"Dad, that's not the newspaper."

It's a vacation weekend - and as it happens I have work to do Thanksgiving night in preparation for Friday deadlines, so instead of an unneeded recitation of the pleasures of Thanksgiving, it's another trip to Hunt & Gather's marvelous store. The ad hoc museum of the past, a place where I go for matchbooks and other scannable ephemera. What was there the last trip?

Shriners! Wikipedia puts it as clearly as possible:

: Banu Zuhrah is a clan of the Quraish tribe. Akhnas ibn Shariq al-Thaqifi and the Banu Zuhrah where with the Meccan as part of the escort that preceded the battle of Badr, but since he believed the caravan to be safe, he did not join Quraish on their way to a festival in badr. He together with Banu Zuhrah returned, so this two clans present in the battle

And so on. I'm sure the Minneapolis chapter knew all that by heart.

An ancient First Aid kit, for those who collect ancient First Aid kits:

Kendell was a surgical dressing manufacturer; so was Bauer & Black. Henry P. Kendell was born 13 years after the conclusion of the Civil War, and died ten years before we landed on the moon.

Then there was Perry McCaskey, who developed a new kind of cash register:

The story that led to the deposit of this machine in the back room of a Minneapolis antique store is a long one, I'm sure; it's possible it sat in the same place for decades, unmoved, the world changing all around it, the analog push-button machines replaced entirely by electronic terminals while it never budged an inch. We'll never know.

But it's not all expired products and ancient machinery and societies with Islamic imagery and a reputation for tiny cars and circuses. It's charming ceramics:

THE TRUFFLES WERE MADE OF IRON OH IT HURTS

Where have these been all these years?

From the spice company? As in, Schilling in the east, McCormick in the west, or vice versa? Quite probably. Never seen the word "Dainty" applied to crackers before. On a related note:

William Paterson was a Canadian biscuit and candy maker, noted in Wikipedia because it was the first acquisition of the George Weston LTD., about whom I know nothing and care less. But I should care, I suppose; it's Canada's "largest food-processing and distribution company." Which leads us to:

Mrs. Doughboy. Well, no - she can't be Mrs. Doughboy; she'd be Mrs. Fresh, since the Doughboy's name is Poppin' Fresh. (His voice, at first, was . . . Paul Frees. Yes, the voice of Disney's "Haunted Mansion" was the voice of the Doughboy.) Here's the explanation for the figure above:

In the 1970s, a Pillsbury Doughboy family was created and sold as dolls individually and in the form of various playsets. Included in the family are:
Poppie Fresh (a.k.a. Mrs. Poppin' Fresh, Pillsbury Doughgirl). It is debated among collectors as to whether Poppie is Poppin's wife, girlfriend or sister.

You'd think they'd want to nail that one down.

Granpopper and Granmommer (grandparents)
Popper (boy) and Bun-Bun (baby)
Flapjack (dog) and Biscuit (cat)
Uncle Rollie

That last one is particularly cruel, given what happens to dough. An ancient site with pictures of each can be found here.

Next: Nothing special; I just like the shot.

That's not all, of course. Land sakes no, as I never say. Most of what I shot was Christmas stuff . . . but that's next month. Even though Thanksblurmas Eve Day starts now, I wait until December before going whole hog. That's obviously the case, given the partial hog shown above.

That's it for this week - column up here; scroll down to the COLUMNS pane. And there are restaurants. Have a grand weekend; see you Monday with a full week of Bleats and updates.