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  1. tonyb

    Knockoffs?

    I’ll never forget a friend mistaking a fake tombstone table radio for a genuine 1920s-vintage original. You’d think that slot on the side for cassette tapes might have been a clue.
  2. tonyb

    Knockoffs?

    Pretty much the way I figure it, too. As I’ve noted before, it’s just fine by me that “condition is everything” in the valuation of some of the stuff I kinda collect — paper ephemera, commercial signage, miscellaneous other old stuff. I don’t object at all to an item showing signs that it was...
  3. tonyb

    Knockoffs?

    And then there are fakes meant to deceive. Old commercial signage, for instance, has fetched big prices in recent years. So now people are making fakes and passing them off as authentic. A reproduction is one thing; a phony “vintage” piece is another.
  4. tonyb

    Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

    ^^^^^ Interesting observation. We have a canine chorus around here, but it’s usually prompted by the dogs themselves, as best I can tell. The noises originating from the firehouse half a mile or so from here go ignored.
  5. tonyb

    Knockoffs?

    I’m of two minds. A close copy of a “classic” or “iconic” (I wish I could come up with a better word) piece of furniture or item of attire or wristwatch or whatever *is* a sort of theft. But then, the price of the “authentic” or “licensed” item is often such that people of modest means plainly...
  7. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    As we’ve gone over before, your local ordinance essentially allows for hotels in residential districts, under the guise of short-term vacation rentals. That wouldn’t fly here, nor in most other places of my familiarity (friends in other locales own short-term rentals). Here a property owner is...
  8. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    I’m hoping to save the three ash trees in the backyard here. One is pretty healthy, one looks to be responding well to treatment (insecticidal spray, fertilization), and one whose chances are 50/50 at best. I’m about $350 into this so far. That’ll seem like lunch money should any of them not...
  9. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    For nearly 20 years I lived in an “inner-city” district in a little 1940s-vintage house surrounded mostly by grander (once grander, anyway) houses built three and four decades earlier. The land my little house occupied was a de facto trash dump for its neighbors in the decades before my place...
  10. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    I once edited a newspaper that circulated in what had long been a “depressed” district. (The area’s reputation among those who didn’t live there differed from the experience of those of us who had long resided there. It weren’t so bad, and the housing was affordable.) A common refrain among...
  11. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    ^^^^^ Yeah, it’s a two-edged sword. I bemoaned the gentrification of my old neighborhood, but that sentiment didn’t stop me from cashing in on it. I wasn’t about to hand all that equity over to a stranger.
  13. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    I have found few characters in my life more insufferable than the neighborhood improvers. You know, the people who blew in about 5 minutes ago and know exactly what this district needs. Houses are turning over so fast in this nondescript suburban subdivision that with not quite five years here...
  14. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    ^^^^ The guy across the street does that. (He blows it into the street, actually, but that just makes the street look shabby.) He also shoots off fireworks on and around Independence Day. It annoys me a bit. But I try to remind myself that if not for characters like him (and the guy next door...
  15. tonyb

    The Real Reason Malls Are Closing

    It’ll be, um, interesting to see what becomes of store spaces left vacant, or soon to be, by the gutting of retail as we’ve known it. I can see it working out pretty well in some circumstances and not at all well in others. I’m now of a grandfatherly age myself, and I still sometimes wish I...
  16. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    I’ve made essentially the same gripe myself. Too many people fail to recognize (or don’t wish to recognize) how their absentmindedness creates delays and inconveniences for others. But yeah, in the realm of shoddy behaviors, it’s a minor offense.
  17. tonyb

    Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

    ^^^^ Is this expected to be much of a blow to the local economy?
  19. tonyb

    The End of the Collector Mindset

    Do people still pile their overcoats on the master bedroom bed when they have social gatherings during the cold months? Such was the practice among my people back in the day. The typical coat closet just couldn’t accommodate all those heavy garments. But then, maybe those sorts of gatherings...
  20. tonyb

    The End of the Collector Mindset

    I’ve befriended a couple of rug peddlers. They’ve gotten money out of me on several occasions. I’ve stepped into a few rug stores operated by people I don’t know, but thanks to those in the biz I *do* know, I know that the prices those shops put on their rugs are at least twice what a person...
  21. tonyb

    The End of the Collector Mindset

    I’ve long been a lover of tribal arts. Over the past decade or so I’ve amassed something of a collection of Oriental rugs, mostly of the simpler, more coarsely woven tribal variety (as contrasted with the “finer” city rugs). I claim no expertise, but I’ve been at this long enough to be kinda...
  22. tonyb

    The End of the Collector Mindset

    No Marie Kondo, I. I don’t ask my possessions to somehow “spark joy” to maintain their presence in this house, although I’d argue that much of my stuff is at least kinda joyful, in its way. It’s a safe bet I will never again open most of the hundreds of books in this place. But the collection...
  23. tonyb

    The End of the Collector Mindset

    ^^^^^ Owning furniture and such that rarely got used wasn’t exactly common among my people when I was a kid, but it wasn’t all that uncommon, either. An old girlfriend, going back about 25 years ago, lived with another gal who kept the living room drapes closed, except on special occasions, so...

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