Wow! Stuff in the mail!

Six days a week I wait for the mail to arrive, expecting something wonderful to materialize in my mailbox, like a puppy or a 1909 S-VDB Lincoln penny. Most days I'm disappointed, even humiliated by the contents of the box. Once in a great while, though, I have one of those big mail days that remind me of those days in my childhood when the newest issue of Jack and Jill arrived with my own name printed on the cover label and there was a dinosaur spread on the back page.

Today I received not one, not two, but three (three!) parcels in the mail, all of which require blog posts. The first was completely unexpected: Mike Coykendall's brilliant CD "The Unbearable Being of Likeness" (Field Hymns, Portland, OR). Mike came out of the fertile Wichita music scene of the '80s, and he produced maybe my favorite record of all time, "MARGARET!" by the Blivets. You need to hear it, and you can do that by going to www.fieldhymns.com.

NEXT: 19th Century Mystery Funeral Procession photos! And after that, Crime Scene and Morgue Photos of a notable 20th century criminal...