This just in…

Bob “Captain Kangaroo” Keeshan’s memorabilia is up on the online auction block. Unfortunately, the bidding frenzy ends tonight, with some items ending momentarily. We are late on the take, but didn’t want to miss this opportunity to tip our hats for any last minute history collectors. With a screen-worn conductor hat AND examples of Keeshan’s screen worn red jacket, as well as his earlier blue jacket from the early seasons, pop culture intersects with fashion.

For the record, the Captain wore a size 40, and the coat was tailored by Chipp of New York & New Haven, a favorite of President Kennedy.

From the auction catalog:

Iconic Bob Keeshan screen-worn Captain Kangaroo red jacket from 1971, the first year the Captain wore red. Keeshan’s lovable character was dressed in a navy blue suit from the show’s creation in 1955 until 1971. Fire-engine red single-breasted jacket was custom made for Keeshan by John F. Kennedy’s tailor, Chipp of New York & New Haven. Chipp label is sewn into an interior pocket and is typed ”Robert Keeshan / 4/2/71”. Features brass buttons, charcoal grey lining and white braided cord trim along the edges of lapels and pockets. Approximately size 40. Dulling to white trim and buttons, else near fine.

The current bid, last we checked is at $2,363.

View the complete catalog HERE.

I, on the other hand, find great nostalgia in knotty pine, golden but showing hints of orange as the polyurethane patina baked in the sun. Maybe it is because I have memories of visiting a cottage frequently in my youth with knotty pine walls, dotted gunpowder horns and family photos. Don’t forget the cuckoo clock and the small entry table from the “old house” half the guests were too young to remember.

Regrettably and somewhat predictably, dark paneling brings back memories of stale cigarette cologne overpowering the smell of jiffy pop on the open fire. The “other old house” in the family. It was a turn of the century beauty with parlors and marbled mantels. For some reason, it was a good idea to give the den a modern update…circa 1969. The sample in the photo at upper left is a bit lighter than the den in question, but the feeling of mass quantity at a low price is well conveyed.

If you have a love-hate or a hate-hate with wood panels, but want to bring a home back to its original character, 0r feel strongly compelled to by correctness or guilt, there are some choices in contemporary wallcoverings that will vaguely hint at the idea without recreating the sights and smells of a misplaced bachelor pad. You can choose actual wood panels, or something a bit more like a wallpaper that gives a very convincing effect. Just stick to the walls, okay. Any matching ceiling scheme can make anyone claustrophobic, no matter how inspired or unique the wall cover is.

I once saw an on air announcer at a restaurant between shows, and the amount of orange makeup not so well blended in beyond his jawline was startling – akin to a bizarre farmer’s tan…that is if you were farming on Mars. Maybe on air he looked fine, but in “real life,” he looked like he had sprayed the tan on a bit too enthusiastically. Later I learned in my days of hanging snow cradles from the theater ceiling for the most magical Christmas Carols and Wizard of Ozes, stage and screen makeup need not be orange.

Nowadays, many correspondents appear on TV or “Google Hangout” via webcam. What if you need to appear on Skype and don’t want anyone to come to the automatic conclusion that you are coming to them live from your parents’ smelly basement? Alternatively, you don’t want anyone to think you actually LIVE in your parents’ furnace room.

Apparently. ChatLight is a Skype light that illuminates your visage into something to behold…or at least something to actually see.

The individual hot/cold water handles (with “H” and “C” on them, to boot) add a lot of charm to a vintage-inspired or restored home. If installed in the kitchen or utility room over the bathroom, however, getting just the right chemistry of volume from the cold side and heat from the hot side is an art and a science.

If your home doesn’t already have such “charm,” going sleek and modern and clean often works equally well with some midcentury or retro decors. If the faucet is on an island, or in an equally prominent place, the biggest factor is the spots that gleam in the sunshine.  I myself frequently call on a friend with this very problem.  The early evening sun shines like a laser beam a la the map room in Raiders of the Lost Ark and only seeks out the water spots and chocolate finger prints on the back of the faucet neck.

