Then & Now (Toni Division)Writes NAOMI: &quot;Subject: Speaking of the Toni home permanent (BB, 9/18/2013 and 9/20/2013):Here is a photo of my Toni doll,
Then & Now (Toni Division)

Writes NAOMI: "Subject: Speaking of the Toni home permanent (BB, 9/18/2013 and 9/20/2013):

Here is a photo of my Toni doll, Helen. She has on her original dress, but her shoes got lost somewhere along the line.

Each of us four sisters had a Toni doll, and we spent lots of fun hours combing their hair and giving them sugar-water permanents on their little blue rollers.

Here is lots of [Bulletin Board notes: apostrophe-challenged, and in many other ways not conforming to Pioneer Press Style but quoted here verbatim!] info from the Internet about Toni dolls:

" 'One of the most popular dolls of the 1950's, Toni was made by the Ideal Doll Company from 1948 to 1956. The first dolls were introduced by actress June Haver (who later married actor Fred M[a]cMurray of TV's My Three Sons fame and many movies) just in time for the Christmas season. ... The doll is made of hard plastic which his either styrene, acetate, or butyrate. The sizes are 14" to 24" with half sizes also. Toni had a five piece straight leg body. In 1954-1956 there were Toni's made with a walker body. When new the cost for the 14" doll was $10.00 up to $18,00 for the 24". Mr. Mitchtom of Ideal joined with The Gillette Company make of the Toni Home permanent to promote the doll that could be given a home permanent. Toni had a spacial nylon wig for that purpose. ... A small sized Toni Home Permanent kit came with the doll when new as did a hand tag on the wrist. ...'

"Ideal also made a doll that was a forerunner of the Toni that is sometimes called a Toni. She is not a Toni. ... Her wig is made of mohair and she could not be given the Toni Home Permanent and is therefore not a Toni. Collectors call this doll the Pre-Toni. Only the dolls with the nylon wigs that could be given the permanent are considered Toni's."

Writes The Old Woodchopper of Eagan: "A couple of weeks ago, The Bride of 44 Years and I were on the North Shore for an extended weekend.

"On Monday evening, we decided to have a bite at a local bistro. It was a very quiet evening, with only another couple and us in the restaurant.

"Being 'Minnesota Nice,' we asked the other couple where they were from and what they were doing on the North Shore.

"They replied that they had been to a Department of Natural Resources auction of surplus property and equipment and had bought 20 acres of land that included a house/cabin, multiple outbuildings and an old fire tower. The gentleman noted that the cabin would be great, and the outbuildings would be useful for all his toys, which included boats, ATVs, snowmobiles and other items.

"He expressed his concern that with this area's being close to multiple trails, his friends would all be there to enjoy his hospitality and beverages as they arrived and departed his 'base camp.'

"He said: 'But I think I may have an answer to that situation. I'm going to put my bar and all my beer up on top of the fire tower, which is 107 feet above the hill it sits on. The beer will be cold and the view will be spectacular most of the year. But my friends will have to work for it, too.'

"Makes sense to me."

BULLETIN BOARD SAYS: Just be careful on the way down! That first step is a long one....

Keeping your eyes open

No Sued Name of St. Paul: "Subject: Making sure.

"My home location seems to be the site of a lot of school-bus departures and arrivals. It's 5 p.m., and I've seen a lot of buses come and go today.

"As I watched the latest bus, it stopped in front of my house, at a stop sign. But I didn't notice anyone disembarking. Then, suddenly, the driver got up, walked rapidly to the back of the bus, then turned and came back to his/her seat. No one was 'discovered,' to the best I could see. The driver secured his/her seat belt, then opened the door one last time, then proceeded down the street, confident that no one might have been overlooked on the bus.

"I appreciate the extra check that determined that."

Then & Now

Tim Torkildson: "From all I'm reading in the papers about it, technology remains a dodgy item in schools. It never quite lives up to its promise or potential, while funneling greenbacks out of the pockets of honest taxpayers -- or dishonest ones, when they're audited.

"Today it's the Internet and iPods and tablets and apps, and Skype, and so on. In my day -- shrouded in the mists of time -- it was the audio/visual equipment.

