I last left you with the Tri-Lakes Visitor Guide and local demographics.

Next up is a Sunset Book, Terrariums & Miniature Gardens, 1973. People might not know it, but I have somewhat of a green thumb . . . one of these days I’ll wash the paint off, but I’m hoping it will eventually wear off. Oh, and I also like plants, and have a number of them that thrive in our house.

This book has interesting projects in it, and while I am sure there are newer books, before I buy any of them, I need to read this one.

The link I provided leads you to get used copies of it for only a penny . . . and $4 shipping.

Here’s an example of the content . . .

They have a large section on plants, and various types of suggested arrangements.

The next tall-thin booklet you see is a guide to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Except it’s mostly hotels listings and attractions. Not worth showing as there is now more available online.

After that, the next thin book, the blue one . . .

One of the few regrets I have about the 26 years we lived in Michigan is that we never did what we had said we would do . . . travel the shoreline and hit all of the lighthouses before moving away.

HOWEVER . . . we still plan on doing it one of these years, and then I’ll do a book like this, only with better photos.

The next four things are all stuff by Jacovitti. The first is this book:

The book contains two western stories, the first being “Per un Pugno di Spiccioli”, 1967, translates as “For a Fistful of Change”, an obvious send-up of “Fistful of Dollars”, 1964.

The other is “Occhio di Pollo”, 1957, which translates as “Eye of Chicken”, or maybe “Chicken Eye”. I have no idea what movie this one references.

The inside cover page gives the dates and a hint at the content.

The action inside is over-the-top, and that includes the dialogue (it’s still funny to me, but then I read Italian).

They speak of the “gun culture” in the US, but I grew up with these cartoons, with Tex Willer, and other action heroes who had one thing in common; a facility with guns, and a propensity to use them. My love for guns was firmly entrenched long before I came to the US.

The two pages above are from “Per un Pugno di Spiccioli”, and the following pages are from “Occhio di Pollo”.

Yes, the blond guy is none other than Boffalo Bill. I wonder who Jacovitti used as an inspiration for the character.

And here’s a treat for my readers; the full “Occhio di Pollo” as a YouTube slideshow. Unfortunately, as is often the case, this video is no longer available. Instead, I give you this:

I liked those comics . . . but my favorite Jacovitti character is Cocco Bill.

The next book, “Trotta, Trotta … Cocco Bill!“, 1998, is a collection of Jacovitti’s personal favorite Cocco Bill cartoons. A fast-shooting, camomilla-drinking, Trottalemme-riding cowboy and all-around good guy who always does what is right – and that mostly means shooting up the bad guys – was, and still is, an inspiration for me.

Here’s a few pages just to get the flavor of the action and drawing style.

As unique as the drawing style is, the writing is something else . . . hard to describe, and near impossible to translate, but trust me . . . still funny.

Next to the book one can see a couple of beat-up folders . . . those are folders containing pages from newspapers where Jacovitti’s cartoons appeared. You see, he not only drew westerns, but also detective stories . . .

. . . and even pirates stories . . .

I don’t remember right now, and it’s too late to call my mother, but I’m thinking those were clipped and saved in the folders by my uncle Marino. He succumbed to cancer a number of years ago, and these passed to me. I could be wrong; they could be from a friend of the family. Regardless, I have them now.

Not sure what will happen to them once I’m gone. They will probably be discarded by people who will not recognize in them the same joy and spirit that I did.

Those are the two big blue and slightly ‘fuzzy’ folders.

Next to them one can see the brown spine of another folder. There are actually two folders there, one being hidden. They are the original printouts (the first one printed on an Epson Dot-Matrix printer) of the first two stories I wrote. Both were written for my wife on her birthday (on different years).

The first one is on this blog, HERE.

The second one never made it in the blog, but can be read HERE.

If you happen to read them, remember they are over 20 years old, and my first attempts at writing. Not making excuses for them, but it could be I’m a little better now.

The last book on this shelf is “The Great International Airplane Book“, by Jerry Mander, George Dippel, Howard Gossage, from 1971.

The book was the result of a 1967 paper airplane competition sponsored by Scientific American. They would repeat it in 2008, and you can read the article HERE. That too resulted in a book: The New Millennium Paper Airplane Book, which I don’t own.

The book I do own is interesting enough:

It has all the plans for building the planes that competed. Here’s an example.

OK, I admit . . . this was a long post.

. . . but, look at it like this; we finally got through the first shelf.

Thank you for reading this Fifth installment, and I hope you join me for the remainder of the rivetting progression through my library. Lots of good stuff to come, if I do say so myself (I usually have to, as few others ever speak so of me).

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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Astute persons might have noticed these doodles, and correctly surmised they hold some significance for me, and perhaps for humanity at large.  

If you click on the doodle, and nothing happens, this is the link it’s supposed to go to: https://disperser.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/palm-vx-and-i/.

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Note: if you are not reading this blog post at Disperser.Wordpress.com, know that it has been copied without permission, and likely is being used by someone with nefarious intention, like attracting you to a malware-infested website.  Could be they also torture small mammals.

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. . .  my FP ward  . . . chieken shit.