Postcardist

Madalena Wojcicka of Travel Trinkets Canada left me a message that started with a bit of amazement. She got a postcard at her home in Calgary, Alberta, Canada that had been sent from Spain four years and 11 days earlier. It's a real mystery.

The other part of the mystery is how we covered that topic, talked about the World's Largest Fishing Lure, Muffler Men statues, postcard design, and walking around the earth -- all while my cat Benjamin was yowling in the background.

Here are some links to items discussed in the show:

Travel Trinkets Canada

Tonkinese Cats

Muffler Men

The World's Largest Fishing Lure

The World's Largest Coffee Pot

The World's Largest Skunk

Atlas Obscura

Kate Wiggins of sugarandkiki.com has a great idea: Adventure in Place Snail Mail Bingo. We talk about her concept -- and the opportunity to help with the Make a Wish Foundation.

Well, The Postcardist made it to an important podcasting milestone -- Episode 100. Here it is.

This bonus episode is a follow up to yesterday's show, and uses the title of a poem by the Irish poet Derek Mahon. I worked my way out of my postcard writing rut. Here's a little more behind the scenes for those of you who asked.

I'm in a postcard writing rut. This show is about that.

The journey of a thousand postcards begins with a single entry on Postcrossing. Or something like that. I'm joined by two prolific Postcrossers for this show -- Sue Boggs and Jennifer Gilman. They're both with the San Diego Postcrossing FB Group -- and send thousands of postcards. You can find Sue on Postcrossing as @suegathman; and Jen is on Postcrossing as @jenniferkg.

Topics covered in this show:

San Diego Postcrossers

Christopher Arndt Postcards

Half Price Books

Quantity Postcards

Coast Philatelics

Maxicards

Singapore Post

Postcrossing Meetup Cards

Our story starts with a headstrong young girl and her collection of found objects. That's the story of Ariel in The Little Mermaid -- and it's also the story of how Betsy Kirichenko started with her fascination with mermaids and how that led to her collection of mermaid postcards.

Mermaids and Mailboxes on Instagram

When you connect with people through postcards, you never know where that will lead. I didn't know it would lead to me learning new slang terms from New Zealand at three o'clock in the morning. But that's what happened with my guest, Samantha Cook, who is also known by her IG handle Princess in a Teapot. We also talked about postcards and Postcrossing and the price of sending mail. And fudge.

I chatted with Ed Pocheff from his home in Speedway, Indiana -- home of the Indianapolis 500. Ed designs postcards and really knows how to tell a story. You can find him as @edpopcheff on Instagram.

Did you know trick-or-treating wasn't popularized until the late 1950s? Or that Halloween was a day of romance in the early 1900s? Or that cabbages featured prominently on Halloween postcards in the early 20th Century? That's what this episode is about -- a brief history of Halloween postcards.