"This clunky equipment, contemporary of the mimeograph and brass fire extinguisher in the hallway, never quite functioned as it was supposed to. Who now remembers the transparency projector, that humming table of light that projected through a plastic sheet, throwing images on the schoolroom wall? My teachers struggled in vain to make those images come out crystal-clear, whether they were teaching us geometry or tracing the coast of Brazil. What came up on the wall was usually a particularly muddy Rorschach blot; we students would drift off into a gentle doze while the teacher fiddled with the screw to move the projector head up and down, cursing softly under her breath.

"Cassette tape recorders were another biggie, used most often with recorded cassettes in which someone sounding as pompous as Gale Gordon would narrate a book of some sort. Our cue to turn the page was a bell chime; the narrator explained at the very beginning that when we heard the bell, we should turn the page. Impetuously, we couldn't wait for the droning narrator to finish the page and ring the bell, so we'd turn the page ahead of time, or sometimes inadvertently turn two pages at once; the upshot was that halfway through the book, we were all, to a man, hopelessly lost and unable to work our way back to the proper page number. Our teachers were remorseless, and simply kept the cassette playing no matter how many hands were frantically wig-wagging. And then there'd be a test about whatever the hell the damn bell-ringing book was about.

"By far the most treacherous piece of A/V equipment was the film projector. This mechanism had spools and reels and belts that spun around, doing nothing. Even if the teacher was fortunate enough to have a self-feeding film projector, the film inevitably tangled itself into a fishnet of celluloid. And if, by some miraculous accident, the film was fed in correctly and began flickering on the screen, you could be sure the film would break after the first five minutes. Then it was lights on, get the scissors and cellophane tape, and perform surgery. I remember watching a print of Donald Duck in Mathematics Land so overlaid with Scotch tape that I thought Donald was underwater for the whole thing.

"Of course, every school had its A/V specialist. Teachers could call on this exalted personage if they were bamboozled or bumfuzzled by the modern technology. Trouble was, the A/V specialist oft-times was nobody but a sixth-grader given the job title to keep him from dropping out of school. Occasionally a specialist would grow into the job and actually be helpful. But more often they simply let the title go to their pinheads, growing chuff and officious. My teachers often sent me to negotiate with them for the use of a projector or some other piece of incomprehensible folderol. The response was Kafkaesque, to say the least:

"The projector was already scheduled out to another room; the cassette players had all been swept away by a rogue sandstorm; a solar flare from the sun had melted all the equipment, fusing it into a solid ball of copper wire and carbon. The planets weren't aligned just right. You brought me a duplicate form; I need it in triplicate! These musty A/V rooms are where the spirit of fascism went after being defeated in World War Two.

"After jumping through their hoops, I would have to push the stinking A/V cart through the hallways, where it would develop shopping-cart paralysis, the wheels freezing up on the polished tile floor with a squeal that would lift the hair off your arms. I worked up less of a sweat in P.E. class.

"Technology, old or new, impedes the march of education. Until, that is, they develop a smart chip that installs directly into our brain pan. Once our kids can download whatever they want, they'll naturally choose only the best of science, geography, history, and literature.

"Isn't that what happened when we got unlimited satellite TV?"

The vision thing

Or: Our times

Reports Newport Reader: "Last summer, I took my grandson to DQ for a treat. We sat in a booth, and I noticed four young employees coming to the booth next to us for their late lunch break. They all bowed their heads, and I thought: How wonderful that they were all praying before their meal!

"Actually, they were looking at their phones!

"There was not any conversation over lunch that I observed!"

Vanity, thy name is...

Donald: "The minivan headed east on Highway 36 had a plate that proclaimed: 'SUMRJOY.' "

See world

Another close encounter of the natural kind, reported by Gardenia: "Twice during the past few weeks, I have had a close encounter with the most amazing bird(?)/insect(?). Both times, it was almost dark and I was outside dead-heading my petunia baskets. This little creature flew up and hovered around the hanging baskets, just inches from where I stood. At first glance, I thought it was a big moth -- but when I took a closer look, I realized it must be a small hummingbird. It went from flower to flower, in each of the four hanging baskets, not seeming to mind that I was standing right there in awe of it. After feeding on the flowers, it flew past me, so close that I could hear the whirring of its tiny wings as it flew away.

"I've lived in Minnesota all of my 50-something years and have never seen anything quite like this before. I don't suppose it will be hanging around much longer, as the nights are really cooling off, but I'm already looking forward to more encounters with this awesome creature next spring!"

Band Name of the Day: Ducks Underwater

Website of the Day: Great computer and cellphone tips, at