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Antiques & Collecting: Fancy signs showed shops’ business

Large signs with flashing lights, clever electric signs with moving graphics and ads that identify a store by brand or content are important. But there were no electric signs before Edison invented the light bulb, so what did they use? The cigar store sign — a life-size, carved wooden Indian often holding tobacco leaves — is recognized even today. An oculist often hung a giant eyeglass frame near the front door. But what could serve as a trademark for a drug store or medical shop? Some 19th-century stores used a large glass jar in a special shape known as an apothecary jar. The jar ...

Off the Shelf: Ways to say farewell to a reading hiatus

In the ideal world, reading slumps don’t exist. You’ll have the perfect book, feel like relaxing with a new title, and don’t get bored with the books that are on your Libby app or the tables and bookshelves throughout your house. If you’re in the middle of a reading hiatus, here are several ways to get out of it: • Give yourself a break — Once in awhile you’ll go through a season where you might have to ride out your reading hiatus by watching a show or trying a new activity. That’s totally fine. • Reread a favorite — Reach into your book arsenal for a favorite ...

Family Living Focus: Move it or lose it

Mickey Mantle once said, “If I’d known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.” The latest research shows that no matter how old or fit you are, it is never too late to start enhancing the quality of your life through a healthful lifestyle. Exercise alone will not do it. You also need to balance your fitness routine with a beneficial diet. Following are some nutrition and diet tips to help older exercisers and athletes create a winning food plan that is appropriate for every sport, including the sport of living life to its fullest! Do older ...

Off the Shelf: Recent reads

We’ve added some great new titles at New Ulm Public Library in the past few months. Here are a few I’ve enjoyed. Casey Wilson played Penny on one of my favorite shows, a short-lived sitcom called “Happy Endings.” The show had a similar premise to “Friends,” but the jokes were fast and furious, sometimes absurd, and strikingly self-aware. I wish it had lasted more than three seasons. Wilson has gone on to star in “Black Monday” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” among other shows. I love the zany, smart humor that Wilson brings to her roles and that same sensibility is on ...

Family Living Focus: Supplementing your Diet – Vitamins, Minerals and Beyond

Instead of moving, perhaps modifications to your home wotraffic areas such as airports, train stations and The world of dietary supplements is getting more and more complicated. People are not just taking vitamins and minerals anymore. Now, things like glucosamine, saw palmetto, black cohosh and ginkgo biloba are crowding onto shelves beside old standbys like vitamin C, calcium and iron. How do you sort through it all? Dietary supplements include a broad range of vitamins, minerals, herbs and other substances meant to improve upon your diet. They can come as pills, capsules, powders ...

Figures that are devotional and artistic

Fra Andreas Garcia was an 18th-century Mexican Franciscan friar and folk artist who worked in what is now New Mexico. He carved and painted wooden figures of saints, called bulto, that were about 12 to 18 inches high. The figures were used as devotional images as well as artistic objects. A polychromed wood bulto made by Fra Garcia between 1748 and 1778 representing San (Saint) Rafael the Archangel sold at a Cottone auction. An archangel is a messenger of God, higher ranking than an angel. San Rafael is a patron saint of travelers, often depicted holding a staff; the blind; and ...