The Kiran Spot Resist one-handle pulldown kitchen faucet (available at Lowe’s) has a nifty treatment on its stainless steel that resists spots and smudges. The only real negative about stainless is the finger prints. When I saw the new stainless in the store, I was amazed that my shoe polish stained hands did not make a lasting impression.

So, the kitchen is not authentic 1952 or 1937, but the sleek look is a long way from the utilitarian standard issue budget spigot.

For more information and design tips, follow @Moen on Twitter or “Like” them on Facebook.

If you are reluctant to have guests because they just won’t leave, what about treating them to small luxuries that imply that your pad is as well-appointed as the Waldorf Astoria, but once that one guest shampoo has exhausted itself, it is time to go. I was surprised, but one can actually pursue a Hotel Supply Online ** and find such marvels as a suitcase valet, or better yet, a case full of your favorite hotel shampoos and soaps (**There is a metro Atlanta Hotel Supply company – PeachSuite.com – in particular if you want to order 144 of them at a pop).  No more dirty mitts on your soap on a rope.

The Hotel Bar Supplies and the luxurious luggage valet say “welcome” and the tiny little shampoo bottles say “but only for a week.” The other little bottles? Oh, those are for the host. They need a comforting salve occasionally.

I gest, just slightly.

How do you strike a balance between pampered luxury for your guests and making them long for home after three days or a week? Or do you like rolling out the welcome mat for months at a time?

Vintage postcard Photo Credit: RipeTheSkull on Flickr

Ever find a vintage post card and wonder if the scenery still exists as pictured back then?

Highlands, North Carolina, came to be because two men drew two lines on a map: One from Savannah, Georgia, to Chicago, and the other one from New York City to New Orleans. They saw the intersection and said: “Tarnations, we need to put a town there.” Not really, at least not the Yosemite Sam-like exclamation and not really because it is merely legend. Maybe it was just dumb luck that its the home of Cullasaja Falls – on foot, its the place for swimming and rappelling. Nearby Bridal Veil falls is the only falls you can drive a car under if you wanted to.

Either way, that is exactly where Highlands, North Carolina is, and most of the time, a great-uncle of mine is scratching for some NC Golf Near Highlands rather than near Hilton Head, and that’s why I found out about it in the first place. It is not a johnny come lately, as in the 1930s, it was a bustling golf town where legendary golfer Bobby Jones came with all of his friends.

The town predates Jones, et al, as in the late 19th century, shops and a post office were well established. Of course, the post card has nothing to do with golf fashions, but rather the natural splendor of the area.

Have you been to the area lately? Is the artist’s rendition fairly accurate, or has it been forever altered by the view of revelers and caution signs?

It’s stressful when a closetful of suits from the 40s, a mannequin, a dog and a collection of antique writng implements relocates. craigslist is helpful, but sometimes a bit too freewheeling when you are in a bind. For corporate rental properties, and landlords who are not on their first trip to the rodeo often use apartments.com. (The site which also dishes out tips on Twitter at @aptscom You can’t amend your search criteria to include cedar-lined closets, but if you dig enough, you just might find a freeweeling curiosity like this one:

Losing apartment to eviction, $2,500 can make it yours! One bedroom apartment with additional sleeping annex, elevator, cable, part-time security, close to D train at 155th Street, western exposure with lots of windows and views! $2,500 stops the eviction and $800 per month pays the rent. I am out of the country until March 2014, neighbor has the key and can arrange showing on your schedule. There is some furniture along with dishes, etc. You can keep or discard no problem; only my papers and mail need to be stored.

Hmmm…Can I ask if any vintage textiles or Stickleyor Eames  is being “left behind?”  Would that be considered poaching? That is just what Matilda the mannequin and the climate-controlled leather bound volumes need. – an inherited evicting landlord! Sign me up!

I balk at referring to anything from 1997 as “vintage.” However, 1997 to the world of consumer websites is indeed that. “Antique” might be 1988-1994. Geocities, anyone? Surpsingly, Apartments.com has been around that long, first as an exclusively Chicago-based service, and then launching nationally.

Have you used the site lately? If not, have you used the Android or iPad or iPhone App (they have one!)

