HUMOROUS? A smoking pipe featuring a silver song bird on its bowl....and a 'grass grinder' featuring a jeweled owl as it's grinder handle....

                                                           "DECORATIVE SMOKING PARAPHENALIA"

THE BENEATH-THE-BOXWOODS BURIED TREASURES OF THE ANCIENTS MAYANS........

BEFORE ABANDONING MY ANTIQUES SHOPPE IN CATES CENTER, ATLANTA, I BURIED SEVERAL THOUSAND-YEAR-OLD  EFFIGY SCULPUTURES AND MANY PIECES OF BROKEN MAYAN POTTERY IN THE BRICK-ENCLOSED BOXWOOD 'GARDEN' OF THE  BUCKHEAD SHOPPING CENTER; TODAY, I'M WONDERING IF ANYONE HAS DUG UP THESE RED CLAY TREASURES,  IMAGINING THAT THIS 'LOCATION' WAS ONCE AN INDIAN BURIAL MOUND.....WHO KNOWS?  

NORDIC TRACK DESTINY

there are 'salt lovers' and 'sugar lovers'.....I'm pondering..'which is Better for a healthy heart and general well-being?' A first Step....giving those sea salt and dark bittersweet chocolate truffles to my next door neighbors.....if I can make it over, without 'finishing them off'......the truffles, that is......on my return from 'feeding the hungry', I dug up a dozen dandelions, stripping them of their leaves and flowers, to make a 'healthy' salad.....admittedly, bathed in a syrupy ginsing/garlic/molasses 'dressing'.....where's the insulin pump?? The bathroom Scales are in the middle of the floor, set to read body fat levels through one's feet, then indicate what percentage of one's (my) body is composed of Fat.......Subsequently, I've set a 'Goal' of having that number, by June....to be 'less than 18%.....after trying on some old pants that were about 4 inches from 'buttonabiity' and 'zippering up'.......The Sharper Image 'Stepping Device' is back in the bedroom and I've removed the cans of paint from the ancient Nordic Track "Pro-Skier", oiled its 'skis' and replaced its battery that had decomposed in the battery compartment, from years of neglect......

1948.....'Mr. Cigarette' visits hospitals to deliver free cigarettes to patients.....

during an era during which just about everyone smoked, snorted or chewed tobacco.....even pre-school kids were given 'candy cigarettes & cigars' to 'get them started'.......

Once, Queen Latifah had 'had it up to Here'.....make that 'Hear'.....But, now, even "The Queen" has bought into Gauray Gupta Gowns with Kick otta thay way capelets.......

                                         Isn't Green the Color of Money, after all?

"KIX" are for "KIDS".......Have another bowl, Alexander Litvinenko.......and another cup of green tea at The Pine Bar......I've been told that there's a toy plastic fish, that glows in the dark, in every cup!

Kitchens across America smelled of toasted grains and sugar as children poured bowls of Kix Cereal, eager to find the promised toy inside each box. Among the miniature prizes was something extraordinary, the Atomic Bomb Ring. At first glance, it was a playful novelty, a shiny trinket evoking the awe of the atomic age. Yet beneath its cheerful exterior lurked a shocking secret.

Each ring contained a tiny amount of polonium-210, one of the most toxic substances known to science. Designed to glow, it turned a child’s curiosity into a chilling historical mystery decades later. Parents and regulators at the time barely raised an eyebrow, reflecting an era when the dangers of radiation were often underestimated or dismissed. This toy is now remembered as a cautionary tale, a strange archaeological discovery of postwar optimism mixed with hazardous science.

The Atomic Bomb Ring tells a story of a society mesmerised by nuclear power, fascinated by novelty, and dangerously naive about science. It reminds us that objects from the past, no matter how innocent they appear, can reveal unsettling truths about the values, knowledge, and blind spots of their time. Today, this tiny radioactive ring survives as a stark reminder that history often hides its lessons in the most unexpected places.