Author Archives: kihm
The Nutcracker
December 2000 Last night Laurie and Abbie and I went into Syracuse to see “The Nutcracker” and have an early dinner at The Blue Tusk. As is traditional before ballet, I had a liverwurst sandwich with a bag of chips. Tim, the owner, treated me to a pint of Rogue Yellow Snow Ale, a holiday […]
The Hawk Letter
An incident in 1988, embellished with a new introduction in 2002. Our backyard on Crawford Avenue in Syracuse was lovely, but it was never the Garden of Eden, nor was it the Peaceable Kingdom. On one occasion, Laurie watched a cheeky sparrow take a sunflower seed from a chipmunk, who grabbed the sparrow and dragged […]
Letters and the U.S. Post Office
“It’s long past my bedtime. But writing letters is my chief dissipation at present, writing ’em to you being the chiefest and most dissipated.” — E.B. White, in a letter to a college sweetheart, September, 1921 That’s one of the things I love about letters. Sixty-one years later and I can hear E.B. White as […]
How to Make a Stone Chess Board
I am not the handiest person, but I like to putter around, and recently, while thinking about slate roofs, I got an idea for a chess board made with slate squares. I couldn’t find any stone squares of the right size on the Web, but while wandering around Lowe’s, I stumbled into the tile department […]
Polo’s Obscure Mr. Besley
The pages of polo history are filled with interesting people, even in the footnotes. Browsing the winners’ list of the Pacific Coast Open, you might breeze right by J.C. Besley; he only appears once, winning the trophy in 1913 with the Coronado Country Club. His teammates were all better known: Malcolm Stevenson and C. Perry […]
Baba Blackshirt
On the face of it, it’s the trophy presentation at the 1929 Pacific Coast Open Championship, with the sweaty but pleased San Carlos Cardinals accepting accolades while a woman smiles under a cloche hat. Oh, but the history in this photo. On the left, polo coat open and eyes on the prize, stands George Gordon […]
Friends and Mail Boxes
Given my passion for the post office, it’s no surprise that I love mail boxes as well. I especially love pictures of mail boxes and friends. The one that started it all, a photo of artist Theo Tilton next to a giant mail box in Louisiana. Roland Sweet notes, “In the fall of 1986, Theo […]
Post Office Postcards
Just look at it. It makes no sense. What in blazes is a medieval castle doing in San Antonio, Texas? And yet there it is, one of my favorite post offices. I love the Post Office and I love postcards, so it’s natural that I love postcards of post offices — post offices that look […]
Silver Bay Postcards
:: Photographers and Publishers :: Since the earliest days of the postcard, Lake George has been well documented. The locale was scenic, unspoiled, a close and popular destination for travelers eager to get away from New York City and Albany. What follows is a short list of postcard publishers and photographers (and one artist) who […]
The Stone Tower of Silas Paine
It would be inappropriate to tell you why I was so afraid and so angry, but I was, rocking from the one emotion to the other like a boat tilting and rolling on the waves of Lake George, where I was supposed to be on vacation in July of 2004. By the third day, the […]
Faithful Readers 