. He has designs on Mamacita, because he's incapable of understanding that she's spayed. I have great hopes that we can TNR at least two of Marmalade, Gumball and Meowmix this month, before the summer weather really kicks. Of course we want to get all three of them neutered, eventually, but these things take time, patience and energy. Marmalade has lost weight since December, which further reinforces the notion that he may not have always been an outdoor cat and is now fending for himself. And so I worry about him, especially, with his first summer coming. Here are two photos of Marmalade in our front window well.

7. And our newest and final semi-regular is Yinzer (named by Joan). I'm fairly sure it's a male. He may be the youngest of the cats, and once again, grrrr, I think there's a decent chance that he was abandoned/lost. He started coming by tentatively and then running off as soon as I went outside. Then he would meow at the back door a couple times before scooting off. Now he stays and eats some food some mornings, which makes me happy. Here he is...

* * *

We had some special cat visitors at the beginning of the year. A new-to-us pregnant female began coming nightly shortly after dark for food and especially for cheese. It got to the point where she would scoot under the table and wait while I put food down for her, but otherwise she was extremely skittish, as a pregnant kitty should be. We watched her get really big as she came for a few weeks and then, unsurprisingly, she stopped coming. I suspect we were her secondary/supplementary food source during pregnancy, so I'm honestly not sure if/when we'll see her again if she lives a fair distance away. We'll worry for her and her kittens and be here to help if they ever return. We named her Daisy and, yes, she has a heck of a R.B.F. Life in the desert is tough for the mama cats.

And Daisy came with a surprise! On three nights and three nights only, she was accompanied by a male tomcat that we realized was the long-lost Fjord Nubbins. Fjord is a son of Mamacita and is Creamsicle's brother from the same litter. He disappeared a couple years ago, before we could TNR him, and we had just assumed the worst. But it appears that he's thriving. In my head canon, he's Daisy's mate and, when she was pregnant and needed food, he remembered this place and led her here, accompanying her a few times to say hello. I could be completely wrong, but I like that story and I'm sticking with it. I could only get snapshots of Fjord, and his very recognizable face, through the window. Here they are: 

Meanwhile, we still have occasional skunks but I can't tell who's who anymore after naming most of them last year. Given the time of year, I suspect that we might not be far from the time when we start seeing some tiny, adorable baby skunks. 

We also seem to have overnight raccoon(s), given the levels of mayhem I find sometimes in the morning. I'm glad we're helping them, but they're hitting the cat food budget pretty hard. (I could just stop leaving out food overnight, but I always imagine that the most skittish and vulnerable cats, ones I never see, depend upon it, so I'll keep doing it.) 

If you're interested in helping in a small way to feed the feral kitties and skunks, my Redbubble page offers a lot of postcards of these cats (both the indoor pets and the ferals) posing in adorable fashion.

Painted rock in parking lot of Fry's grocery store in San Tan Valley

Christmas cats 2025

Merry Christmas! I didn't get around to all the Yuletide posts I wanted to do this month, because every day is endlessly busy and I fell out of my writing routine. But for Christmas Day I wanted to share photos of some of the indoor and outdoor cats here at the desert abode. (If you want to browse multitudes of past Christmas posts, start here.)

Above: These feral/community cat brothers are Creamsicle, left, and Splash. They're both a little under 3½ years old, with Creamsicle being the older one. Both sons of Mamacita. Both trapped and neutered quite a while ago. They spent part of Christmas Eve lounging and napping in our front window well.

Here's another of Creamsicle. He likes to playfully swat my hand when I'm feeding him and his mother cheese. We connected through the window last night. I've never really pet him but it's easy to imagine him being a decent indoor cat, in the vein of Bandit.

Brave Sir Oliver, son of Mamacita via her last litter, peeks out from underneath our Christmas tree.

There's nothing Christmasy in this recent photo of Lady Samantha Penguin, but I wanted to include her because she's such a pretty girl.

Big Boi, father and/or grandfather of nearly all things, stands near the Christmas tree. He's either waiting for treats or waiting for me to go sit on the sofa and watch a movie so that he can get many pets and then doze off. 

Venus — son of Cirque, grandson of Mamacita and nephew of Creamsicle — is our only indoor cat that won't let me pet him. But he sure loves me when it's time for food and treats. 

Mommy Orange (left), mother or aunt of many of our indoor kitties, sits in a cat bed with her daughter Nebula. They are often inseparable nap partners.

Pete loves hanging out underneath the Christmas tree. She spends most of her day with her sister IceBear.

