The Great Race - Westport CT

Westport CT - The 1st Great Race was held in 1976, as part of America’s bicentennial celebration. It lasted a few years. In 1991, Sunrise Rotary resurrected it. It was an all-hands-on deck competition. Kayaks, canoes, dinghies, windsurfers, catamarans — and everything else, from Tom Sawyer rafts, to boats in the shape of Smurfs and Elvis, to science experiment failures — were launched from the library park. They made their way to Cockenoe Island. 

Around 1999 the race was suspended, only to be resurrected as a Duck Race, where small numbered rubber ducks raced down stream

Business envelopes - The Comics

Even though I have slowed down on obtaining hand-drawn art, I still research information for my collection. Since both of my parents worked for an envelope manufacturing company, and my father was a stamp collector, I was always had an interest in illustrated envelopes. In the late 1890s the envelopes were decorated with fantastic engraved images representing the sender's business. Recent improvements in methods of communications (e-mail, text, facebook, instagram etc) have made it easier to reach someone quickly, but the message is sterile and lacks anticipation of having to wait and then open the envelope to reveal the message. Therefore I still have a fascination for certain envelope that have been placed through the mail. 

Some of these business envelope offer a postage meter that features a slogan that may represent their business interests. I recently came across a few envelopes that are comic related:

Henry is a comic strip created in 1932 by Carl Anderson. The title character is a young bald boy who is mostly mute in the comics 

Charles Schulz, Snoopy business envelopes

Ed "Big Daddy" Roth - 1989

Walter Lantz - Woody Woodpecker - 1972

Dik Browne - Hagar the Horrible - 1978

Buster Browne - Outcault Advertising - 1910

1994 Mirage Studios - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

See also: Calvin & Hobbes, Dick Tracy