So, without much further ado, a story about Edith Wharton. By 1905, Edith had already made a name for herself as an author. You may have read some of her books and poems although, in this day and age, it isn’t likely. Many of her works were made into films in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Probably the most notable modern adaptation would be “The Age of Innocence” released in 1993 directed by Martin Scorsese.

April 29, 1885, at age 23, Wharton married Edward (Teddy) Robbins Wharton, who was 12 years her senior. Teddy suffered from depression, so much so that Teddy and Edith pretty much ceased all activity and rarely left their home. Prior to her marriage Edith had traveled extensively. Edith fell into a deep depression herself. So what’s a girl to do?

Have an affair, of course. She hooked up with another writer named William Morton Fullerton who she believed was her soulmate. She feel madly in love. Then in 1908 Fullerton disappeared. Vanished. Ghosted her.

Between 1908 and 1913 spent most her time looking for him. She sent out hundreds of letters which were never answered.

She gave up on Fullerton and on the idea of love and moved to France where she wrote and spent her time gardening. She would become the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for “The Age of Innocence” in 1921 and three Nobel Prize nominations before her death in 1937.

Fullerton, it turns out, was alive. He wanted nothing to do with Edith and he did nothing with his life. He did, however, save her letters (over 400 of them) which were eventually published as a book named “Hell Hath No Fury: Women’s Letters From the End of the Affair.”

She described her feelings recounting a dream she had here:

She gave up on Fullerton and on the idea of love and moved to France where she wrote and spent her time gardening. She would become the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for “The Age of Innocence” in 1921 and three Nobel Prize nominations before her death in 1937.

Fullerton, it turns out, was alive. He wanted nothing to do with Edith and he did nothing with his life. He did, however, save her letters (over 400 of them) which were eventually published as a book named “Hell Hath No Fury: Women’s Letters From the End of the Affair.”

She described her feelings recounting a dream she had here:

A pale demon with black hair came in, followed by four black gnome-like creatures carrying a great black trunk. They set it down and opened it, and the Demon crying out, ‘Here’s your year—here are all the horrors that have happened to you, and that are still going to happen!” dragged out a succession of limp black squirming things and threw them on the floor before me…I knew what they were: the hideous, the incredible things that have happened to me in this dreadful year, or were to happen to me before its close; and I stared, horror-struck, as the Demon dragged them out, more and more, till finally, flinging down a blacker, hatefuller one, he said laughing, ‘There—that’s the last of them.’

“The gnomes laughed too; but I, as I stared at the great black pile and at the empty trunk, I said to the demon, ‘Are you sure it hasn’t a false bottom?’”

Eventually she gave up on Fullerton and on the idea of love and moved to France where she wrote and spent her time gardening. She would become the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for “The Age of Innocence” in 1921 and three Nobel Prize nominations before her death in 1937.

Fullerton, it turns out, was alive. He wanted nothing to do with Edith and he did nothing with his life. He did, however, save her letters (over 400 of them) which were eventually published as a book named “Hell Hath No Fury: Women’s Letters From the End of the Affair.”

One of her letters written in 1910″

Don’t think I am “fâchee,” as you said yesterday; but I am sad & bewildered beyond words, & with all my other cares & bewilderments, I can’t go on like this!

When I went away I thought I shd perhaps hear once from you. But you wrote me every day—you wrote me as you used to three years ago! And you provoked me to answer in the same way, because I could not see for what other purpose you were writing. I thought you wanted me to write what was in my heart!

Then I come back, & not a word, not a sign. You know that here it is impossible to exchange two words, & you come here, & come without even letting me know, so that it was a mere accident that I was at home. You go away, & I seem not to exist for you. I don’t understand.

If I could lean on some feeling in you—a good & loyal friendship, if there’s nothing else!— then I could go on, bear things, write, & arrange my life…

Now, ballottée [tossed] perpetually between one illusion & another by your strange confused conduct of the last six months, I can’t any longer find a point de repère [landmark]. I don’t know what you want, or what I am! You write to me like a lover, you treat me like a casual acquaintance!

Which are you—what am I?

Casual acquaintance, no; but a friend, yes. I’ve always told you I foresaw that solution, & accepted it in advance. But a certain consistence of affection is a fundamental part of friendship. One must know á quoi s’en tenir [what to hold on to]. And just as I think we have reached that stage, you revert abruptly to the other relation, & assume that I have noticed no change in you, & that I have not suffered or wondered at it, but have carried on my life in serene insensibility until you chose to enter again suddenly into it.