Marmalade is our newest outdoor feral/community cat. He's not neutered and his presence appears to have upset the outdoor cat ecosystem and pecking order, which is a bummer. Looking at him, it's hard not to think he's got some of Big Boi's DNA somewhere in his ancestral line.

Finally, the skunks haven't been coming as frequently, or in as great of a volume, as they did during the summer. But this fellow made a Christmas Eve visit last night. It might be Double Dot or Em Dash, but I don't see them often enough to know for sure anymore. I gave him a couple pieces of homemade Christmas cookie and he gobbled them up.

Miami's merry mural

I recently took this photo of the holly-jolly Christmas mural in Miami, Arizona, that was painted last year by Sylves Cordero. The little town does a great job of decorating its downtown for residents and tourists, even after a brutal year that saw autumn flooding devastate parts of the town.

I still have some photos from a summer visit to Miami that I hope to post at some point. In the meantime, here are some past related posts:

• Psychogeography, snickelways of Miami, Arizona: August 2021
• Cathy's Little Free Libraries in Globe, Arizona

Shades of Clark Ashton Smith

I had the high (only?) bid on this thing at a recent fundraising auction to help folks recover from early autumn flooding in Miami, Arizona, my favorite small town that I've discovered since we moved here in 2021. 

Now the thing sits on my bookshelf. 

It reminds me a little bit of the eerie sculptures of Clark Ashton Smith, which I wrote about in 2017.

Also, I've read enough paranormal short stories and seen enough episodes of "Night Gallery" — not to mention those episodes of "The Brady Bunch" with Hawaii, the tiki idol and Vincent Price — to realize that I'm now cohabitating with a cursed object, and I should probably tread very lightly.

Snippets from the April 24-30, 1971, edition of TV Guide

Let's peer inside this defaced, 54-year-old issue of TV Guide for April 24-30, 1971. Specifically this is the Chicago Metropolitan Edition. This is all the stuff that was on TV when I was just 4 months old. Under editor Merrill Panitt, it features articles and reviews by Neil Hickey, Cleveland Amory, E. Joseph Bennett, Dick Hobson, Richard K. Doan, Judith Crist and Bill Davidson, among others. 

In a biography of Walter Annenberg, the website Immigrant Entrepreneurship states: "(TV Guide) Editor Merrill Panitt and (publisher) Walter Annenberg fully understood that television had to appeal to a wide audience in order to be profitable, but they also pressured television networks to raise the quality of programming. For that matter, TV Guide encouraged networks to end the practice of single sponsorship for programs, because giving networks the final say over scripts might improve quality. ... Walter and Merrill Panitt encouraged readers to tune into symphonies, ballets, and public broadcasting. In 1961, they used their platform to petition the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enforce the stipulation that stations air programs 'in the public interest' in order to renew their licenses."

1. Up first is a page from the day-by-day TV Movie Guide. This is what was available to watch. It was still about a half-decade before VCRs began to trickle into American homes and before cable services such as HBO began to be available. So unless you had an 8mm film projector, this represented what you could watch at home, in the Chicago area. It wasn't an awful selection, though! You could start your Saturday with a Blondie movie, watch the Val Lewton-produced western Apache Drums, be thrilled by Hammer's The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb and fall asleep to Laird Cregar in The Lodger. Or maybe something else on Saturday's list strikes your fancy.

2. "Hot Dog" was an NBC documentary series for kids that was hosted by Jo Anne Worley, Jonathan Winters and Woody Allen (!) but ran for just one season. Those few who watched and remembered it seemed to love it. One reviewer on IMDb wrote in 2006: "'Hot Dog' was unlike all the other kids' fare on Saturday. No animation at all. The cast were asked to explain things like 'How do they get toothpaste in the tube?' Woody Allen and Jonathan Winters of course came up with bizarre answers. Then we'd see how it's really done -- a filmed piece set to music, no narration, would take us through the process start to finish. The show was fun, interesting, original and different. Wish I could see it again."

3. The Sunday morning religious shows included "Mass for Shut-Ins." The history of the broadcast is discussed in an article on the website of the Historical Society of Quincy & Adams County. It notes: "The origin of the popular religious program began with casual conversation during a meeting of the Knights of Columbus Fourth Degree in September 1962. Father George McDivott, a Franciscan priest at Quincy College, suggested that the Knights of Columbus Fourth Degree sponsor a televised Mass for nursing home residents, the homebound and others unable to attend weekly services in their churches. ... WGEM-TV, the NBC station in Quincy, agreed to record the Mass at its studio at 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and televise it the following Sunday mornings. The Knights took on the responsibility of designing and building the set. (Bert) Wensing built the altar, and donations provided the crucifix hung behind the altar, along with linens, candles, cruets, hosts and wine the Mass required."

