Daily tidbit

What the hell?

Backstory: when we were coming home from our last Chicago visit, we flew out via Milwaukee. Not so interesting, you say? How wrong could you be? Because Milwaukee Airport has a vintage bookstore in it. Renaissance Books. A kickass way to kill the time before your flight.

Here's the treasure I came home with:



The Basic Everyday Encyclopedia, published in 1954. Containing nearly one million words [!] and 12,500 main articles. This book contains "many thousands of useful facts--in every field of human knowledge--right at your fingertips, in this handy, modern, desk-size encyclopedia."

Well, then. How could I leave without it? Cost: $6 [original cost $1].

Why do you care? Maybe you don't. But this kind of glimpse into what life was like before I was born fascinates me. So every day, I plan to share the best tidbit on the page with you here. Start with page 1, and working all the way to page 574. I'll still blog the same stuff as usual. I'm just adding this in for a little historical perspective and, I hope, a laugh.

Shall we begin? Yes, let's.

Page 1: Abbe, Cleveland, 1836-1916. US meteorologist. His (1st) demonstration in US of weather forecasts based on telegraphic reports led in 1870 to the establishment of the US Weather Bureau.

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It's a beautiful, sunny, cool day today. Thanks, Cleveland!