Now is a great time to get a new penpal
Now is a great time to get a new penpal
Putting pen to paper is old-school fun
Hello, friends! Mel, here…
We’re still on our summer holiday — but we’re heading home tomorrow! Rest assured that we’ve probably acquired a stack of postcards to remember our trip and share with friends. Bits of paper are some of my favorite souvenirs: easy to pack, fun to share, beautiful prompts for memories.
In your podcast feed today, you’ll find our previous episode of The Library of Lost Time: Postcard Pen Pals and Two New Books.
In this episode, we get excited about two books: 100 Places to See After You Die: A Travel Guide to the Afterlife by Ken Jennings and What the Dead Know: Learning about Life as a New York City Death Investigatorby Barbara Butcher. Then Mel gets excited about postcards from around the world.
Links!
100 Places to See After You Die: A Travel Guide to the Afterlife by Ken Jennings.
Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs by Ken Jennings.
Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings
What the Dead Know: Learning about Life as a New York City Death Investigator by Barbara Butcher.
Related…
Do you know the website Postcards from Timbuktu?
Timbuktu is a real place, not just a euphemism for 'the end of the earth.' It's a city in Mali, on the edge of the Sahara. It used to be a center of learning and is home to one of the world's oldest universities. In 1450, the population was 100,000 people and 1/4 of them were scholars. Back then, Mali was one of the wealthiest nations on earth. Caravans traded in salt, gold, and, sadly, slaves.
But things are challenging in Mali these days. They've had two coup d'etat in the last two years, and that was on top of the pandemic. Tourism has shut down. The US State Department recommends you avoid the whole situation.
There is, however, a small fun thing you can do to help: You can send a postcard to someone you love from Timbuktu. A former tour guide named Ali Nialy created a website called Postcards from Timbuktu. For ten dollars, you pick a postcard, then a person in Timbuktu will write out your message by hand, and send it anywhere on Earth. Each one is stamped at the Timbuktu post office.
The postcards feature camel caravans, historic landmarks, and art from Timbuktu's last master calligrapher. I love this project because it supports Malian people on the ground in Timbuktu.
A dear friend sent me a postcard from Timbuktu, and it was a legendarily good mail day.
I had a chance to hear Barbara Butcher speak in person about her book, job and tv career. I purchased the book at a bookstore in East Hampton after attending The Hampton Who Dunnit where she spoke. https://hamptonswhodunit.org/
Post cards are so fine!! I still like to 'correspond' by mail. It may well be the Gemini in me (sun sign, Mercury and Mars). The messenger God Mercury rules my sign, so I am a communicator and a writer of letters!