Next up

 Yesterday was the final meeting of the Trollope Society to discuss the current title of the ongoing Big Read.  The meeting presentation was given by Oxford University professor Nicholas Shrimpton, and was a detailed historical analysis of one of Anthony Trollope's lesser known works, The Bertrams.  As is usual in these bi-weekly Zoom meetings, I learned a great deal and gained much more insight into the novel than I would have on my own.  Each meeting has about 100 participants from all around the world, and their viewpoints in the small breakout groups and in the final full group discussion never fail to be enriching.

And so today begins the next novel in this year's reading list: Mr Scarborough's Family.  This work was published in 1883 and was one of the last of Trollope's many works to reach the public.  As always, I've prepared myself with a print copy I obtain through the used book clearinghouse webpage ABE Books, as well as a digital version downloaded from Project Gutenberg to my vintage second generation Kindle.  I'll dive into the new book later today, and look forward to discovering another work from the highly prolific Victorian author.

Rare card alert

 Today's rare card is a bit unusual.  It was not sent or received from an obscure, small country.  Instead, it is a card I sent to Denmark, a country that ended its postal system last year.  On December 30, 2025 the state run postal system, PostNord, ceased operations entirely, making it the first nation in the world to do so.  Reasons given were the decline of familiar person-to-person letters and other common mail, which has been largely replaced by digital communication.  And yet, Denmark remains a member nation of Postcrossing, and I was assigned a Danish address 17 days ago.  Instead of a national postal system, private couriers exist to provide the same service.  Think of it as sending a postcard by FedEx.  From what I can tell, it's an expensive option for Danish citizens to use the company, Dao, to send their postcards.  In fact, the Postcrossing member I sent my card to mentions in their profile that they live close enough to the border that they send their outgoing mail from Germany.  So today I present the delivery of a postcard I sent to a country without a post office.  Write on.

Pizza Passport 2

 At long last, we recently made our second Pizza Passport visit.  This is the ongoing project to visit all the prominent pizzerias in the metro area and record our experiences in a handy little booklet that we received as a Christmas gift.  Our second stop on the pizza trail was a place we've been before: Pizza Grace.  Located on rustic (and cobblestone paved) Morris Avenue in central Birmingham, Pizza Grace has been attracting plaudits for several years.  The place changed owners last year, and since then things have changed slightly.  The menu is now a little more extensive.  In addition to the well-made Neapolitan pizza standards like the Margherita, they now offer a changing lineup of some interesting varieties.  Last summer I had a delicious pistachio and mortadella pizza.  But on this visit we shared the chorizo: romesco sauce, green olives, Manchego cheese, hot honey, and generous amounts of fresh oregano.  It was tremendous!  All pizzas are made with traditional sourdough fermented crust made in a process that takes many hours.  This sometimes forces an early closure of the restaurant when the day's allotment of ready dough is used up.  Be mindful of this, especially on popular Saturdays- late arrivals may miss out on the best Neapolitan pizza in the city.  A substantial menu of side dishes, desserts, and a healthy wine list finish out a memorable meal.  Service is friendly, efficient, and knowledgeable.  Decore is stylish in a mod/industrial sort of way.  The dessert offerings are wonderful, I'm sure, but one can do no better that walk next door to Cannella for authentic Italian gelato after your pizza.  We always do.

Passport score: 5 of 5.

Pizza Grace- chorizo pizza

Feb stats

 Once again, my monthly postcard numbers fell a little short of my goals.  Real life always seems to get in the way.  In the shortened month of February, I sent 84 cards to recipients around the world, and received 94 cards.  This gives me a ranking of 26th among 78,000 Postcrossing members in the USA, and I remain #1 among members in Alabama. My longest distance card this month was one that travelled 8,179 miles in 90 days to Taiwan.  I sent off a batch of cards this morning, with a new emphasis on observing holidays throughout the year.  So a few St Patrick's Day cards are now on their way and will hopefully arrive around March 17.  Write on.

Evolved birthday

 Happy Darwin Day! On this day each year, I mark the birth in 1809 of the man who would lay down the foundation of biology.  It was on this day, 217 years ago that Charles Darwin was born, along with some chap in the USA named Abraham Lincoln, who would amount to something later in life as well.  After an astonishing voyage of discovery on HMS Beagle, Darwin would dither and procrastinate for many years before finally publishing his world changing ideas.  More than two centuries later, there are those (many in the area of the country where I live) who remain stubbornly resistant to the clear truth of science that Darwin and others first elucidated.  But those of us who can recognize reality will today celebrate the birth of the man best known for providing the core tenants of the life sciences.  Happy Birthday Charlie!

