Happy National Accordion Awareness Month

In my story this guy is leading them out of town, Pied Piper style...but that's just me. June is National Accordion Awareness Month - makes the instrument sound like a disease, which ironically is exactly what a poorly played accordion sounds like! Photo from the lovely collection ad Shorpy!

Cable Car Day

In the book of little-known observances you'll find that January 17th is Cable Car Day. As you might suspect, it's a San Francisco-centric holiday, honoring the city's position as first in the nation to have an operating cable car system and the only US city to still operate that system. Instead of going down the easy route and finding a picture of the vertigo-inducing hills of SF, I opted for something a little more noir.

This is a picture from the Shorpy archive showing downtown Charleston, NC's King Street after dark. Love the long exposure and the motion blur. I'm expecting Sam Spade to amble across the street to pick up a smoke at Pinkusshon's Cigar Shop. He'd pause in the doorway, catching a glimpse of a lovely dame lingering in the window just above the jewelry shop and then she'd disappear into the shadows. A few minutes later there'd be a shot, a scream, and a whole lot of trouble.

What Did You Do Today

I spent the day fussing with car problems and when I sat down at the keyboard I'd achieved a pretty good snit of feeling sorry for good old me. Then I came across an interesting fact, on this day in 1944 the invasion of Normandy began. Thousands of young men stormed the French beaches beginning a new phase in the liberation of Europe. I guess a little car problem isn't so bad after all.

Thanks to Shorpy for the great photo of New Yorkers watching news of the invasion scroll across the New York Times news line.