Almost January no more, and also almost the end of Pluto`s stay in Capricorn, for today, January the 20th, 2024, it arrives in Aquarius, where it will stay, but for two months, later this year, until 2044
Tonight`s newsletter was brought to you with assistance from the Electric Light Orchestra`s "Greatest Hits" album, which has been entertaining me, gently in the background, courtesy of YouTube online, through my earplugs, whilst I typed. I realised only today that there is too little music in my life, and how easy it is to play something in the background.
There are tunes that do not work, because I sing along too much and type too little, and there is a certain person who I enjoy watching far too much to be able to type anything at all. But this one worked great.
If you are not familiar with ELO, they first appeared as a group on card number 68 of Panini`s/Top Sellers` "Picture Pop" in 1973, just three years after they were formed in Birmingham, England. Watch this space and I ought to be able to track down a card and add it. And do give them a listen on YouTube.
So this week we are off round the globe - to Old Arizona, out into space, all over the place with an adventurer and explorer, in London with Queen Elizabeth I, nipping over to America just in time for breakfast, chasing missing puppies all over 1950s London, and ending up cutting a dash on the ice in France.
Lets get started with....
Nicolas Sarony [tobacco : UK] "Cinema Stars" - set seven (1933) 31/50 - S111-730 : S26-21 : Ha.515.7
Today in 1929 the film "In Old Arizona" went on general release, having been premiered in Los Angeles on Christmas Day 1928. This may not be a film you have heard of, but it was not only the first western with sound, it was the first talking picture to be filmed outdoors, on location in Utah and California, rather than being confined inside a studio set. Of course the fact it was a western meant that outdoor sounds were actually an enhancement not a detraction, as they would have been for some other genres.
If that were not enough to make you want to see it, the leading man, Warner [Leroy] Baxter actually sings in the picture, making him amongst the earliest of all singing cowboys.
The film was amazingly popular - it is also mentioned on the back of our card - and was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, which Warner Baxter won, the first American to do so, because at the first ceremony the year before, the Best Actor had been Emil Jannings, for two films, "The Last Command" and "The Way of All Flesh".
Our film`s other nominations were for Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Writing, all of which lost out - cinematography to Clyde De Vinna`s "White Shadows in the South Seas", direction to Frank Lloyd for "The Divine Lady", picture to M.G.M`s "The Broadway Melody", and writing to Hans Kraly for "The Patriot"
However this was Warner Baxter`s only ever "Oscar", and also his only ever nomination, even though he started acting at the age of ten, and his last film was in 1950.
This set is listed in our World Tobacco Issues Index as :
CINEMA STARS. Sm. 66 x 37. Brown. Nd. (50) See Ha.515-7
The Ha.517 reference comes from the original 1950s handbook issued by the London Cigarette Card Company and that tells us :
Set 7. Series of 50. Fronts in sepia photogravure, without captions.Back 6 in brown. The cards in this set is quite distinctive and no listing is necessary.
Anonymous with letterpress on back
Sarony
United Kingdom Tob. Co.
Primrose [trade : confectionery : sweet cigarettes: UK] "Star Trek" (1971) 11/12 - PRI-340.b : PRI-30
How it all began? Comicon, I mean, and all the others that followed. Well, today, in 1972, was the first ever Star Trek Convention, or the start of it, anyway, because it was held, in New York, from the 21st to the 23rd of January.
Now, for the purists, who are sitting there disagreeing, yes, you are right, there had been fan gatherings before for films, and for television series, and Star Trek had also been represented at general Sci-Fi Shows, as early as 1966, but this was the first organized, one programme convention ever.
It was not expected to be very well attended, but that turned out to be very wrong. There were certainly many things to see that will stir the heart of any Trekkie today, including a costume competition, screenings of key episodes, and even a dedicated room in which fans and dealers could sell and swap artefacts and memorabilia. Maybe even some of these cards made an appearance? Best of all, members of the cast and crew also attended, plus, thrillingly, Isaac Asimov.
Now if you want to see all the cards in this set, nip over to America - to a website called CollectingTrek/Cards where they are all displayed.
I have to say that this set is unusual because it is cited on the card as "A series of 12 stamps", not cards. And I have to wonder whether in centuries to come people will look at the reverse and think this was actually issued in the year 2037.
