The fictional town of Bedford Falls, based on Seneca Falls, New York, is usually associated with the Christmas holiday and the Frank Capra movie "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946).
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A sixty-year-old sketch of Wednesday by her creator Charles Addams was sold yesterday at Heritage Auctions. It is dated April 1965, which was toward the end of Season 1 of "The Addams Family" television program. The paper it is on appears trimmed, with a partial symbol visible in the upper left.
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| Charles Addams Heritage Auctions listing accessed October 25, 2025 four days before the sale |
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| Charles Addams Heritage Auctions item description |
Sold!
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My copy of Tom Toro's new collection And to Think We Started as a Book Club . . . was signed by the New Yorker cartoonist at Oblong Books on October 16. That appearance included a conversation with cartoonist Michael Maslin before the book signing.
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Back on March 20, Wonder Book of Frederick, Maryland, listed two children's books by the New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly. They were signed and reasonably priced with zero shipping charges. Then, on October 18, two additional books of hers were listed, also signed, similarly priced, and this time for grown ups. It was then that I noticed the two earlier books. Each listing was illustrated only with a stock image. It is the author's frequent practice to include sketches in her signed books, but there was no indication whether any of these books had them. Still, with the books priced between $5.99 and $7.99, there didn't seem to be much of a downside risk. I boldly made my move.
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| Stock Image |
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| Liza Donnelly AbeBooks listing accessed October 18, 2025 |
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| Liza Donnelly AbeBooks item description |
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| Stock image |
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| Liza Donnelly AbeBooks listing accessed October 18, 2025 |
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| Liza Donnelly AbeBooks item description |
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| Stock image |
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| Liza Donnelly AbeBooks listing accessed October 18, 2025 |
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| Liza Donnelly AbeBooks item description |
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| Stock image |
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| Liza Donnelly AbeBooks listing accessed October 18, 2025 |
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| Liza Donnelly AbeBooks item description |
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In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #965 from the issue of October 27, 2025, we are looking at a skeleton and a man watching television. The skeleton is laughing. The man, who has a bowl of popcorn in his lap, speaks. My entry appears below. The drawing is by Lars Kenseth.
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| "Why shouldn't I achieve my potential as an x-ray tech?" |
These captions wouldn't rest in peace:
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| "Wait! Aren't those your fibulas?" "It's not a crypt. It's the East Wing." |
November 9, 2025 Update: The Finalists
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On June 19 of this year, Sleuth Books listed a copy of Are You Happy?: And Other Questions Lovers Ask (1978) by Edward Koren containing some original art. The price, $90, is a lot to spend for a signed Koren book sight unseen, but just marvel at how enticingly it was described: "Personally inscribed by the author to Ben Raeburn, the publisher of Horizon Books, on the front endpapers, complete with two sketches of book characters. A spectacular copy!" The listing shows only a stock photo, but I am a sucker for "spectacular." I paid my money.
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| Stock image |
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| Edward Koren AbeBooks listing accessed October 18, 2025 |
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| Edward Koren AbeBooks item description |
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Bluesky's website describes itself as "Social media as it should be." I'm all for that. In fact, I use Bluesky to publicize this very blog, every single new post.
Imagine my surprise then when I found one of my posts on the platform had been dinged Wednesday by Bluesky's moderator, possibly a bot, as "Adult Content." I had been promoting my recent post on illustrator Edward Sorel's depiction of God creating autumn and its source material from the Italian Renaissance. What then was my offense?
Note: You can follow me, docnad,, on Bluesky here. Who knows?— I might even post more sexually suggestive content.
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Edward Koren's drawing in Anne and Sergio's copy of Are You Happy?, his 1978 cartoon collection, fills the inside cover and the facing front free endpaper. It depicts a couple playing a duet for violin and piano. They make such beautiful music together. How could they not be happy?
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| Edward Koren AbeBooks listing accessed December 26, 2023 |
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| Edward Koren AbeBooks item description |
This sale ended long ago and the price was increased back to $500. The book has since been sold.
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There was yet a third book I bought sight unseen from Dave's Books of Brooklyn last month, another reasonably-priced volume of particular interest to readers of The New Yorker. (The first two were posted on Tuesday and Wednesday.) Reporting: Writings From The New Yorker (2006) by the magazine's current editor, David Remnick, was signed by the author and priced at $15.95. As before, the listing on AbeBooks was illustrated with a stock photo only. The seller made up for that with an insightful description: "inscribed ('Best wishes D. Remnick[']—the signature is kind of a scrawl and hard to read) by the author on the title page." That's good enough for me.
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| Stock Photo |
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| David Remnick AbeBooks listing accessed September 21, 2025 |
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| David Remnick AbeBooks item description |
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