I have borne all these inconsistencies & incoherences as long as I could, because I love you so much, & because I am so sorry for things in your life that are difficult & wearing—but I have never been capricious or exacting, I have never, I think, added to those difficulties, but have tried to lighten them for you by a frank & faithful friendship. Only now a sense of my worth, & a sense also that I can bear no more, makes me write this to you. Write me no more such letters as you sent me in England.

It is a cruel & capricious amusement. —It was not necessary to hurt me thus! I understand something of life, I judged you long ago, & I accepted you as you are, admiring all your gifts & your great charm, & seeking only to give you the kind of affection that should help you most, & lay the least claim on you in return. But one cannot have all one’s passionate tenderness demanded one day, & ignored the next, without reason or explanation, as it has pleased you to do since your enigmatic change in December.
I have had a difficult year—but the pain within my pain, the last turn of the screw, has been the impossibility of knowing what you wanted of me, & what you felt for me—at a time when it seemed natural that, if you had any sincere feeling for me, you should see my need of an equable friendship—I don’t say love because that is not made to order!—but the kind of tried tenderness that old friends seek in each other in difficult moments of life. My life was better before I knew you. That is, for me, the sad conclusion of this sad year. And it is a bitter thing to say to the one being one has ever loved d’amour.

Did you know National Cheese day is June 4th? Everyone loves cheese in all its many forms. The more the better. Although we can’t pinpoint when cheese was first discovered it was, most likely, during the transport of fresh milk in the organs of animals such as sheep, goats, cows, and buffalo.

This stamp, featuring a cheese maker, is from, where else, Switzerland (1987). There are actually quite a few stamps featuring cheese but none that I could find from the US. Interestingly, maybe this is why.

Back in 1835 in Sandy Creek, New York, Colonel Thomas Standish Meacham had the idea to craft a super large cheese to gift to President Andrew Jackson.

Thomas hired carpenters to build a frame and lined it with cheese cloth. The curd made from the milk from his 150 cows was added daily and the whey squeezed out. At the end it weighed 1,400 pounds. He boxed it up, sealed it and got it ready to present to the President in Washington.

The cheese was placed on a large wagon pulled by 48 horses and loaded on a ship while a band played and cannons fired. When it reached the Capital it was presented to the President with much fanfare.

President Jackson wasn’t sure what to do with the unusual gift. Over the next few months he gifted large amounts of cheese to family, friends and members of his administration. He served it at dinner, had dinner parties centered around cheese and generally tried to get rid of as much as he could. Meanwhile, the cheese was stored in a back room of the executive mansion where the smell of it began to permeate the residence lingering in clothes and furnishings.

President Jackson, exasperated, had the cheese brought to the foyer of the White house and openly invited the public in to have their fill. Thousands of visitors came to have some.

“All you heard was cheese, all you saw was cheese, all you smelt was cheese,” recalled one witness. “The whole atmosphere for half a mile around was infected with cheese.”

At the end of the event there was cheese everywhere. It had been stepped on and ground into the carpet, cheese covered hands had turned doorknobs and been wiped on walls, drapes and furniture cushions. Luckily for Jackson, he was only in office for two more weeks so showed no interest in cleaning up the mess. He left that chore to his successor, Martin Van Buren.

“[Martin Van Buren] had a hard task to get rid of the smell of cheese,” wrote the wife of a Massachusetts senator, “and in the room where it was cut, he had to air the carpet for many days.” Subsequently Van Buren banned all food from all future White House receptions.

The government went on to regulate cheese even in the 2oth century. In the 1920’s the Department of Agriculture placed regulations on the percentage of pepper allowed in Monterey Hack cheese and even ruled if the word “smoked” should come before or after the word “Gouda”. In 1952 even the size of the holes in Swiss Cheese were restricted to “no more than half an inch wide” and limited the number of holes in any given piece to eight.

So next time, preferably on June 4th, you mount a new cheese stamp in your cheese topical collection just remember the 1,400 pound cheese that graced the US capitol and the smell that probably still lingers there today.

Two stamps I will probably never own!

The United States issued its first postage stamps on July 1, 1847. The stamps were designed by the artist John Vanderlyn and printed by the firm of Rawdon, Wright, Hatch, and Edson. The stamps were issued in two denominations: a five-cent stamp featuring a portrait of Benjamin Franklin, and a ten-cent stamp featuring a portrait of George Washington.

The stamps were printed in sheets of 200, with each stamp measuring about one inch by three-quarters of an inch. They were printed in black ink on bluish paper, with the words “U.S. Post Office” and the denomination printed in large letters.

