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It's getting colder, and there probably are some pretty icy pavements and sidewalks that one might come across this time of year. At first glance this device looks pretty useful, but I think you'd need a much bigger and stronger dog to carry the whole thing around. Also, from that illustration, it doesn't look like you would quite land on the pillow. It would probably need some tweaking before I would use it.
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In 1949, King Features Syndicate released a booklet called "Sing With King at Christmas," which included several Christmas carols and showed various King Features comic strip characters singing them. Today's selection features Prince Valiant, the incredible long-running adventure comic strip created by the great illustrator Hal Foster. Prince Valiant, which started in 1937, still runs in newspapers today. The titular Prince lives in the days of King Arthur and does the kind of things you'd imagine a medieval knight would do, apparently including serenading fair maidens. Of course, this song doesn't quite date back to medieval times, so I imagine that picture actually depicts him singing something else.
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This is not one of Rube Goldberg's famous devices, but it is useful nonetheless. These days, when most Christmas shopping is done online, this type of outfit and shopping preparation may not be necessary, but you never know. Also, this may have been more useful for Black Friday, but going Christmas shopping anytime in December can still sometimes be quite harrowing.
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The Peter Rabbit most people know was created by Beatrix Potter in 1902, and was featured in a number of wonderful children's books by her. The Peter Rabbit in this comic strip, however, was created by Thornton Burgess in 1910 and is better known as Petter Cottontail. The comic strip ran from 1920 to 1948 and was written and illustrated by Harrison Cady. Cady also illustrated all of Burgess' children's stories. The two characters bear many remarkable similarities, though the main difference is that Potter's Peter Rabbit lives in England while the Burgess version clearly lives in the United States. The giveaway there is Jimmy Possum, who speaks in an unfortunate dialect and steals all of their Christmas goodies. Despite that, the comic strip is adorable and enjoyable to read. Hopefully next time Peter will keep a better watch on his goodie basket.
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I've of course written about Rube Goldberg before, and all of his comic strip inventions are incredibly fun to look at and read. Fortunately, he also did a few dealing with Christmas. This one should be quite useful for this time of year, if you still haven't decided on what to get your significant other yet. Also, I'm sure the target for the blindfolded archer can be switched out depending on who you are deciding for. I would hope not everyone on your list would want perfume, hankies, jewelry, and furs. After all, I'm sure the blindfolded archer is going to expect a present, too, and I don't imagine he's into those things.
The other beautiful thing about this device is that if your savings (A) are not heavy enough to lift the hat (C), then the decision has already been made.