Anyway it is catalogued in our original British Trade Index part III as
STAR TREK. 64 x 54. Nd. (12)
Oddly, in our updated version, this is enlarged, and slightly alters, to :
STAR TREK. 1971. 64 x 34. a) with b) without simulated perforated edges. Nd. (50)
These two versions are not listed in our British Trade Index part IV, issued in 1997, though there are alterations to several other Primrose sets, so they must have turned up after that.
John Player & Sons [tobacco : UK] "England`s Naval Heroes" - wide card (1897-8) Un/50 - P644-022.1.A : P72-7.1.A : P/81.A [RB.17/81.A] : H.253
Walter Raleigh, later to be Sir Walter Raleigh, showing here, was born on this day, at East Budleigh in Devon. At least we think he was, for it seems odd that we know the day but are not so certain if it was in 1552 or 1554.
Walter Raleigh had a very odd life, that ended, most ignominiously, with him being beheaded, in October 1618. In between he was an adventurer and explorer, playing major roles in colonising North America, and beating the Spanish Armada, both of which made him a favourite to Queen Elizabeth I. He also gave us potatoes, and tobacco, and the name of his home in Ireland was where Taddy got their "Myrtle Grove".
However after Queen Elizabeth I died his fortunes changed. The King James I was not keen, and imprisoned him in the Tower of London. He was briefly released, in a kind of "Dirty Dozen" idea where he would go and find El Dorado, but the expedition went a bit awry, and he was sacrificed to try and appease the Spanish, with whom we had signed a peace treaty.
Now do note that there is a companion set to this, called "England`s Military Heroes". And you can also find our set with descriptive text on the backs. Lots of scope there for future cards of the day!
Our part of the set is catalogued in our original John Player reference book (RB.17), published in 1950, as :
ENGLAND`S NAVAL HEROES. Fronts in colour. Backs in black. Unnumbered. Home issue.
81. 25, 1st 25 subjects - Backs without descriptive text. Issued 1897-8.
A. Small cards, size 68 x 39 m/m. Oval gold frame, and locket, on fronts.
B. Narrow cards, size 68 x 28 m/m. Locket and rectangular frame on fronts.Anonymous plain-backed cards are known.
By the time of our World Tobacco Issues Index our part of the set was being described as :
ENGLAND`S NAVAL HEROES. Unnd. See RB.17/81-82 and H.253. .
1. Without descriptive text on back.
A. Wide card,, size 68 x 39 m/m.
B. Narrow card, size 68 x 29 m/m.
The only difference between this and the updated version is that the newer version omits the RB.17 code. Not sure what the H.253 code is doing, because that leads us to another set entirely, "Naval Portraits" by Lambert Butler and Imperial Tobacco of Canada, plus an anonymous version.
W.A. & A.C. Churchman [tobacco : UK] "The Story of London" - large (1934) 6/12 - C504-665 : C82-82.A : C/135 [RB.10/135]
Today in 1571, saw the official opening of the Royal Exchange, by none other than the supporter of Sir Walter Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth I - and look, here that great day is, on a card. Wow. I love it when that happens.
Now I have done a little digging and this picture is almost certainly based on an original painting said to have been done in 1920 by Ernest Crofts. You can see that at MeisterdruckUK/Crofts. However this date cannot be right because Ernest Crofts died in 1911. I also found out that the original painting is in the Royal Exchange.
Like many things, the idea of having a specified place to trade stocks in was borrowed from another country, Antwerp in Holland. It was established by Sir Thomas Gresham a very wealthy merchant indeed.
This set also has a standard sized version, which, oddly, we do not seem to have featured. Though I think we have, so I will add both of their entries in here and then relocate the small sized one when I either track it down or add it in anew. Both are described in our original Churchman reference book (RB.10), issued in 1948, as :
134. May 1934. 50. THE STORY OF LONDON (titled series). Size 2 11/16" x 1 7/16" or 67 x 36 m/m. Numbered 1-50. Fronts printed by letterpress, 4-colour half tone process. Backs in dark green, with description. Printed by Mardon, Son & Hall.
135. 1934. 12. THE STORY OF LONDON. Similar format to (134) but size 3 5/16" x 2 9/20" or 80 x 62 m/m.
In our original World Tobacco Issues Index this is much reduced, to just :
THE STORY OF LONDON (titled series). Nd.
A. Small (50)
B. Large (12)
And it reduces even further in our updated version by abbreviating the sizes to Sm. and Lg.
