The Green Swamp

Don't worry, they're on our side: 1932

Germany; the Nazis have joined the Communists in a strike. This is what happens to one person who doesn't participate:

The Nazis were carrying rolled banners with spikes on their ends. They stabbed the young man in the face and left him with one eye probably blinded. Half a dozen policemen stood a few yards away, ignoring the incident.

--From Christopher and His Kind--

When the police are on someone's side, and not the side of law and order, that is when we all need to worry.

Old books in an old building

It's the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair!



It was held in an old dance hall, which explains the lights and the disco ball.



At a book fair, everyone is judging the books by their covers, and everyone wants a book with pretty pictures inside. There's a mercenary feeling in the air. The items being sold are commodities, some behind glass and valued at thousands of dollars. And even if they weren't so valuable, many are so old you hesitate to pick them up. People ask the owners if it's okay. (It always is.)

Some people ask the proprietors obscure questions, to show how smart they are. Other people haggle. Everyone seems to be searching for something. Some people want certain types of books, other people have lists of specific books they are looking for. Most people are just browsing. But the serious people compare prices on their laptops and mobile phones.

Oddly, it's hard to find anything you'd want to read at an antiquarian book fair. Perhaps the best books were read so much they fell apart. Perhaps the best books aren't sold. What I did see was a lot of history, a lot of religion, and a lot of poetry (with a healthy dose of children's and cook books). The two easiest books to find were The Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant and Pilgrim's Progress.



Here's what I bought:



It has an inscription which reads:

To Nellie,

A wedding gift from Lewis Campbell

January 1894

Winter in Iraq

When my friend in Iraq saw my pictures of Florida, they sent these in response (see if you can tell the difference!):

In the morning light

Spring has sprung

Only yesterday I was talking about it being winter, but it feels like spring today. I'm not sure how it happened so quickly, but I was in a field today and smelled the overpowering aroma of dandelions. It's a summer smell in February now, a winter month, so I thought it best to split the difference and say it felt like spring. It's what the flowers seem to be saying:

A winter's walk

Impressions of The Florida State Fair

Krispy Kreme donuts are so bad...

They use them as hamburger buns:





You can get them with either glazed or chocolate donuts. I had them make mine with glazed:



And this was all I could eat: