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.

 

Pizza Passport

 One interesting gift we received for Christmas was a Pizza Passport. (It was such a great idea, I bought one to give as a gift, and also received one from someone else.)  These are nifty little "passport" sized booklets made for a number of major US cities, listing the prominent independent pizzerias in the metro area.  For each restaurant, one can find basic information on location, history and specialty pizza, and after visiting, you can record and rate your experience.  So we have our project for the coming year!  Many of the places listed in the Birmingham passport are familiar to us.  A few are new to us.  One that is listed unfortunately closed permanently earlier last year.  And a couple we like are not listed; but the book has several blank pages to record those.

So we began the Great Pizza Journey of 2026 last night at Tortugas Homemade Pizza of Hoover, Alabama (there is a second location on southside Birmingham).  This is a venerable old shop we've visited before, but not for many years.  It is the area's only pizzeria devoted to Chicago-style deep dish pizza.  It was founded in 1999 by Carlos Vizcaino, an immigrant from Ecuador with ties to Chicagoland.  Inside the shop are many Chicago flavored wall decorations: newspaper clippings, photographs, sports jerseys, and the like.  Ambiance is bare-bones strip mall casual.  There is a generous amount of table seating in the two "wings" each side of the kitchen area, but on a Saturday night we saw the place fill quickly, with several waiting to be seated as we left.  When we arrived, we were quickly seated, but waited about 15 minutes to first be served.  Once our server finally arrived, things went smoothly.  We ordered drinks to enjoy during the advised 45 minute wait for our deep dish pizza to be baked. We ordered the passport's recommended pie, the Wrigleyville, with smoked sausage, Italian sausage, green bell peppers and onions. (Tortugas also does standard thin crust pizza which arrives much faster, based on what we could see of nearby patrons.)  Our pie was worth waiting for, as the server no doubt routinely assures impatient customers.  Light, crisp crunchy crust envelopes a generous amount of fillings, cheese, and sauce.  The sauce is tangy, with rich tomato flavor and a hint of herbs.  Knife and forks, and a sufficient amount of napkins are provided to enjoy this hearty pizza, a worthy example of the Chicago style.  It was indeed worth the wait.

Passport score: 4 of 5

Tortugas of Hoover, Alabama

Casual, with Chicagoland memorabilia everywhere

The Wrigleyville pizza

2025 stats

 Happy New Year!  2026 is only a few hours old, and I am already up and Postcrossing.  Stats for last month and the complete year are already available, and it was a moderately active one for me.  In the last twelve months I sent 1,043 postcards to recipients around the world and received 1,012.  In December the numbers were 72 sent and 95 received, bringing my lifetime totals to 11,905 cards sent and 11,866 cards received.  That's a lot of stamps and trips to the local post office! Over the past year, I've made contact with 64 different countries, from American Samoa to Ukraine.  My Postcrossing rank is hovering around where it's been for some time: 28th among 77,303 American Postcrossing members, and #1 among 809 members in Alabama.  It's been a rewarding and enjoyable hobby in 2025, and I look forward to more of the same in 2026.  Write on!