Mystery Postcard Sender

The mystery sender continues to send postcards, on an almost daily basis. I've been examining the postmarks, parsing the messages, and studying the visuals for clues.














These postcards feel like a smile from a friend, on a daily basis. And, they're loaded with random facts. I had to look up the author Irwin Shrewsbury Cobb - probably should have known who he is, given my Kentucky heritage. But now I know.

Evelyn in Morocco

My friend, Evelyn, moved to Morocco about 2-1/2 years ago. She didn't mean to. She was on her way to Turkey to teach English as a second language, but was going through Fez, Morocco on the way there to take a semester of Arabic at the Arabic language institute in Fez. Three months later she was teaching ESL at that same school, was married a Moroccan man 20+ years younger than her, and bought a 200 year old house in the Medina (walled city) which she is fixing up to be a B&B. Quite a change.

This postcard arrived yesterday, in a package she sent me. The package included some very cool shoes, and bracelets made of the buttons from a Berber burka.

Round Valley, Bishop, California

On the back of this postcard, it says it's a photograph. I guess it is a hand-painted photograph, although it feels like an illustration to me. Whatever it is, it is a very beautiful plein air piece of art, and if you click on the front of the postcard to make it larger you can really see the detail.

Bummer

That jellyfish post was supposed to show up as Wednesday. Damn! I'll have to decide on something else to post.

Fauna or Branding?

Jellyfish are among the most intriguing creatures in the sea. They are oddly beautiful. Once when I was swimming in the ocean at Carpenteria Beach ("world's safest beach"), I picked up out of the water what I thought was a baseball hat. It was not. I still remember the squishy feel. Another time when swimming in the ocean at Byron Bay Australia, my Australian friend thought she saw box jellyfish coming in, and dragged me out of the water very quickly. Scary. There were jellyfish in the ocean off Phuket, Thailand that floated on the surface of the water and had an appendage that served as a sail. They were able to travel a fair distance, quickly. They were small, but they stung a lot. For a milestone birthday, my mom and dad gave me a piece of blown glass with a jellyfish inside. Not an actual one. I have no idea how the artist did it.

At first glance, this jellyfish photo appears to be merely a nature postcard. However, a quick read of the back shows that it is actually an advertising postcard from Farallon, a fancy seafood restaurant in San Francisco. The entire restaurant has an underwater feel, from lighting fixtures to mosaics on the wall.

It's been a while since I've been there, but I remember it looked pretty cool inside. I don't remember thinking the food was worth the hype. Branding or nature postcard? You decide.

Bonus Posting

My mom sent me this "guest view" - not sure what paper it is from.

Interesting how the author makes the segue from email Christmas cards with lots of photos to postcards, but it does wax wistful about postcards.

For all my friends sending me postcards, thanks for helping keep the tradition alive!

Eugene, Oregon

My handwriting has certainly deteriorated since the the use of a keyboard instead of a pen. Hmmm.

Sent this postcard to myself in July, when we were in Eugene, Oregon for University of Oregon orientation for our son, Clinton. He'll be headed off for his freshman year in college in September. It was very hot while we were there, which I don't think will be the case come about November. He says that as a San Francisco kid, he won't mind the drizzle and rain. We'll see how it goes.

Other than that, the town is beautiful, the campus exciting, and it's going to be a great place for him.

Ceriana, Italy

My friend James has a friend with a house in Ceriana, Italy. James' friend spends summers in this village, and has been doing so for many (?) years.

When James got back, we talked a lot about living in a small town in Italy. or any where for that matter. Could we do it? Would we like it? While he loved the town, and had a great visit, he didn't think he could live there. Sometimes I think the fantasy is much better than the reality, and I would probably agree with him. Sounds intriguing, but not sure I wouldn't get bored after a while, or even pretty quickly.

Santorini

If you only get to visit one Greek Island in your life, it has to be Santorini. My friend, Kathryn, is visiting Greece this summer with her sons - it's particular meaningful for her as she is Greek American. She sent me this card. I've also added some that I collected while I was there to this post.

I went once, with my friend P. She is married to a Greek, and for a time they were living in Athens. I suspected they might not live in Athens for too long, so I went to visit them while they were there. P and I took a side excursion (one of several) to Santorini.

Santorini is nothing short of spectacular. The sparkling white buildings, with blue domed roofs sprinkled here and there, perched on the cliffs over the inland sea - the whole scene takes your breath away. When we went there, it was October, so peak summer season was over, and the place was relatively empty. Instead of five cruise ships per day, there was only one, and the beaches were deserted - the water was a bit cold. We went wine tasting (not great wine, but fun to check it out), visited both a red sand and black sand beach (although pebble is a more appropriate description than sand), and talked with a man who had a little shop in a cave on the red sand/pebble beach who carried his provisions in by donkey. There is also an in-progress archaeological excavation on the southern tip of the island (can't remember the name) and a quaint and picturesque fishing village in the north, Ia or Oia, depending on the map (pronounced "ya").





















We stayed in a very cool hotel, Chromata, about 15 minutes from the main town, located on a cliff overlooking the sea. The rooms were caves built into the cliffs, with low ceilings and a fair amount of mold, but still pretty incredible. There was an infinity pool, which didn't just make you feel like you were on the edge or a precipice - in fact you were.















I have to say I was not that comfortable sitting on the wooden seat to the right of the pool. The angled back for leaning back on was hanging over a pretty high cliff. If you have any sort of vertigo, which I do, it's a little creepy.

For more information about Santorini, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santorini

P.S. Looked up name of ruins and it is Akrotiri. Some people believe it is part of the ancient city of Atlantis.

