Latest Additions to Zippo Collection

Added on by C. Maoxian.

As my dozen loyal readers know, I am a fan of Zippo lighters, specifically Zippo “Armor” lighters which have a thicker case (1.5x) and a more substantial feel with the added weight. I don’t like Zippos that have an emblem glued on them or any printed designs; I only like the ones with a deep carved case which the thicker Armor case is especially good for, though it is possible to find non-Armor deeply engraved cases such as the middle two below.

These are recent additions to my collection:

This Zippo Armor is date-stamped J 04 (October 2004) and has a dragonfly engraving with the head of the dragonfly represented by a green Swarovski crystal inlay. I’ve never seen this Zippo Armor before, so it may be a very early prototype that had a limited production run, but that’s just a guess.

This is Model 20445 “Turquoise Bear Claw,” date-stamped L 02 (November 2002) … this is not a Zippo Armor, but the case itself is engraved and has a turquoise stone inlay, which I like … this is a .925+ Heavy Silver Plate (electroplated with 99.9% pure silver), which means that whoever had it before me scratched the hell out of it through fierce polishing, but that’s OK, it’s still a beauty. Also the descriptive term “bear claw” is one that we use in my short selling circle.

Date-stamped C 02 (March 2002) .. this is also not an Armor but it is deeply engraved and has a brass finish … I have another called “Sunburst,” which was offered in the 2003 Choice catalog in Europe (?) and is very similar to this though it has a circular design. I’ll post a picture of it separately.

This is an Armor, date-stamped C 04 (March 2004), which I’ve never seen before… again like the dragonfly above I suspect this was some kind of prototype design … it gives me a real Keith Haring vibe that I love … this one is a real treasure.

Movies Watched -- Tangerines (2015)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

In Russian. 87 minute running time … sort of a contrived story where a Chechen mercenary and Georgian soldier are injured and then nursed back to health in an old Estonian guy’s house in Abkhazia … it’s not terrible, it’s just sort of unrealistic and preachy. Farr wasn’t annoyed by this “pointed allegory,“ but I say give it a miss.

I’m sorry, Ivo

Movies Watched -- Stand Clear of the Closing Doors (2013)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

94 minute running time … strange movie, depressing … about a 13-year-old autistic boy who doesn’t go home after school (in Rockaway Beach, Queens) and instead rides the New York City subways continuously for several days in a row, experiencing all the insanity and weirdness and violence and conflict and rare kindness that surrounds him (including a great break-dancing routine by a trio of kids — the highlightof the movie for me) … his Spanish-speaking mother (an illegal Mexican) is worried sick and is desperate and sort of stuck with no money or contacts or friends, her husband is working upstate (possibly milking cows) … the whole thing is kind of hard to sit through and believe me I fast forwarded through a hell of a lot of it … but I could sort of understand what the filmmaker was getting at (about alienation and loneliness and confusion and terror and the horrors and wonders of life in the Big CIty, etc.). It wasn’t terrible, just a major downer.

From Stephen Holden: “Throughout the movie, you are forcefully reminded that time spent on the subway may be the ultimate New York grounding experience. You feel the city’s collective pulse as the entire spectrum of humanity pours around you … It stays with its characters to a wonderfully witty and understated ending.“ I didn’t find anything witty about the ending and have no idea what Holden is talking about … but it’s a capital A.R.T. art movie for sure.

From Richard Brody: “Fleischner empathetically but unsparingly depicts the fears, indignities, and degradations that Ricky endures in his largely subterranean wanderings, and movingly captures his fixations on ancillary details and incantatory phrases”

Ricky is a smart boy

Juvenescence

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Yasmin Williams, yowza … encountered “Guitar Hero” at age nine:

Sumner Welles and the BBC

Added on by C. Maoxian.

From Joseph Persico’s interview on Booknotes:

“… what you're referring to is the fact that Sumner Welles, who was the undersecretary of State in the Roosevelt administration and who was an important figure, he was Roosevelt's man. The secretary of state was Cordell Hull, and Roosevelt pretty much circumvented him and--and worked through Sumner Welles, who was an old family friend. Welles had made some sexual advances on trains, part of his--his business trips, to black porters on these trains, who reported him. This was concealed for a long time. It was two or three years before it finally erupted. Roosevelt is under tremendous pressure from people who fear that having a man with homosexual tendencies in such a sensitive position at State--we have to remember we're not talking about the current world; we're talking about the attitudes of the--of the 1940s. He's looked upon as a--as a--a security threat, and Roosevelt very unhappily eventually dismisses Sumner Welles.“