Topps/Allen & Ginter [trade/commercial ; cards : O/S : USA] "Get That Bread" (2022) GTB-4/10 -
So today, on #NationalPeanutButterDay I have convinced myself totally that there is not a single thing that you cannot find on a card.
And if you want to see the rest of the wonders of this set nip over to the Trading Card Database/TGTB
Now of course peanut butter is seen as more of an American sandwich choice, though it was first made in another part of America entirely, by the Aztecs and the Incas, around 1000 BC. However this was more like what we know of as crunchy peanut butter than the smooth, simply because they had not yet developed the ingenuity, and did not have the tools, to get it smooth. What they did almost certainly know is that it is very healthy, full of fibre and protein and also a great way to add nuts to your diet if you have problem chewing or digesting them. And it also goes well when added to curries.
However after the Incas and Aztecs had been wiped out the peanut was abandoned, and only used for animal feed.
It did not turn up as peanut butter for human consumption right until almost the start of the twentieth century. But its introduction to the mainstream came four years later, in 1904, at the St. Louis World`s Fair, when it was ground to order by a farmer from Missouri, called C.H. Sumner. He also realised, and sold them under the idea, that they were protein rich, and eminently suitable for people who did not like, or could not manage to eat, meat.
Cailler [trade : chocolate :O/S : Switzerland] "Chiens de Luxe" (1931) 10/
Today in 1961 Walt Disney`s cartoon film version of "The 101 Dalmatians" was released.
However before that there was a book, of the same name, written by Dodie Smith, and published in 1956.
And before that, there was a serialization, in "Woman`s Day" magazine, which was actually called "The Great Dog Robbery", which makes more sense because the story is mostly concerned with two dogs and their fifteen puppies, not the other puppies they eventually rescue. Something else was changed too, and that was the name of the female dog, who, in the serialization, was called Missis, not Perdita.
Now this little stamp is rather curious, because there is another version, with an identical dalmatian, which names the combination of "Nestle, Peter, Cailler, Kohler" along the top border, with the bottom border giving "Serie 45 B 10" along the bottom border. This is the same number 10 as our card, but ours just says Cailler, and it is series XIX or 19. So did earlier sets get re-issued once the four makers got together?
The set title translates to "luxury dogs" or maybe to pedigree. Others in the set includes one of both the West Highland and Skye Terrier, the first not being really a luxury dog with their predilection for being inexhaustible ratters. Then there is a Papillon and a Pug, again together. And a Toy Terrier and a Schipperke. Not sure of the rest, or how many there are in total, or even whether ours is the only dog who gets to pose alone. Maybe you know?
Kelloggs [trade : cereal : O/S : Canada] "Sports Records" (1945) 9/15
And we close, at speed, with this, our only Centenary event of the week, for January the 26th, 1924, saw the first ever gold medal awarded at a Winter Olympics, for this event, speed skating.
In this first year, the scoring was somewhat different to today, because it was an accumulator, that favoured the all rounder much more than the specialist. There were four events, the 500-metres, the 1500-metres, the 5000-metres, and the 10,000-metres, and the scores from each one were combined to award the medals.
The winner was an American, Charles Jewtraw, with second and joint third going to Norway`s Oskar Olsen, and Roald Larsen, who shared his bronze with Clas Thunberg of Finland. It was Charles Jewtraw`s only Olympics, and he retired, becoming a travelling rep for a sporting goods company.
These events were held at Chamonix, at the foot of Mont Blanc, and at Haut Savoie, both just within France. However they were not classed as the Winter Olympics then, just as the "International Week of Winter Sports". It was only afterwards, in 1928, when it was requested to follow the Summer Olympics with the Winter version once more, that our event was given the honour of being the first ever Winter Olympics.
This set was issued in some kind of block, because on some of the cards I have come across whilst researching you can see there are perforations to the sides.
However I have asked about and I can now tell you that they were issued in blocks of eight cards, and that when separated they measure 1 3/4" x 2 1/2", unless they have been trimmed to remove the perforation pulls.
In fact there were quite a lot of eight card blocks because in total there were 150 cards, and they made up fifteen different sets, of which ours was one. Now my maths, non existent as it may be, makes this ten cards per set, but I am baffled as to why they did not issue them in blocks of ten, unless of course they were random cards, with sets mixed up all over the place, not a block being a complete set.
This week's Cards of the Day...
have been investigating "Brew A Potion Day".
This happens every year on January 19th, but I have not yet tracked down why that date was chosen. Perhaps you know?