50s/60s Motels in Arizona

Been out of town. Getting this post in so I keep to my every day post schedule. Will write more tomorrow.

Additional info, added Sunday.

I love the pictures of these hotels. For starters, check out the furniture on the patio of a room at the Scottsdale resort. Can you imagine any patio furniture in Scottsdale looking like that now? And how does the name, The Matterhorn Motor Lodge, make any sort of sense in the middle of Sedona? Cracks me up.

Sending Ed Back To College

My son, Ed, attends college at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. It's been fun living vicariously through him and hearing about all the activity in capital. He attended both Obama's inauguration, as well as the inaugural concert a couple days beforehand. He was excited to be at both, but he says it was miserable - they got up at 5 to walk to the venues and then stood for hours in the freezing cold. Great to be part of an historical moment, though.

He's been home this summer, which has been wonderful. He leaves tomorrow so I'm feeling a bit sad.

And Now For Something Completely Different..... Just Once

Here's a new one. My sister's friend Sue has a son who is one of the handlers of the buffalo who is the mascot for the University of Colorado, Boulder.

She sent me this virtual postcard of "Ralphie" (real name - "Blackout"). My preference is traditional - I like the physical postcard, arriving via snail mail - but this is pretty cool.

www.colorado.edu/visit/postcard/sendit.pl?showMe=058b42c135b628c149869017ba5618a8

Burkina Faso, Once Known as Upper Volta

One of my friends at graduate school was Mr. Adama Kabore, from Burkina Faso. He was one of the nicest people I ever met, tall and thin, with an incredible smile. A pilot for Upper Volta Airlines (the country was still known as Upper Volta at the time), he was studying at Thunderbird for his promotion into management. He visited us, once, in San Francisco, but somehow we've lost touch. I regret this, as he was a very nice man, and someday I would have liked to have visited him and his family in Burkina Faso. I think I should try a little harder to try and find him again.

I've been fascinated by Burkina Faso since I met Adama. It has one of the best capital names of any country in the world -Ouagadougou - a name to say over and over and just let roll around in your mouth. It's also among the poorest countries in Africa, if not the world.

It's hard to even find much information about the Domes of Banfora in the postcard - mostly a few pictures, some reviews of local hotels, and descriptions of other places to visit near there. I imagine if you were visiting this place, it would feel like you were on another planet.

Here is some more information about Burkina Faso, if you're interesed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkina_Faso

Peaks Island, Maine

A side benefit to this postcard blog - I'm getting a lot more postcards!

This is from my friend, Courtney, who is on Peaks Island, Maine for much of the summer. It sounds really nice.

A Mystery Sender

A new development - a mystery sender! And a very informative one at that. I had never heard of Leonard's Department Store in Fort Worth (well, I've actually never been to Fort Worth, either) nor had I heard about the private subway system they built. Interesting.

Even more fun is the concept of a mystery sender. I have a suspicion it is one of two friends of mine, conveniently both named Steve. But I can't be sure.

Terracotta Warriors, Xi'an, China

It's probable a picture of these terracotta warriors doesn't do justice at all to what they look like or the impact they have when you are looking at them in person. I'll have to ask my friend who sent the postcard.

Rugby Players in Wales

When I worked at Caltech, one of the professors talked me into playing on a women's rugby team he helped coach - the Eleanor Rugby Team. The Eleanors, as we were called, was probably the first women's club rugby team ever. This led to my husband playing rugby as well for Crown City Rugby Club. The two teams were linked on a variety of levels - the men helping coach the women (starting with just teaching us the game), attending each other's games, fraternizing with the players, etc.

Occassionally a traveling rugby club would come through, and although during these days there were no traveling international women's teams, the Eleanors helped host - attending the games, joining in on the parties, and occassionally fraternizing with the visting teams. (Good euphemism - fraternizing). We played visiting teams from Argentina, Japan and Wales. The Crown City Club traveled to England, Wales and France to play rugby teams there, including the team from Wales who had visited us in Pasadena.

This is a postcard from that trip. I didn't get to attend, having just started at my first job in advertising.

The Western Wall, Jerusalem

I am a bit embarassed to admit I had to look up the significance of the Western Wall. I did not realize it is the holiest of Jewish sites in Jerusalem (or in any place, for that matter).

Check it out at

www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/jerusalem-western-wall.htm

Florida Welcome Station

One thing I've noticed about almost all the postcards I've looked at is very few of them have any dates or any copyright information on them. Hmm.

Here is a prime example. I know this postcard is not current (duh!), but the only way I can figure out when it's from is to try and identify the cars in the photo. The blue car looks like something from the early 60s.

It's definitely before state tourism departments got as slick as they are now. You can tell that by the (lack of) photo art direction on the front or the straightforward copy on the back.

A Beheading Block from Tower of London

Okay, two London postcards in a row maybe isn't cool. But they are posted for very different rea
sons. (In the spirit of full disclosure, it's what I scanned into the laptop before leaving for vacation.)

This postcard makes me think of three things:

1) Sending postcards back to the office when on vacation. This is one of the things I miss about working in an office. I've found a lot of postcards to various companies from a variety of colleagues in my collection. At one time, colleagues were a primary source for collecting.

2) My friend (at the time colleague) that sent this is a copywriter/food writer, and we've always competed with each other in the pun area (mostly so we could engage in insane cackling). Both her insane cackling and bad puns made the card.

3) Dana Carvey's "Church Lady". For a time, "....I don't know. Who made me do it? Could it be SATAN?" was part of the popular vernacular. It's funny how phrases like this are ubiquitous for a time, then just seem to disappear in thin air.