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Same thing for the "Woodstock" variety of the Lawn Chairs . . .

They've started doing the same stupid thing at my local CVS Pharmacy, usually scaring the heck out of whoever's just walked in. Which doesn't include me anymore. Since they (1) started doing that and (2) stopped selling cigarettes.

Recently stumbled across these "marble beads." From a seller in Spain who thought they were Italian (Venetian, I assume). They arrived yesterday and are a little stranger than I thought. Some seem to have very thin flakes of mother-of-pearl in them, but I'm pretty sure it's some trick of the glass. Anyhow, they're sort of like crazed cat's-eyes!

Yep! I was once a geology major . . .

Me either.

Kinda thinking that.

That reminds me . . . how do you cook your bok choy, Steph? I think I want to try it. And because I actually have something pretty good to report right now -- Whole Foods just opened a big store right across the street from where I work, and I've been working my way through their hot dishes. Right now for lunch I have some barbecued pulled pork, a little piece of barbecued chicken, a short piece of grilled Italian sausage with a few pieces of grilled onion, some stewed collards with vinegar, and some macaroni and cheese. I don't think I'm gonna make it to the cornbread. The cornbread's lookin' like supper. If I want any more food later, at all.

Keep goin.'

I also think Vitro's Sweet Pea, Black-Eyed Pea, and Opal. Had to get a nice one of each, even though I "don't collect Vitro" (except cat's-eyes, of course). And oddball color-based Pelt Rainbos. Also white slags. And the MFC oxbloods with that gorgeous cloudy-greeny-blue matrix. Of which I have none. But probably, mostly, micas -- especially blizzard micas and ones with outsize chunks of mica in them (usually small marbles!) Not sayin' nothin' 'bout Galen's coprolite.

Get one. You'll be surprised!

There are old hand-gathered game-type marbles. Maybe "worn" rather than damaged? Weathered, even? Like maybe it was buried for a while? Size?

I'm no moto-head but I sure do like this car. Reminds me of my parents' 1965 black Pontiac Grand Prix. With the slanty back windshield. Love to have it now. And I agree with 1932 and 1957. I've wanted a candy-apple metal-flake 1957 Chevy convertible ever since . . . well . . . 1957 . . .

I'm likin' don't-hickey.

The apogee of specificity?

Somebody's gotta worry about stupid stuff. And, if you're like me, you're not really worrying about it. You're just annoyed by it. Going back to Galen's (and ausman's and my very own) old and crotchety thing. I just don't usually have the energy anymore to even mention things that annoy the crap out of me. So I'm glad you do, you whippersnapper.

Me neither.

Thank you!

Agree.

Hi Matt -- Those are a crystal-based run of Dave's Appalachian Swirls (Dave McCullough, formerly of Champion, formerly of JABO) made earlier this year. Glad you like them. I think the wispy white and colorless base really highlight the pretty spectacular colors . . .

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By well-known sellers? I don't remember that being the case. But then I'm only a small-time consumer of CACs. Galen would know better than me.

Well, you can just send all your unwanted wirepulls to me! Especially the odd ones. I know exactly what you mean about the old handmades, though -- that's how I got started collecting marbles in the first place. I still buy one every now and then. But I find some of the same "personality" in the nicer machinemades, too, since the process (and the machinery and the glass) can be difficult to control, and random wild variations pop out every now and then. Kind of like the Hand of the Universe stepping reaching in!

Bob, isn't that where they have the twelve-pound mosquitoes? And lots of them?

This is definitely more my speed. Hope to get back in that neighborhood before too long!