Potions sound scary, but they are not always so. The root of the word is Latin and it means simply to drink. It was then used to describe a medicine that you had to drink rather than take by other means, like a tablet etc.
Still no scary stuff.
That came about when local herbalists and apothecaries started to dispense remedies they had made at home, and the doctors did not like it, so they tried to scare off their clients from buying them by calling the products potions.
So this week we are going to have a chat about some of the more useful potions that you can indeed make at home, and some of them are extraordinarily simple indeed. No guarantees of them making miracles, but it ought to be fun.
Now our first card was :
Saturday, 13th January 2024
Our first clue this week was the magazine that issued this card, that being "Wizard", though for the most part it is the witches which brew the brew. However the proper name of a maker of any sort of potion is a Potioneer, which is ungendered. They are also known as a potion-brewer or potion-maker.
The surprising thing about anyone with this name is that it was actually an occupation, and that potion making formed their main, if not their entire, source of income.
Bill Harris, showing here, was actually William Charles Harris, and he was born in Swansea, Mid Glamorgan, Wales in October 1928. He played for Bradford City, Hull City and Middlesborough between 1949 and 1965, and he also won six caps for Wales. He died in 1989. Sadly this appears to be the only time he appeared on a card in his lifetime, though he has been on two later ones, both in his Middlesborough strip. These are :
the JF Sporting Collectables set of "Popular Footballers 1950s" series three (1998), in which he is shown in his Middlesborough strip - these being are coloured head and shoulder portraits with reverse descriptions, and do note that they are available as matt or gloss finish, plus as postcards, and also in a slightly larger format still. Not sure if they are numbered though, so let us know if you know, and what the number of his card is.
the David Rowland issue of "Association Footballers" series three (1999) which is a set of twenty-five cards, art-drawn, and again with descriptions on the reverse. Here he is card 9.
Our set is listed in our British Trade Index part II, as :
WORLD CUP FOOTBALLERS. Sm. 68 x 37. Issued in horizontal pairs. Black portraits. Four series each Nd.1/16. (64)
1. Inscribed "Adventure" (16)
2. Inscribed "Hotspur" (16)
3. Inscribed "Rover" (16)
4. Inscribed "Wizard" (16)
The "horizontal pairs" means that there was another card joined to it on one side. Our card was originally paired with card 14, that being a full length action shot of Alex Parker - or Alexander Hershaw Parker who played for Scotland and Falkirk - but some cards were split into two smaller squares one above the other, each containing a head and shoulders portrait of a different footballer, so on those you actually got three men not two.
For the most part you will now see these sold as separate cards, having been torn asunder. Sometimes you will also see a portion of the dotted line that originally separated them, but some collectors carefully cut on either side of the line and removed it entirely, though this did make the card slightly narrower.
The set is slightly differently described in our updated version, as :
WORLD CUP FOOTBALLERS. (AD)(H)(R)(W). 1958. 68 x 37. Issued in pairs, dotted line in between. Black photos. Nd. (64), numbered 1/16 for four series.
Sunday, 14th January 2024
For our second clue we probably baffled a lot of our younger readers, but these four men are The Searchers, and they had a huge hit with a catchy little number called "Love Potion Number Nine", which was released in November 1964. And do note that cards 35 and 43 in our set are also of the Searchers. You can see those, and a few more cards of the band, at the Trading Card Database/Searchers - though the post 1990 cards shown seem to be unconnected cards
They were not the first to sing it, that was a band called The Clovers, or The Four Clovers, who released in it in year it was written, 1959. You can see a card of them at the Trading Card Database/Clovers too
Anyway the potion did what most of you thought of first when I said potion, and that was make people fall in love, or want to "get together" shall we say. Yet sadly, the nature of love often seems to make the one we set our heart on be the one who is the most uninterested in us, hence the popularity of the, unfortunately mythical, love potion. Though I am not sure that feeling you have to trick someone into it is really ever love.
However the song ends with a cautionary tale, because the potion taker ends up kissing a policeman, (I have to say it must have been really powerful stuff), and in the process the bottle was broken.
Now this set is rather confusing if you look in our reference books. It first appears in the British Trade Index part II, as :
Pop Star Grouping (A) 81 x 57. Back with blue rectangular panel at centre base, inscribed "No...., in a series of ..... photos". "A. & B.C. name below.