Crystals a la Union Jack from Shamballa Jewellery

The disadvantage is the foil backing used on many rhinestone pieces. Cleaning is not only a bear, but it could damage the piece irreparably if that is the case.

Although rhinestones are still going strong, crystals are what modern fashion plates use for an element of sparkle. Just like anything else, there is a high and low price point. Sometimes the larger and clearer crystals, just like diamonds, go for more, but most of the time it is also quality of the other elements of the piece and the artistry of the piece.

Do you wear crystals, ladies or rhinestone cowboys, or do does nothing still say flash like a glove full, belt full or wrist full of rhinestones?

Do you need another moment?

All of the previous ads do not show a prominently featured davit crane anywhere to lower the dinghy or the pram and rescue drunk people from the water. No, that’s not it.

It is amazing, but not surprising to see the number of boating ads that feature frolicking that involves alcohol. Oh, the glamor – especially if you are featured in the paper for running aground because you ‘ran out of water.’ Yes, that was a true Memorial Day weekend’s excuse.

The proximity of beer to heavy machinery and vehicles is what especially dates some ads off the bat. There has been a code of ethics for responsible marketing of alcohol products since the end of the Prohibition, and over the years the focus has been to prevent the makers of distilled beverages from pitching their wares to minors. Apparently, in the 50s and 60s, it was okay to lollygag on boats as long as it wasn’t appealing to minors

Aside from the light blue denim that goes in and out of trend year by year, but never, ever goes into sore thumb range, clothing for a day on the sea has not changed much over the years – the nautical motifs, the ironic (but then not so) captain hats and sometimes a button down to shield your skin from rays. I almost forgot, if this was an ad from today, you would see the ladies wearing a lot less, but this is a family show.

Do you collect fun or unusual ads? Or did you come here because you noticed the yachts and sailboats and think I’m a dinghy for obstructing the subject?

Stores did not guarantee that your size would be in stock, but it was fun to look.

What can you find there now?

Many an army navy store, especially online, has morphed from the “you never know what will be there today” format to consistently stocking work clothing by Carharrt and other non-military gear. Rothco now specifically makes military “style” pants and coats to specifically market to the retail public and the traditional Army/Navy store shopper. The “surplus” concept is not the same as it once was. It makes me wonder if the items I saw there during my teen years and twenties were indeed true surplus and overruns, or was the concept falsified.

Army/Navy stores, in a way, have become like outlet stores, in the sense that not all of the items are true authentic leftovers, but that are made just to be leftover. If you look carefully at outlets for Saks and Niemans, you will see some items that are the leftover sizes and last seasons’ goods, but also many items purchased especially for sale at outlet level. Filene’s Basement and Saks off Fifth are indeed run as separate companies and are not just write offs of their flagship stores.

Don’t get me wrong. The traditional Army/Navy store still is a treasure trove of odds and ends.

What were your favorite treasures from the Army/Navy store back in the day? Or is that day still now?

Roll back to the 50s and being thin was not the ideal. A healthy glow, thighs bigger than your wrist, and Charles Atlas and the ladies in beauty ads saying “pish posh” at all of it was pushed in the media. The sure way to the out crowd was protruding ribs. Now, its love/hate. The media chastises runway models with prominent collar bones and ribcages, yet young women aspire to achieve the illusion of “thigh gap,”  which is disturbing.

The ideal of beauty and male handsomeness and fitness keeps changing, but what we never allow ourselves is the honesty to look at our behaviors and hangups and actually work for what is most healthy for our bodies, which may consequently lead to fitness and the body working at its best. (!)

Instead, we continue to want the quickest fix. There is sheer quackery with the number of pills on the market. We also seek the “mystery food” that will change everything. We are not actually willing to eat fresh Pomegranates, but drip it into an energy drink for us or drizzle it on a sundae. Give up plates of noodes? Forget it. We want to buy magical shirataki noodles, made with Glucomannan, so we get all the fiber and none of the carbs to pull up to the trough and eat. Granted, if you are eating noodles, it might be a good substitute, but for goodness sake, don’t look for a magic bullet.

Magic bullets are fun, of course, and provide for some rollicking reading decades down the road. I can imagine my great-nephews and nieces chortling over The Couch Potato Diet.