4. This episode of the news show "Cromie Circle" featured some compelling topics, back when news shows were much more intellectual, education and quiet than they are today. According to the website "History? Because It's Here!" Robert Cromie did it all at the Chicago Tribune, handling World War II coverage, sportswriting and book reviews. "WGN television broadcast 'Cromie’s Circle' from 1969 to 1980 and WTTW television broadcast 'Cromie’s Book Beat' nationwide from 1964 to 1980. As a reporter, he was enchanted with people and their life stories and he despised injustices and revealed them through vivid newspaper stories," the website notes.

5. Here's part of an interesting full-page advertisement urging people to invest in full-acre parcels in Meadview, Arizona. "People are moving into Arizona to escape congestion, strife and bad weather," the advertising copy notes. "The U.S. Census Bureau predicts Arizona's population growth at twice the national average in the coming decades." Indeed, Arizona's population was 1.7 million in 1970 and is about 7.6 million today. Meadview didn't quite fulfill its promise, though. About 1,400 people live there today and it's an unincorporated community with limited local infrastructure.

6. Want spooky movies? Here are some TV Guide ads for spooky movies. Strait-Jacket is a William Castle film written by Robert Bloch and featuring Joan Crawford at her Mommie Dearest scariest. The College Girl Murders (1967) is the U.S. release of the West German thriller The Monk with the Whip, one of many Edgar Wallace adaptations. Screaming Yellow Theater was hosted by the famous Svengoolie.

7. Speaking of spooky, the 1970s pretty much belonged to Vincent Price. In addition to his Hollywood movies, he was everywhere else, too: guest appearances on TV shows, talk shows, game shows, commercials, voiceovers and more. Here are a couple items from this issue of TV Guide:

8. Finally, I thought this was an interesting excerpt from an article by Richard K. Doan about the "happy talk" approach (sort of) taken by WABC Channel 7's evening news broadcast in New York City. Whether that was a good development in the long run for TV news is up for others to decide. I suspect it had a mixture of positive and negative consequences, though. We could probably use a bit more good cheer and positivity these days, so long as it's grounded in truth, and not misinformation or gaslighting.

Bookstore bulletin board, late summer 2025

Changing Hands Bookstore, Phoenix

September 9, 2025

Phantom has a new home & I've named a skunk Pinky

Our Household Cat Inventory was reduced by one yesterday when Phantom (above) went to live with a very nice area man who was looking for a sweet companion cat. It should be a perfect fit. Phantom loves getting lots of attention from humans, but tended to get bullied by some of the other cats, especially her brother (half-brother?) Bandit.

Phantom got to take her favorite bed with her (plus toys and treats) to her new forever home and got herself all set for the short road trip before it was even time to leave. 

She's a good girl and I'll miss her. She was part of Orange's litter that was born in our house on June 28, 2022. Growing up, she and her sister Pengin lived in Spokane for awhile before rejoining our family here. (That might be why she was bullied. And/or I suspect that she and Pengin – who also got picked on – were seen as "different" because they possibly have a different father than their litter mates.¹ Though probably the same grandfather. It's complicated.)

Meanwhile, our "baby" skunks that I mentioned exactly one month ago are continuing to thrive. They aren't really babies anymore. Definitely juveniles. There are four of them, and we still have some nights when all four visit. But more typically it's just a couple of them, including the one who is somewhat tame and fond of me. Going against Wildlife Wisdom, I did pet this skunk gently a few times while it was occupied with eating. But I will be smart moving forward and fully cease this practice. It's a bad example, it can make the skunk too tame (endangering it in other situations) and, most importantly, rabies is bad, bad news.

Still, I figure it's OK to name this skunk. I went with Pinky, because I've started to distinguish the different markings on their backs. One has a big black stripe in the middle of the white on the back. One has two small black spots in the middle of the white. And Pinky has an all-white back except for a tiny bare spot where his/her pink skin shows through. Thus, Pinky. Is good skunk.

Footnote

1. Today's Word of the Day, kiddos, is superfecundation.

From the readers: Long's Park mile marker, skeleton bookplate and more

Time for another round of reader comments. Thank you to everyone who continues to read Papergreat, whether it's the new posts or delving deep into the archives.

