Happy Thanksgiving

More from the newspaper advertising templates.

Happy Thanksgiving and don't overstuff yourself!  Or do. Who am I to judge?

Garage Sales Finds Unbottled

"Unbottled" is an extension of my "Uncanny Finds" series, but since it's a bottle--well, you get it.

With temperatures dipping into the teens and the first snowfall of the season, it's far from an "Indian Summer" here in St. Louis, but at least the imagery on this bottle brings that to mind.

I'm not sure why they felt the need to make grape flavored apple cider.  I might allow a grape juice and apple cider mix, but adding artificial grape flavoring (not to mention artificial color) seems a little unnecessary.

Despite the olde-tymey look of the bottle (I would have guessed '60's), the UPC code gives it up for probably the mid to late 1970's.

At $1.89, this jug of cider would run anywhere from $6 to $8.50 in today's dollar.

It's a Jungle Out There

"Where Humans are Caged and MONKEYS RUN WILD!".  That sounds like an old Yakov Smirnoff line. "In Soviet Russia..."

Monkey Jungle is still around and thriving.  In 1933, Joseph Demond released 6 Java (Macaque) monkeys into the wild.  Probably not the smartest thing to do, but they survived and now number 80 (according to Monkey Jungle's website or 130 according to RoadsideAmerica. Who are you gonna believe?) along with 300 other various primates that roam the forest.

Halloween 2018 Post Mortem

I don't have to tell you, but Halloween has come and gone once again. In fact, it was a week ago today.  I usually take a few moments to summarize the month and this year is no exception.

Once again, I surprised myself and was able to post every day of the month with something new.

I saw a few new names in the comments (thanks and welcome Bohemian, BJB, Pecor, Richard S. and Holli)  and the return of a couple I haven't seen in a while (Brother Herbert and Alexis Treasures).  And of course, don't think I don't appreciate the usual gang: FrankO, Bob Johns, Lady M, top_cat_james, Erick, Caffeinated Joe, Mr. Karswell, and Ewen Kirk.  If I missed someone, I apologize, but you're still appreciated.

Stats for the month were up; no big surprise there.  Halloween has traditionally been my biggest month.  I had 9,863 hits in October compared to 6,533 in September.  Last October I had 15,278, but that was about the time some French-based spambot started pinging my site for some unknown reason.  I was able to stop that, but it really threw my stats for a loop.

My top 5 posts for the month were:

Movie Monster Memories
On the Twelfth Day of Halloween
Reader's Digest Condensed - October 1975 - A Special Treat
Today's Halloween Pails in Comparison
Reader's Digest Condensed - October 1972

Google was still the top-referring site for my blog with 799 redirects, proving once again that people who stumble upon my site are still my biggest customers. Facebook (yes, I do have a page) was second with 99 redirects, our Google neighbors to the north (Google.ca. C'mon, Canada, do you need your own Google?) was third with 82, followed by Bing (who uses that?) and finally The Countdown.

A few of the key words that lead to my site: "fun halloween reflections", "ripley's believe it or not true ghost stories", "1978 tv guide listings",  and the oddly-worded "dolgins stores closed".

And that wraps up another Halloween Season.

Until next year...



p.s. That doesn't mean I won't be writing November through September, just not as frequently. Check back.  And thanks again for dropping by.

Tom