This pose doesn't look uncomfortable at all

One of a series of modern postcard reproductions of vintage pinups, from the late PinUpCards.com. A nice image for a summer’s day.

Bored beyond description

One of a series of modern postcard reproductions of vintage pinups, from the late PinUpCards.com. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone look as bored as this. Maybe she just needs a change of scenery.

Museum pieces

From Ksenia in Kiev comes this postcard of an artwork, title unknown, of two turn-of-the-(20th)-century golf and tennis enthusiasts. I don’t know for sure where the artwork is, but the card appears to have been published by the Kharkov Art Museum, in the city of Kharkov, Ukraine.

Hats, jugs, and stickers

Bonus: two Ukrainian stamps featuring women in traditional hats (or headwear, if you will, since Ksenia put the word hats in quotes). I love synergy.

Looks pretty new to me

Ana sends greetings from Skopje, and passes along these lovelies despite her assertion that these are “maybe not exactly the Girls Go Postal kind of ladies.” Nonsense! Any women who appear beautiful, feminine and confident — oh, and travel through the mail — are exactly what this page needs.

Don't let the bedbugs bite

This handmade card from Holly was intended to make my mail carrier blush. My wife reports, however, that he seemed unusually chipper on this particular day. I wonder why?

The gold star is not quite as bright in person, and the glitter which surrounds the image and covers the lampshade is actually a little brighter. All in all, Holly seems to have been inspired.

Elsie the Contented Florist

One of a series of modern postcard reproductions of vintage pinups, from the apparently defunct PinUpCards.com. Other than the number on the back, there is no description. Probably she’s considering getting taped and wired.  Uh, that is, getting the flowers taped and wired.

Not your typical code monkey

For Ada Lovelace Day, let me introduce you to Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852), now regarded as the first computer programmer.  Of course, computers didn’t exist back then, which is entirely the fault of Charles Babbage, who had a talent for taking money from the British government, creating detailed descriptions and drawings of mechanical wonders, and then not building them.  For his work with Ada, he invented the difference engine, basically a big, mechanical, hand-cranked scientific calculator. (Incredibly, when the machine was built in 1991, following his original plans, it worked perfectly.)

Ada, however, envisioned far greater things for the difference engine, describing ways to program the machine to calculate Bernoulli numbers (which have practical applications in physics and in other areas, such as cryptography). She even thought that the machine could be used to compose music, something we take for granted with the computers of today.

In 1977, the US Department of Defense commissioned the creation of a programming language for the purposes of standardization, trying to eliminate the hundreds of different programming languages which were then in use throughout the armed forces. That language was called Ada, and I used it in my Air Force days.

Today is a day to celebrate the contributions of all women to science and technology, so be sure to check out the other heroines being honored today.

Frilly fillies

Petra sends srdečnė přáni from the Czech Republic which, as near as I can tell, works out to be the English equivalent of “warm wishes.” From the description, also in Czech, it appears to be a copy of a postcard in some sort of postal museum.

Petra is young but her handwriting in English is old-fashioned, reminiscent of what one might see on hundred-year-old American cards, and goes with the postcard beautifully.

Warm wishes to you on this Postcard Friendship Friday, and my warmest wishes to my friend Marie Isabelle, PFF’s founding maîtresse.

I think they've already budded

Mrs. Happy (really, that’s her name) sent me this handmade postcard as part of a Swap-Bot swap designed to “shock your mail carrier.” Spend five minutes on this blog and you will note that this card isn’t shocking at all compared to some of the other items previously delivered by my mail carrier. Nevertheless, I am absolutely delighted with it.

So much for the all-over tan

TessyT in Queensland sends along this beach-going bronzed individual. The strange thing about it is that the model didn’t start out in a bikini; it was added to the photo later. Is is really that difficult in Australia to convince women to be photographed in a bikini instead of in the nude? If so, how much is plane fare to Australia? Or did the publisher of this card, Sidney Hughes of Brisbane, blow his royalty budget on the nude shot, then decided he needed a PG version?