The 5-cent stamp was intended for use on letters weighing less than one-half ounce that were sent over a distance of up to 300 miles. The 10-cent stamp was for letters weighing less than one-half ounce that were sent over a distance of more than 300 miles. These first stamps were used primarily for the transportation of letters and documents, which was a crucial means of communication and commerce in the mid-19th century.

The design of the stamps was simple and elegant, with the portraits of Franklin and Washington surrounded by decorative lettering and border. The stamps were an instant success, with people eager to use these new symbols of national identity and efficiency.

Over the years, the United States has issued many more stamps with a wide variety of designs and themes, from famous Americans and national landmarks to pop culture icons and historical events. But the first stamps remain an important milestone in the history of American postal service and a reminder of the power of a small piece of paper to connect people across vast distances.

I figured I would be amiss if I did not write a post about this, the worlds rarest stamp.

The world’s most expensive stamp is the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta. It was printed in 1856 in the British colony of Guiana, which is now the independent country of Guyana.

The stamp was created as a temporary solution when a shipment of official postage stamps failed to arrive from Great Britain. The local postmaster hastily commissioned a batch of one-cent stamps featuring a simple design of a sailing ship and the colony’s motto, “Damus Petimus Que Vicissim,” which means “we give and expect in return.”

Only one example of the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta is known to exist, making it incredibly rare and valuable. The stamp was rediscovered in 1873 by a young collector named L. Vernon Vaughan and it changed hands many times over the years, eventually being bought by wealthy collectors and investors.

In 2014, the stamp was sold at auction for a record-breaking price of $9.5 million, making it the most expensive stamp ever sold. The buyer was an anonymous bidder who was willing to pay an astronomical sum for this rare and historic stamp.

Today, the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta remains one of the most sought-after stamps in the world, with a value that far exceeds its humble origins as a makeshift stamp for a British colony. It is a testament to the enduring fascination and allure of postage stamps, and the passion that collectors have for these small but fascinating pieces of history.

I am not a big fan of modern stamps. I try not to focus on anything past 1960 although my collection is starting to accumulate stamps past it. I don’t really go for the stamps who promote things like movies or celebrities but a stamp is a stamp and sometimes there’s a story to tell.

Back in 1981 when E.T. was in production the screenwriter, Melissa Mathison, wrote that M&Ms, then one of the most popular candies was also to be one of E.T.’s favorites.

The management disagreed saying “We don’t want an alien eating our candy” an “It might frighten kids”. They turned them down.

Still looking for a product placement substitute they turned to Hershey and specifically to Reese’s Pieces. Hersey paid nothing for product placement and agreed to cross promote the movie in their advertising for $1 million dollars.

E.T. went on to win 4 Academy awards and Reese’s Pieces sales skyrocketed. At the time it was called “The biggest marketing coup in history”.

Embarrassed by their decision, Mars, Inc. would go on to try and outdo it by placing M&Ms on the U.S. Space Shuttle and Spaceship One.

The crown of Portugal appears in the first stamps of Angola in 1870-1877. Interestingly, they aren’t the originals. The crown jewels of Portugal have been sold off and stolen quite a few times.

In 1581 King António ( he was King of Portugal for 33 days in 1580) fled to France after King Philip I was made the King of Portugal and took the crown jewels with him. His plan was to reclaim the throne of Portugal and depose Philip I, To do so he wanted Frances support and sold or gave them some of the pieces. Things didn’t work out the way he would have liked and he ended up selling all of them.

During the Portuguese Restoration War, João II of Braganza sold many of the Portuguese Crown Jewels to finance the war with Spain and in 1755 the Great Lisbon earthquake destroyed Lisbon and the Paço da Ribeira, the Portuguese royal residence of the time. With the destruction of the palace, innumerable pieces of the Portuguese Crown Jewels of the time were destroyed, lost, or stolen.

The crown shown on the stamp is from the reign of John VI of Portugal (1818 – 1825) who had it remade. John VI was a bizarre man. He hated physical activity, suffered bouts of depression, suffered panic attacks when he heard thunder and barricading himself in his room with the windows shut. He also lived in his coat, refusing to take it off and even slept in it. Seamstresses would mend it while he slept in it.

In 2002 a large part of the Portuguese Crown Jewels were stolen from the Museon in The Hague, where they were on loan for an exhibition on European Crown Jewels. They have not been retrieved and the Dutch government paid a six million euros to the Portuguese government for reparation. Since then the Portuguese Crown Jewels are currently kept in a secured vault at the Ajuda National Palace, in Lisbon.

A unique feature of the crown is that it is composed only of pure gold and red velvet, without a single precious stone or gem.