Postcards

In 1977, NASA flung a message in a bottle toward the stars. After a 10 billion-mile journey that traversed the paths of Jupiter and Saturn, the hardy little Voyager I spacecraft approached the edge of the solar system last week, poised to carry humanity's greetings to the universe beyond. During its 33-year flight, Voyager I and its sister ship, Voyager II, captured the imagination of millions of Earthlings with the first detailed pictures of Jupiter and Saturn, along with stunning images of their mysterious moons and intricate rings.

Our Save The Dates finally went out. I am actually pretty proud of them. I do not consider myself to be creatively inclined but I definitely gave myself a pat on the back after seeing the finished product. We decided to save money and make postcards as opposed to using outer envelopes or magnets. We made them pretty inexpensively, and I've received so many compliments. Here's how we made them: We are fortunate enough to have our talented photographer and friend, Lauren (Check out her website !

Harford County Executive David R. Craig has released his first book, "Greetings from Havre de Grace," which he describes as a pictorial "history of the city through postcards." Craig, who co-wrote the book with local antiques dealer Mary L. Martin, wrote captions for the postcards, which feature Concord Point lighthouse, Tide water Marina and other land marks. "You can you see how the city has changed," Craig said. The 128-page book, published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd., was released this month and sells for $24.95.

The State Board of Elections sent about 20,000 postcards that erroneously told registered voters they weren't registered, officials said Thursday. The mailings were part of an effort to increase voter turnout in the state, said Ross K. Goldstein, deputy administrator of the agency. State officials sent out 1.1 million mailings this fall telling eligible voters they needed to register, but about 2 percent of those postcards were mailed to citizens who were already registered to vote, he said.

Old picture postcards ranging from historical to hilarious are of great interest to collectors.Depending on their type, artwork, artist signatures if any, subject matter, advertisements, importance, desirability, scarcity and rarity, old postcards can range in value from less than a dollar to thousands.If you come across (and it can happen) a postcard advertising Waverley Cycles, picturing a sexy woman on such a cycle with the straps of her dress falling off her shoulders, pay attention. This postcard was reproduced in 1898 from a large poster illustrated by Alphonse Mucha.

Lige Daniels hangs from the tree in Center, Texas. His neck is bent backwards so that his head makes a grotesque right angle with his body. His corpse wears a white shirt and rumpled jeans. His feet are bare. Below Daniels stand members of the mob that lynched him. Many stare straight into the camera. One, a boy who can't be more than 11 or 12 years old, has his head cocked slightly to his left. He wears a shirt with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. A wide tie drapes his neck, its design almost clownish in appearance.

Wish you were here.It's the time of year when colorful postcards fill American mailboxes, as vacation travelers send best wishes to the folks back home.Most postcards sent out over the years were eventually tossed out, but others were squirreled away in albums and desk drawers. More than a million Americans now collect vintage postcards. Some of the best examples are already valuable and slowly rising in price.More than $225,000 worth of postcards were auctioned off recently by San Francisco's Butterfield & Butterfield auction house.

HAVRE DE GRACE -- The demure Victorian miss, tightly laced into her ball gown, perches daintily on her chair. But slip a piece of red cellophane over the top of the postcard, and she reveals a glimpse of thigh and the suggestion of a bare bosom.Fava Sherrard, a 75-year-old postcard dealer from Rising Sun, took one look and howled with laughter. "This must have been so naughty 80 years ago," she said.Such "red-light" postcards and about 2 million others -- from the everyday Walt Disney World variety to those with real human hair, satin clothes or eyes that wobble -- drew about 1,000 people to Havre de Grace for the first Chesapeake Postcard Show yesterday and Friday.

In a bid to save time and money, Manchester plans to switch this month to using postcards to bill water and sewer customers.Town Manager Terry L. Short said the town could save about $800 a year by sending bills on postcards instead of in window envelopes -- even after paying to mail the town newsletter separately. The newsletter has been mailed with the water bills.Mr. Short said it costs about 55 cents to print and mail each bill. Switching to postcards will cost about 22 cents to print and mail each bill, plus about 13 cents to mail each newsletter.