"Suzi and the Milestone" — helping to market Stel-Mar postcards: Cory Van Brookhoven, who writes the From Brunnerville to Broad Street blog about the history of Lititz, Pennsylvania, comments: "Yes an authentic Turnpike marker that was once next to Long’s Park in Lancaster, PA. It’s been MIA for decades."

Oh wow! I used to to drive past Long's Park every day on the way to work. And I saw a performance of Twelfth Night there that used No Doubt's "Just a Girl," circa 1996. I wonder what happened to the marker. Is it in someone's basement?

Cathy's Little Free Libraries in Globe, Arizona: The Family and Friends of Cathy Sanchez-Cañez write: "Thank you so much for featuring our Little Free Libraries in your blog. Since Cathy’s passing, six years ago, we have helped circulate over 12,000 books into the region, including Teacher From Heaven. We appreciate the shoutout, and the effort to keep Cathy’s legacy alive."

You're very welcome. It's a truly wonderful set of LFLs.

Ephemera I wish I still had: Christopher (not me) writes: "Somewhere in storage, I have a self-published book by an unhinged HVAC tech from Milwaukee who claimed that Jesus Christ was part of a 'woodworking and carpentry sex cult.' I treasure it."

I couldn't find any online trace of a book that fits Christopher's description. But there is the (slightly) more mainstream 1970 book titled The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, by John Allegro, which, according to Wikipedia, "argues that Christianity and other religions originated from ancient fertility cults involving psychoactive mushroom rituals, claiming Jesus was a mythological figure created under the influence of psychoactive substances."

That sounds exactly like the kind of book that would have been published in 1970.

RIP Art Bell, of the Kingdom of Nye: Anonymous writes: "He was the best!"

What are the odds Bell discussed The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross at some point? Or might that have been more of a Long John Nebel thing?

Box of Dennison DeLuxe Gummed Reinforcements: Anonymous writes: "I've been using an old box of De Luxe O gummed reinforcements for about 15 years to reinforce my government three-month calendar display. I believe I have enough until I retire. Just got curious and looked them up. Found your article. Thanks!" 

Sorting out the tiny drawers: I had asked, "How often does one truly need a thumb tack or rubber band in the course of a workweek?" And Anonymous replies: "But how much time does one spend looking for one when one really needs one and doesn't have a place to keep them?"

Which is why we have tiny drawers! And why (ahem) some folks still have Dennison DeLuxe Gummed Reinforcements.

1924 advertisement: "Heaney's Great Milk Can Escape": Anonymous writes: "Did Heaney charge for the secret of how to escape after you'd bought the can, perhaps?"

I'm guessing the $30 covered the construction of the milk and the accompanying directions on its use, which would indeed be the closely guarded secret. And once you bought someone else's secret, there was an incredibly strong honor system not to tell others. You don't want to anger magicians.

Old bookplate featuring a beard-grabbing skeleton: Robin Heisley Helfers writes: "Virginia (Mimi) and Ed were my Great Aunt & Uncle on my father's side of the family. My Grandmother was Effie Mason Heisley. Both sisters were accomplished artists! I'm thrilled to find this unusual example of Aunt Mimi's talent!"

I'm glad I could help in a small way to keep the memory of Virginia Mason Gifford (Aunt Mimi) alive! That's what Papergreat is all about.

Cheerful Card Company can help you earn extra money for the holidays: Anonymous writes: "I worked summers with a group of college kids in the White Plains, N.Y., post office in 1958-60 shipping boxes of their Christmas cards all across the US. That's all we did all day long, loading boxes into dusty canvas mail sacks. By Labor Day, we were in great shape to head back to college."

Excommunicated! A family story (maybe) about Communion cups: Unknown writes: "Do records of the First Reformed Church of Easton or Dr. Kieffer still exist? If they do they should have Mr. Otto's address somewhere in them."

Great question, and that's something I should have mentioned. Yes, church records would be the very best starting place in the next stage of investigating this historical incident. And maybe there's even an official document of excommunication and/or papers regarding the Communion cup issue. And there are a lot of news articles and website that discuss Kieffer, given that he was a noteworthy author, but I'm not sure much of it would contain clues regarding this mystery. The more I've thought about this, by the way, the more I think it's most likely that the John B. Otto who was temporarily excommunicated was the 57-year-old single alderman, and not my great-great-grandfather. Which doesn't make the story any less compelling. It just means my family was not involved.