1. The Beatles. Back "Photos with the courtesy of Nems Enterprises Ltd."
1. "....series of 60 photos". Black with blue facsimile signature.
2. "2nd series of 45 photos." Back with blue facsimile signature, Nd 61/105
3. " ...series of 40 photos." Coloured, no captions.
2. The Rolling Stones. (40) Coloured. All Rolling Stones caption.
3. Top Stars (various groups). Coloured
1. "....series of 40 photos"
2. "....series of 50 photos"
This is rather a mix-up, and in our updated version of the British Trade Index the Beatles and the Rolling Stones are catalogued separately. That leaves our set to be catalogued as :
TOP STARS (A). 81 x 56. Nd. Two issues
1. Inscribed "No....in a series of 50 photos (c) A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd."
2. Inscribed "No....in a series of 40 photos (C) A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd.". This series has been entirely re-numbered, many photos replaced, and with 11 new subjects.
Monday, 15th January 2024
And our last clue is one of the best known potions of all time, the "Drink Me" bottle as consumed by Alice in Wonderland herself. She finds the little bottle on a table, when she is stumped at how to enter a very tiny doorway, and when she does as the label requests she shrinks down to a size that allows her the access into the other world.
This bottle is the same shape as that drawn by John Tenniel for the first edition of the book of "Alice`s Adventures in Wonderland", published in 1865. However it was not this colour, for those illustrations were in black and white, and only coloured for a juvenile version called "The Nursery Alice", published four years after.
Now the odd thing about this bottle is that it is ridged, and that usually denotes danger, even poison, yet Alice drank it. Not a very sensible thing to put in a book for children, perhaps, with hindsight.
In our original World Tobacco Issues Index this set falls under section 2A of the Carreras issues, these being "Games and Playing Card issues". The header tells us that "leaflets or guides usually issued explaining rules" and that the cards were "all with rounded corners unless stated". In fact the only set without rounded corners is ours, though intriguingly there was a small sized rounded corner version issued as well, we featured it in a previous newsletter way back in September 2022. The set is catalogued as :
ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Nd. (48)
A. Small, with (a) rounded (b) square corners
B. Large
Whilst this description remains in the updated World Tobacco Issues Index, the header is altered and gives us the size "Small size 67-68 x 35-37, Medium 67-70 x 60, Large 76-78 x 61-62" as well as expanding the details of the leaflets to read "Paper instructions leaflets explaining rules issued, unless otherwise indicated".
There was a leaflet for this set, but I do not have one. If you do, and would like to scan it I am sure we will find a place to display it!
Tuesday, 16th January 2024
So lets start our trip into the potion place with what is probably the simplest combination of any magic, and that is Moon Water. Briefly all you do is put water where the moon can shine into it and the water becomes charged with mystical powers, including restoring the shine to dull tired skin, cleaning bad energy from your house, and making plants grow. And the water can be indoors, as long as the moon can look at it through the window.
Intrigued? Well you can read a while lot more at Cosmopolitan/MoonWater, which also tells you what each phase of the moon imbues the water with - and if you have a go, and get results do please let us know.
Today we know this issuer as Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing Company, but they were founded in April 1898, in Melbourne, Victoria, which makes them Australia's first health food company.
However I wonder how many of you know that they were founded by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia, who wanted to spread their belief that certain foods, especially a plant based diet, were best, and to do this they set up a company to ensure a supply of them was easily available. From here they spread into several states and even into New Zealand. And the company is still owned by the Church, which brings us to our oddest fact of all - for that means they do not pay company tax on any of their profits, because religious bodies are exempt. All we know is that for the last few years their income has been "in excess of $100 million" - without any statement as to how much "in excess" it was. To be fair though, they do have a really huge charity arm, and they are always quick to supply food, know how, and even personnel to national and worldwide emergencies.
This set is only listed in our Australian & New Zealand Reference Book (RB.30) published in 1983. The entry reads :
1959-1 Destination Moon. 73 x 48. Nd. (50) ...... SA2-116
By the way, the first code is the date, and the number after the dash is used to show the number of sets issued in that year. In our case it was only this one, but some years have four different sets, so the sets number from –1 to -4. And there was also a special album, which had the text from the back printed below the little squares in which you gummed the cards.
However there is actually another entry for part of this set a little earlier in the book as SA2–19. That is under “New Zealand issues” and it reads :
Reaching For The Moon. Nd. (25) Caption front and back. As half of set SA2-116. Issued 1962-63
I could not find these, so if anyone has a set, or even a few, perhaps they could contact us and we could see how the two intermingle. Many thanks.
