Are you interested in collecting rubber syringes, hot water bottles, bulbs, enamel cans, pre-1965 or foreign? Or how about expired credit cards or Hop-A-Long Cassidy items? Maybe it's old fishing tackle that interests you, or root beer mugs - or children's "potty" chairs.
If any of this stuff turns you on, I've got just the book for you - "The Collectors Connection and Registry Buyer and Seller Directory, 1992," which you can get for $9, including postage, by writing P.O. Box 54, So. San Francisco, CA 94083.It's a paperback reference book of 174 pages, useful for locating a buyer, seller, trader or picker for most anything collectible.
The only thing I collect is political buttons, but I immediately found a likely source on page 96 in Fort Wayne, Ind. But your thing may be post office doors, pocket knives, poker chips, Gibson Girl plates or pinball machines.
Maybe you're into odd stuff like shrunken heads, live and mounted freak animals, reptiles and fish, or "anything morbid, bizarre, macabre or shocking."
There are numerous more conventional possibilities, such as old newspapers, tin cans, lottery tickets, gumball machines or jukeboxes. There are also Boy Scout items, Western Americana, traffic signs, stoves, stamps, radios, puzzles, quilts, pin-ups and padlocks.
You name it.
- PAUL CRACROFT TELLS ME the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters is having its annual spring meeting at the U. on Friday. He gave some of the titles of the scholarly papers scheduled to be read, plus his interpretation for the lay person:
"Automated Design of Fuzzy Logic Controllers." When you do them by hand, they're not quite so ragged around the edges.
"The Feasibility of Spinal Cord Stimulation." It's that new business ethic - you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.
"Interstate cognatio: Roman or Greek?" Many highway signs are Greek to a lot of Utah's drivers.
"The Importance of a Proper Noun to the Meaning of Hemingway's Big Two-Hearted River." It was Hemingway's improper verbs and adjectives that caused most of his problems.
Hopefully, this will inspire you to go.
- I WAS BROWSING through the "110 Most Asked Questions about Salt Lake" as prepared by the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau, and some were intriguing.
What is the state bird?
The California Gull.
What is the state tree?
The Colorado Blue Spruce.
(Apparently, we can't come up with our own.)
How hot does it get in Salt Lake?
(How hot WAS it?) Average temperature in the summer is 93 degrees, but mountain areas may be as much as 20 degrees cooler.
How much does it snow in Salt Lake?
The average snowfall in the mountains is 535 inches of "The greatest Snow on Earth."
Can you swim in the Great Salt Lake?
Yes, there is a beach at the Great Salt Lake State Park - just one of the designated swimming beaches. (What about your EYES? I thought you could only FLOAT!)
What does a Mormon look like?
Just like you and me!
What are the names of the mountains surrounding Salt Lake?
To the east is the Wasatch Range and to the west are the Oquirrhs (pronounced oakers), which were named by the Paiute Indians and mean the "shining mountains."
Who is on top of the City and County Building?
"Columbia," sculpted by Richard Young, was the symbol of America before the Statue of Liberty.
One final question that is not included on this list is a recent one - a man actually walked into the bureau's office and asked, "Where can I go Velcro jumping?" Apparently a confused but devoted viewer of "Late Night With David Letterman."