David Traub portrays our town in the glossiest of hues.His skies are always a perfect blue, the grass emerald green and the harbor waters clean. There's never a piece of trash blowing on Thames Street. The people back in Williamsport or Cleveland get good impressions of Baltimore through the lens of Mr. Traub's camera.There's scarcely a postcard sold today of a Baltimore scene that doesn't bear the inscription "Published by D. Traub & Son." It has been that way since the 1950s, when this man from Mount Washington began his life's work.

William Thomas Napier Martin IX, who with his wife became one of the world's largest collectors and sellers of period vintage postcards, died Wednesday of heart disease at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The Havre de Grace resident was 71. Mr. Martin, who was known as Bill, was living in Albany, N.Y., in the early 1970s, where he was chief of security for Montgomery Ward, with his wife, the former Mary Louise Walker, whom he had married in 1966. A lifelong stamp collector, Mr. Martin felt slightly guilty that he spent hours working on his collection while his wife, who had no interest in stamps, had been reduced to being a "stamp widow.

In 1977, NASA flung a message in a bottle toward the stars. After a 10 billion-mile journey that traversed the paths of Jupiter and Saturn, the hardy little Voyager I spacecraft approached the edge of the solar system last week, poised to carry humanity's greetings to the universe beyond. During its 33-year flight, Voyager I and its sister ship, Voyager II, captured the imagination of millions of Earthlings with the first detailed pictures of Jupiter and Saturn, along with stunning images of their mysterious moons and intricate rings.

A. Ronald "Ron" Menchine, the last voice of the Washington Senators and noted collector of baseball postcards and author of "A Picture History of Baseball," died Friday of a heart attack at his Glen Arm home. He was 76. "Ron was a very unique individual and kind of old school. He understood the radio experience and his broadcasting style was never bombastic," said Phil Wood, an old friend who is an analyst for the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which broadcasts Orioles and Nationals games.

A. Ronald "Ron" Menchine, the last voice of the Washington Senators and noted collector of baseball postcards and author of "A Picture History of Baseball," died Friday of a heart attack at his Glen Arm home. He was 76. "Ron was a very unique individual and kind of old school. He understood the radio experience, and his broadcasting style was never bombastic," said Phil Wood, an old friend and analyst for the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which broadcasts Orioles and Nationals games.

T he next time you're passing through the Lexington Market on the way to Faidley's Seafood, look up at the neon American flag. It's one of two known extant items from Atlantic City's Steel Pier, the once-fabled venue that was the center of East Coast entertainment for 75 years. "Bob Graziosi from Reisterstown was in the basement of the Steel Pier sometime in the 1960s and saw it," said Steve Liebowitz, whose book, "Steel Pier, Atlantic City: Showplace of the Nation," was published last month.

Daniel Muir and Colin Cloherty both grew up in Maryland. But that doesn't mean that the Indianapolis Colts teammates won't do their best to knock the Ravens out of the AFC playoffs when the two teams meet in a divisional game at Lucas Oil Stadium tonight. "It's good because I've got people at home that are Ravens fans," said Muir, a starting defensive tackle who grew up in Riverdale, attended Parkdale High Schooland still lives in Lanham. "Some people are rooting for me. So it's exciting."

When Mary Martin was about 2 years old, her mother, also named Mary Martin, started a postcard business in the family's Albany, N.Y., home. Over the years, the mother instilled a love of postcards in her daughter. She taught the youngster everything she knew. By the time she was 6 years old, young Mary could hold her own with postcard dealers. "It was obvious early on that I had the collector's gene," she said. "I was fascinated with postcards, and collecting them became addictive." Martin remembers quickly learning to distinguish which postcards were good and which ones were bad. And she learned from the best, said Bill Martin, 65, her father.

The price of a set of six postcards depicting historic buildings in Odenton was reported incorrectly Thursday. The package cost is $3 andcan be ordered from the Odenton Heritage Society at P.O. Box 282, Odenton, 21113.Odenton's colorful past is now available in black and white.As a means of raising money and promoting the community's past, the Odenton Heritage Society is selling postcards made from photographs of historic buildings.A $6 package includes six postcards of three different buildings.