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Traveling dresser sets kept gentlemen well groomed

Lifestyle Feature

Father’s Day is a time to treat Dad to the finer things in life. What could be finer than accessories for a Victorian gentleman? Maybe the box that holds them. This Victorian gentleman’s traveling dresser set, which sold for $243 at an auction by Rachel Davis Fine Arts, includes nine bottles and jars to hold the various lotions, colognes, pomades, hair oils, and other personal products that a well-to-do man of the late 19th century couldn’t possibly do without. If you have seen photographs of Victorian gentlemen with their slick hairstyles, sculpted mustaches, and well-maintained ...

When a chair is more than a chair regardless of size

Lifestyle Columns

A chair is a chair is a chair, isn’t it? Four legs to stay on the floor, a high back to keep the sitter upright, and maybe a stretcher base for support. And everything is made of wood, of course, with variety coming from upholstery, decorative carvings, or the shape of the legs. That may have been true up to the 20th century. Furniture changed dramatically when designers took advantage of new materials that opened up previously unheard-of possibilities: plastics. Man-made plastics were used for household implements by the 1920s, but it wasn’t until after World War II that the ...

Augie Babel’s music journey gets moving, grooving

Lifestyle Feature

MINNEAPOLIS — Augie Babel isn’t by any means new to expressing himself through music, but he is, however, getting more comfortable and motivated to get out and share his talents. Now residing in Minneapolis, the 2019 New Ulm High School graduate has been playing guitar since 2015 and ...

Off the Shelf

Lifestyle Columns

New Ulm Public Library’s summer reading program, “Color Our World” begins on Monday, June 9 and goes through August 3. The summer reading program is open to ages from birth to those entering their high school senior year. This year’s reading logs will be available for pick up in the library starting Friday, June 6. Children up to the age of eleven can pick up a reading log in the children’s room. Read at least 20 minutes a day for six days of the week to fulfill the reading goal. Each week they can stop by the children’s desk to check in with their logs and get a stamp and ...

51 years ago, a Fairfax High School wall came crashing down

Lifestyle Feature

Retired Fairfax High School business teacher Jim Becker recalled the day and night stormy weather blew through Fairfax in late June 1974. “It got really dark out around noon. There were very strong winds, bending trees way over. It rained hard,” said Becker. A day later, a high school ...

Contemporary man-in-the moon jug appeals to buyers

Lifestyle Columns

Sometimes, contemporary artists break with traditions, and sometimes they follow them. But some of the most interesting works of art come about when they put their own spin on well-established forms and techniques. The man-in-the-moon jug pictured here is the work of contemporary South Carolina potter Michel Bayne. It fits in with the longstanding Southern tradition of face vessels. While artists around the world have decorated jugs, vases and other ceramic containers with human, animal or mythological faces since prehistory, the face vessels made in the southern United States, ...