Jim Nolan's Blog

Planet Jupiter Tile

I spotted this on 5th Avenue around 48th Street. It may be a play on the Toynee Tile urging us to resurrect the dead on Planet Jupiter. I have not seen this one before. More info here. 

Monday Bannerman Cartoon

They work in nanotechnology.

Natalie Paul, "Tali"

My maternal great-grandmother, Natalie Paul, or "Tali" for short. The back of the photograph says "Okt. 19," which either means October 1919 or October 19th, her birthday in 1878. The marble bust was made by sculptor John Münsterhjelm in 1906 in Berlin, where Natalie and her playwright husband Adolf Paul lived. He was Swedish; she was German, born to a wealthy Lubeck family, the Brehmers. Adolf hung out with Jean Sibelius, August Strindberg and Edvard Munch, and spent all her money. Maybe that's why the bust looks wistful.

Photographer Daniel Nyblin & Playwright Adolf Paul

A screenshot of what looks like a newspaper for theater and concerts from Helsinki in 1898. It's a photograph of my great grandfather Adolf, taken by Daniel Nyblin. It's from the Finnish National Library Digital Collection. You can see it better here, and enlarge it. I found out about it from Daniel Nyblin's descendent Marten Mickos. Marten writes:

"BTW, here is a great search engine in Finland:

http://digi.lib.helsinki.fi/sanomalehti/secure/query.html?language=en

 It has most Finnish newspapers from a long time ago digitized.

If you search for "Adolf Paul" you'll get a lot of hits. At that time, most newspapers were in Swedish so you may need somebody to help you translate the texts.

This page from 1898 is great:

http://digi.lib.helsinki.fi/sanomalehti/secure/showPage.html?conversationId=3&action=entryPage&id=853723&pageFrame_currPage=1

 

It shows a portrait of Adolf Paul (taken by Daniel Nyblin) with the caption (in an approximate translation): "We rush to present to the audience the portrait of the author Adolf Paul, whose play King Christan II has had such phenomenal success - success pyramidale."

 Incidentally, the page also shows an ad by Daniel Nyblin."

Thanks again, Martin. The design of these pages is fantastic.

Witch Cartoon

Cartoon by Isabella Bannerman. 

She must have upgraded to a 4G system. 

Reading Men's Body Language Cartoon

Cartoon by Isabella Bannerman. For reprints, see King Features.

He wants to watch ESPN with you. 

Before iPhoto

Click to enlarge.

Dad's index of the slides he took in Hawaii while in the Navy from 1956-58. It's clipped onto the inside lid of the sturdy metal box that holds them. Digital may be easier, but it don't look like Kodachrome. 

Marriage Cartoon

Cartoon by Isabella Bannerman. For reprint info, visit King Features. 

Isy's drawing reminds me of the not-so-fabulous scrambled eggs Dad used to make me. They started out rather appetizing, until he left them out on a hot plate for me. Here's an audio essay recalling their unusual consistency.

The Incredible, Inedible Egg

 

 

MS Stockholm Postcard, 1955

The postmark is from Bremerhaven, Germany.

Three Mothers, Headed Over the Falls

Christa Nolan, Marcy Brett and Connie McCreery, with nine children between them, don't know it yet but their boat ride on the Niagara River is about to go horribly wrong. Listen to Niagara River Death Cruise