Thursday, August 31, 2006

The first U.S. tennis championship was held in Newport, RI on this day in 1881. The winner was Richard D. Sears of Boston, who followed this first victory with six more annual wins.

Unlike Mr. Sears, clearly a seven-time winner, some less scrupulous players have been known to engage in all sorts of questionable tactics to win. Of course as the player depicted below no doubt was about to learn, those sorts of tactics are always doomed to fail, and those engaging in them are usually just doomed.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Happy Birthday today to actress Peggy Lipton. Known best for her roll on television's "The Mod Squad," Peggy Lipton has worked as a character actress for decades, appearing on dozens of television programs.

"The Mod Squad" was remade as a feature film in 1999 with a new cast, generating a fairly unimpressive response. During the heyday of the show's original television run (1968-1973), the show enjoyed a healthy level of pop culture success including many tie-in items, including a Dell comic book series detailing the squad's "Groovey," "Outasite" adventures.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Today we wish Robin Leach a "Happy Birthday" filled with caviar dreams and high priced auctions.

For those of you who don't know, Mr. Leach was the host of "Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous." A television program showing how the other half lived (or, if you were the sort of wealthy, slightly eccentric viewer with lavish tastes and a large home full of interesting and expensive objects each worth more than the average person's total life earnings, how select other members of your half lived). The show ran for 14 years, until the late 1990's, when an unprecedented number of Americans were feeling pretty good about their economic situation and didn't need Robin Leach showing them how generic and plain their homes looked in comparison to the elite crowd of "The Rich and Famous." By 2000, MTV recognized people saw celebrities as something other than normal people, rich or not, and began their own "MTV Cribs" program to once again drag the common people into the home of the rich and famous. By then, Mr. Leach was on to other things, enjoying his double life as a reporter/quasi-celebrity.

To mark Robin Leach's birthday, we present you with a special eBay item that encapsulates the "Lifestyles" spirit. For just a little over $2,000,000, you can obtain this fantastic item. Rich. Famous. Nobody expects you to be good at math, too.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his legendary "I Have A Dream" speech on this day in 1963. While the eBay items we use here to commemorate the passage of history are sometimes the closest thing to a living legacy the blips on the historical radar leave, Dr. King's words remain with us all today.

While Dr. King is remembered largely as a man of words, ideas and peace, he was also quite the dapper dresser, as evidenced by this fine collection of paper dolls depicting Dr. King and his family.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

On this Holy Sunday we reflect...

The Bible, though filled with stories of human beings involved in earthly pursuits, remains a guidebook for abstract concepts. How to make the lessons of its stories jump off the page to readers, especially younger readers, is a problem many have no doubt tried to address. One solution: pop-up books.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

This week's Saturday Cartoons brings us Brainy Smurf. One of the most featured characters on the long-running Smurfs cartoon (and even longer-running international Smurfs franchise), Brainy was the classic "know-it-all" who was almost always wrong. Without doing an episode by episode verification to be sure of this, it seemed like Brainy was at least somewhat heavily involved in more episode plots than most of the other Smurfs.

Occasionally Brainy was portrayed as trying to find personal advantages in certain circumstances, but usually he meant well but tended to overthink everything to the point of being fairly useless. Still, he was one of the most memorable and entertaining of all the Smurfs.

Friday, August 25, 2006

25 years ago today, NASA's Voyager 2 probe took photographs of the planet Saturn. This is a walking robot toy called Saturn. Planets come and go, toy robots always remain.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

The printing of the Gutenberg Bible was completed 550 years ago today. This marked the beginning of the mass production of the printed word. Below are samples of a facsimile of a page from the Gutenberg Bible as well as a typical modern example of the mass produced publishing industry.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Sally Brown, younger sister of Charlie, debuted in the Peanuts newspaper strip by Charles M. Schulz on this day in 1959.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

The Victrola is 100 years old today. The Victor Talking Machine Company (eventually the "Victor" in "RCA Victor") initially charged $200 for the cranky turntable. Now it costs more than that to ship one.

Monday, August 21, 2006

On this day in 1841, John Hampton obtained a patent for venetian blinds. Years later this would allow the Acme Venetian Blind and Window Shade Company to come into existence.

The item pictured, an egg seperator, is either one of two things: a promotional item or an indication that the Acme Venetian Blind and Window Shade Company is a bit odd.

Either way, it's perfect for scrambling roadrunner eggs.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Welcome to Holy Sunday.

Saint Don Bosco, aside from being a Catholic priest who taught the faith, especially to children, was also somewhat of a pioneer in educating underprivileged youths in useful skills. He set up technical schools and ran night classes. His sometimes zelaous pursuit of financing for these programs almost prevented him from attaining sainthood, but with the backing of Pope Pius XI, he was cannonized in 1934. Though he has long since moved on to teaching the adult education night class in the sky, a lock of his hair remains in this world.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

On Saturdays, we're going to do something different. We're going reflect on a happy time when Saturday mornings actually meant something. Cartoons.

O.G. Readmore hosted the ABC Weekend Special (at least from 1985 until the end of the show's run in the 90's). It was a television show that tried to get kids to shut off the television (which within hours would result in missing the Pro Bowler's Tour) and pick up a book. The nefarious method by which this was attempted was to run fairly well-produced adaptations of children's books both old and new.

O.G. Readmore wasn't merchandised much, but there is an animation cel available.

Friday, August 18, 2006

On this day in 1817, as newspaper reports began spinning tales of a sea serpent seen in the waters of Gloucester, Massachusetts, the Linnaean Society of New England put together a committee to gather evidence of the creature. They did, and eventually decided it was a wholly new animal, which they dubbed Scoliophis Atlanticus. Everyone else decided it was a publicity stunt on behalf of Gloucester. Combining two available items, a portrait of the Gloucester, MA harbor and a Playmobil Sea Serpent, we bring you this recreation of the sighting leading to all of this speculation.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Today is Davy Crockett's 220th birthday. Die defending the Alamo and what do you get for your trouble? A scary looking ventriloquist's dummy wearing lipstick.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

One hundred years ago today, an earthquake shook the people of Valparaiso, Chile. 1,500 people lost their lives. We found a wooden nickel. Coin shows are happier than natural disasters.

An eBay A Day...

Welcome to eBay A Day: An Auction Almanac.

In theory, you can find almost anything on eBay at any time. To put this theory to the test, and just for the fun of it, we here at eBay A Day will locate an item available for bid each day which relates in some way to that day, be it historical trivia or a religious or secular observance or anything that has to do with anything we think of.





Please note the following fine and dandy print:
1. eBay A Day: An Auction Almanac is not affiliated with eBay in any way (except the author has an eBay account). We neither recommend nor discourage your use of eBay. eBay is a registered trademark (we assume) of eBay, Inc. (or something like that. We'll look it up later).
2. We promise the items we mention are not for sale by anyone affiliated with this blog.
3. We are by no means encouraging (nor discouraging) you to bid on anything we mention.
4. Any problems you develop, such as eBay Addiction, household clutter, outstanding PayPal balances or positive or negative feedback are your own problems. Don't go blaming us for them. We didn't load the gun or pull the trigger. We may aim it a little, but hey, nobody's perfect.
5. If this thing catches on and you decide to cash in on it by trying to post items related to a day, that's great. Try to make it amusing and maybe we'll find it. Don't send us links. If you do, we'll skip your item. We're not in it to help you sell stuff.*
6. Speaking of not being in it to sell stuff, we'll tell you about items available, but we won't be linking to them. You'll have to find the actual auction listings for yourselves.*




* Unless we're bribed really good.