McHuston Booksellers

Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Tag: used (Page 39 of 47)

Big-time Religion.

February 28, 2013 /

I mean no disrespect – for NBC, the writer, or the Catholic Church for that matter. But this headline surprised me, just a bit.

From the website: NBCNews.com

Without a pope, who’s running the Catholic Church?

Really? Who is running the church? Like it’s a school bus barreling down the street filled with screaming children and the overwrought driver just leaped out? Not the same scenario.

Like a grocery store – at the express line maybe – and about a dozen shoppers with arms filled with merchandise watching in distress as the clerk peels out of his apron and abandons the cash register? Nah. I don’t think so.

Like the President of the US up and quitting and maybe North Korea or some other jumpy bunch thinking it’s the most opportune time to launch an attack? Well….. no. Who is going to fire up the rocket launchers and tanks to invade the Vatican? I’m thinking, no one.

The Pope changed the rules before he quit, so the Cards can elect a successor right away. They’ll get about their business and a new passenger for the Pope-Mobile will take his comfy and secure seat. Could be any day now, already.

Without a pope, who’s running the Catholic Church? What? They don’t have someone to sign the payroll checks, or lock up the doors at night? Without a pope, is there no one to put out the Papal cat? Was the Holy Father answering the Apostolic Telephone Switchboard?

The Church? Been around a couple of thousand years.

It will last through the intervening days, while the Pope-cape and top hat are resized.

Meanwhile, if you are looking for some heavy religious reading, you might consider the 1855 volume shown in the image. It weighs in at five-pounds, eight-ounces. Compare that to less than a pound for a typical paperback book.

This little one-owner (I can’t guarantee that…) was published before the US Civil War, and is still holding up very nicely, thank you very much. Typical of the more expensive books of that time, it has a quantity of steel engravings, which in the era before the invention of photography as we know it, allowed folks to see exacting reproductions and original works of art. Many were carefully clipped from books and framed, to be hung on the wall as artwork.

There are no pages missing in this book, though. Leather bound with gold embossing, it would make an impressive addition to any scholar or book collector’s library.

Unfortunately, my cellphone camera doesn’t do close-up photography that well (or perhaps it is better blamed on the photographer…), but you can click on either image for a larger view of the book and one of its plates.

Come see us!

McHuston Booksellers and Irish Bistro
Rose District, Broken Arrow, OK
122 South Main Street
918-258-3301

Public figs and cigs.

February 25, 2013 /

Even before remembering the race to break Babe Ruth’s home run record, when I saw this ad on the back of an old TV Guide magazine I immediately thought of John Kruk. He played major league baseball for several teams, but I remember him best for his time with Philadelphia Phillies.

Before a game, he was standing outside the stadium, casually smoking a cigarette, when a woman admonished him for his habit. The always quotable Kruk responded with:

“I ain’t an athlete, Lady. I’m a baseball player.”

It was a reply that was obviously overheard. It caught traction and was repeated so often that when the former ballplayer wrote his book, he used the first part of the quote for his title.

Roger Maris, on the other hand, was a lot more athlete and a lot less quotable. In fact, he was considered almost surly by the New York news media during his Yankee days. In all likelihood, he was more straightforward with his answers than he should have been, and never kowtowed to the press like some of his teammates did. Some of the questions from the media had to do with the string of injuries that plagued Maris in the years following his 1961 season. You can click on the image to read his quote for R.J. Reynolds. The date across his face is courtesy of the Postal Service, which cancelled the wrong side of the magazine during the mailing process.

The Minnesota native hit more home runs than Babe Ruth – 61 in ’61 – as the media recorded it, but the media attention took a toll. At the time, there were a number of folks associated with baseball, as well as fans, who thought Ruth’s record should stand forever. Roger Maris related later that the stress in 1961 was so great that – at times – his hair fell out in clumps.

Interviewed at an All-Star game twenty years later, Maris still harbored ill-feelings about the negative attitudes.

“They acted as though I was doing something wrong, poisoning the record books or something,” he said. “Do you know what I have to show for 61 home runs? Nothing. Exactly nothing.”

Who knows whether smoking was a factor? Roger Maris died in 1985 of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a form of cancer. He was 51.

Times change. You don’t see a lot of celebrity endorsements of tobacco products. In fact, you don’t see a lot of cigarette ads these days.

For that matter, you don’t see as many magazines near the checkout stands any longer, but the venerable TV Guide is still hanging on, and will celebrate its 60th birthday in April.

Today’s Business? Snow way to tell…

February 20, 2013 / / 0 Comments

I am comforted. At least, I suppose that’s how I should feel after eating comfort food. After whipping up some mashed taters, I treated myself to a cupful.

When you work alone, you may find yourself doing knucklehead things like preparing enough mashed potatoes for an army on a snow day that is liable to scare off any hint of lunchtime business. There was no one else here to say, Hey! That’s a lot of potatoes. Maybe you want to scale back a little.

By myself in the shop, I can sample my finished product and render my verdict.

Me, spoon in hand: Mmmm. That’s a tasty potato.

As you know, things are a little more casual when talking to yourself, and that may be much the case today due to the snow. It is midmorning and still the snow is falling heavily here in Broken Arrow. It makes me think of that grand snowfall we had a few years ago, when the drifts were deep enough to stop my car in the parking lot.

In my seven years on Main Street, that was the only day I failed to sell a book. Being an optimist, I assumed someone out there would have a book emergency and I wanted to be ready to handle it. After several hours organizing and tidying up, I locked up and worked to get the car unstuck.

This morning, I snapped a couple of shots of the storefront. One was a few minutes after the snow began in earnest and was already obscuring the lettering on the awning. Later, it was coming down hard enough that I didn’t want to venture back out.

Can you tell in the front door image what is wrong?

Hint: Click on the image for a larger view, then look at the letters on the bank’s front wall. Compare them with the lettering on the bookstore’s front door lettering.

Naturally, I’m going to flip the picture to my own advantage!

Happy Snow Day, and I hope you have your own cup of comfort food to fall back on!

McHuston Booksellers in the Rose District
122 South Main Street, Broken Arrow, OK

Ready for all snow book emergencies!

MASHED POTATO UPDATE: It turned out to be a Shepherd’s Pie kind of day, and that mountain of spuds is gone!

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025 McHuston Booksellers

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