Save the Bounty

  Readers of this blog will know that I am a big fan of all aspects of the story of HMS Bounty, the ill-fated 18th century mission to transport breadfruit tress from Tahiti to English colonies in the Caribbean.  The famous mutiny resulted in the ship's commander, Captain Bligh, being set adrift in a small boat with some loyalists and their arduous journey back to civilization.  The mutineers sailed the seized Bounty and ultimately destroyed her after settling on a little known south Pacific island.  Since then, several books and movies have been made to recount the mutiny.  A semi-authentic replica Bounty was built with traditional woodworking methods for the 1962 version of the film starring Marlon Brando.  This ship later became a museum ship for decades before being lost in a storm in 2012.  A later version of the film in 1984 starring Mel Gibson used a more authentic replica ship, though one that had a modern steel hull and was clad in a wood veneer for appearances.  This ship still exists, though is now apparently in a state of severe neglect.

In my random internet wanderings, it is info of the latter ship's status that I recently discovered.  According to this web page, the ship lies in a woeful condition in Bankok, Thailand.  The identity of the current ship's owners is unclear, but the web page appears to be trying to organize a restoration effort.  I will certainly be watching for updates about this project.  The trilogy of novels by Charles Nordoff and James Norman Hall that fictionalized the true Bounty mutiny story was among my earliest and most beloved books. Since then, I've collected valuable first editions of all three books.  A couple years ago, I also commissioned an oil painting of the Bounty by a prominent marine artist.  Further back in time, on one of my trips to England, I visited the grave of William Bligh, the Bounty's captain.  It's long been a story intertwined with my life.  So with great interest, I will follow the progress of this restoration effort.

Achievement unlocked

 As an active member of Postcrossing for over 13 years, have been proud to tick off one landmark after another.  Today I mark the sending of postcard 12,000.  That works out to an overall average of about 77 cards per month that I've sent to recipients all around the world. Never could I have imagined when I started this project in October of 2012 that it would endure and grow to such a result.  Card # 12,000 went to Marks in Riga, Latvia.  It took 24 days to travel 5,024 miles.  I've spent untold hours selecting, writing and sending these thousands of cards over the years, and there's many more to come.  This landmark just inspires me to continue on with the effort.  Write on!

Big Read '26

 Today begins another year of The Big Read, a global online book club organized by The Trollope Society.  Every other Monday through the year, as I did all last year, I join in the discussion via Zoom meeting with Anthony Trollope fans all around the world to discuss one of the prolific author's novels.  Today begins discussion of Rachel Ray, the story of a young country girl as she deals with the hurdles and difficulties of building a social life for herself.  She does this while enduring the critical gossip of a small town, the well-meaning but hapless advice from a weak-minded mother, and the downright maliciousness of a religious-zealot sister.  Even being nearly 200 years old, the story rings true in many aspects and is relatable today.  I look forward to hearing what my fellow Trollopians have to say later today.

Blog to blog...to blog

 

In a recent post, I described how I had sent a postal cover to a blogger who solicits them, and it had been received by him in France.  In return for sending him these, he promises to send one of his own and I received mine two days ago.  He definitely has the right touch- the envelope has received beautiful hand stamp cancellations, as opposed to my lackluster processing plant high speed dot-matrix cancellation.  Also, in addition to the international postage, mine included a commemorative landscaped stamp of lower Manhattan, one of my favorite places in the world.  This is surely just a coincidence; I don't think he could have known of my frequent trips to New York City over the years.  And inside were included some picture postcards of Mende, the hometown of Daniel, my French correspondent.  Mende is an ancient community in the south of France, with a history that dates to Roman times, around 200 BC.  It is a cathedral town, and the Mende Cathedral is, like the more famous one in Paris, called Notre-Dame, and also is dedicated to Saint Privat.  This whole exchange has been very interesting.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Zip!

 In its 250 years of history, the US Postal System has been the driver of diverse areas of technology and innovation.  It was at one point, more than the military, an early user of aviation.  It has been a leading innovator in the advancement of optical character recognition (OCR) that we take for granted today.  And on this day in 1964, Mr. Zip was introduced to the nation.  He was, for over 20 years, the character who would represent the introduction, some months before his debut, of postal zip codes.  Familiar today, these five digit (becoming 9 digit in 1983) codes would help increase accuracy and speed of mail delivery by assigning a systematic code number to each post office in the country.  It was a great step forward in postal efficiency, and would later aid in delivery automation that continues to today.  So happy birthday, Mr. Zip!  Your place in the history of this country will never be forgotten.