Book Board Chat

53 degrees in Chicago yesterday. Yes, in mid January! Does this bring stress or joy?....or a bit of both? My super dooper, fancy schmancy, ice fishing/drinking hostel (glorified shack), still sits on a beach near a lake teeming with fish......but no ice.

Of course, this also means planet Earth can't employ its ultimate defense to my metel detecting efforts (a frozen winter concrete like tundra -- extending 14 feet down). So i went "dirt fishing"!! Finds were.....well....meager. No shiny mercury dimes today, just a modern nickel and two 50's wheat pennies. Yet, i also found an intriguing lump of brass under on old dead pine tree. It looked to me to be something offical like a badge, like you might see on the hat of a fireman. My friend there for the hunt called me "a dreamer". Mrs Briguy told me to "give it up -- accept winter is going to happen -- AND -- its beyond my control"......grrrrrr.

Well....well...well....I cleaned up my lump of brass,...and it happens to be a 1942-1943 issue <Captain Midnight decoder badge!! A radio show running from 1938-1949, Captain Midnight was the leader of the "Secret Squadron". They fought evil denizens like "Baron von Karp"....and the sinister oriental demon "Admiral Himikoto" (does that give you an idea when this radio show ran ? -- LOL!) Like the Christmas Story movie, a coded message would be broadcast at the end of every episode, to all junior secret squadron members with decoder badges (Collect scrap metal! -or- Plant a Victory Garden!).

Messages now lost to time and meaningless to me. What i got out of the badge.....was COOKIES! Oh yes, Mrs Briguy and I had us a little bet. If the darkened lump turned out to be something cool....i get cookies. (If i lost, I was to grade elementary school papers ). Thankfully, your kids/grandkids will NOT be judged by me.

I'll be too busy nibbling warm cookies.

I chose "Snickerdoodles".

:o)