Wednesday, 17th January 2024
If you have ever had a herbal tea, you have technically had a potion. You drank it, fulfilling the original Latin, and it contained something additional, and plant based, that did something to your body or mind to relieve its current dis-ease..
The reverse of this card tells us that : "Tisanes or herbal teas go way back into folklore and were used as hot infusions for medical reasons and even as aphrodisiacs. Many are reputed to have beneficial properties, camomile flowers aid relaxation while mixed fruit rosehip tisanes contain vitamin C"
In fact the first ever herbal tea is said to have been drunk by Shennong, a Chinese Emperor. He is also reputedly the first person to ever drink tea, when he paused beneath a camellia tree with a glass of water, and a leaf fell in to the liquid. Now this has a bit of a problem because anyone who makes tea knows that it takes a while for the tea to colour the water, especially if the water is not hot, but maybe he fell asleep. Even Emperors fall asleep. Another fact about Shennong is that he is believed to be the founder of Chinese medicine as well, which is strongly based on herbs and potions.
This set appears only in our original British Trade Index part IV, where it is catalogued as simply "1988-1 The Language of Tea. Nd. (12)".
I am not sure why this is only a set of twelve, for there are other languages that could have been included, but maybe it was because there was another issue that same year, of fifty cards, that being "Discovering Our Coast".
Sadly, there was no album for this set, only a wallchart, being a map of the World, with vacant spaces to fix the cards to, with the text printed alongside, or below the card . You had to send two twenty pence coins for this wallchart, presumably to cover postage.
Thursday, 18th January 2024
Now you may think that potions are a bit old hat now, but recently they have come back into style, thanks to games like this.
"Dungeons & Dragons" started out as a fantasy, role playing, wargaming tabletop game, in 1974, and it was published, even then, by Tactical Studies Rules, who are the TSR Inc that appear on these cards. At the time it was not realised how far it would go, and that there would one day be films. Another interesting fact is that at the start it was played with little figures, but now it is also played with these cards or online with computer generation.
Like all roleplaying games, even top trumps, you beat your opponent by having something better, speed, or weaponry, but because of the way this game was written you also got to use potions which would have an effect on your opponent that they may not expect. These include what you may think of normal, like healing, speed, and animal friendship - or incredible, like breathing fire, becoming invisible, and reading your opponent`s mind.
In 1977 a second, harder, game was developed, "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" and this is the basis of our set. The Second Edition, which is recorded by our set, was published in 1989.
the curious thing is that though you could buy the base set of all 750 of these cards, in a factory box, complete, they were also sold in packets of 16 cards.
Friday, 19th January 2024
Another of the games that are responsible for restoring the cauldron into popularity again is Minecraft.
In this game the cauldron is actually one of the most important cards, because once you have collected your potions you cannot turn them into anything at all without one. Plus it has lots of other uses, ones that you would never imagine, which you can read of at an interesting little site called Beebom/minecraft
Minecraft first appeared in May 2009, as a test video on YouTube, complete with all the glitches. It was an immediate hit, and it is pleasing to note that its somewhat pixellated and blocky appearance had not been tidied up.
From there it grew fast in the popularity stakes, and was also offered as a video game, which has the honour of being the best selling game ever.
You can read a bit more about this world at Wikipedia/Minecraft. And if you are a keen player or collector of these cards, do let us know, and help is to expand this entry.
And so, adieu, for another week. I am getting better at timing it, and also not once tonight did mum lift the telephone up and plunge my words into the abyss of no return. Mind you I had pulled out the plug from the phone in preparation.
Dont forget to check the diary dates page, because a lot of new ones are in there now. And if you know of any that are missing, just send them along.
The indexing is also going well, except that I got a Nottingham card to replace the Ogden`s "AFC Nicknames" duplicate, only to realise I had done a lot more digging on that one than the Burnley card.
What I would really like, because the theme revolved around the bulldog, or tyke, is this one, but I only have the front because it is irretrievably stuck in. Its a modern foil card - Panini Nationwide League 1997 - and look, it has the Burnley Tyke right in the middle. So if you have one of these, loose, and would be prepared to send us a scan of the back, we would all be grateful.
And as always, do email us if you have anything to add about this newsletter, The address is webmaster@card-world.co.uk