My friend and regular correspondent Susan always manages to find some really swell postcards for me from days gone by. Admittedly, the view here does tend to improve what would otherwise be a shabby room. But, gentlemen, please: let’s keep our lechery a little more wholesome, shall we? And always be sure that the fairer sex is aware of your respectful, admiring glances; they’ll appreciate it more than you know.

There are plenty of other views to admire at this week’s Theme Thursday.

This postcard from the US Postal Services depicts their Billie Holiday stamp, issued in 1994 as part of a series of stamps called “Legends of American Music, Volume Two”. The first-class domestic letter rate from 1991-1994 was 29 cents; it would go up to 32 cents on January 1, 1995, giving this stamp a particularly short shelf-life.

Don’t forget that rates are going up across the board on January 22. Domestic postcard rates have been 29 cents since last April; they’ll be going up to 32 cents. Domestic letters increase from 44 cents to 45 cents, but if you have “Forever” stamps, they’ll work forever, no matter what you originally paid for them.

From this wonderful 1950′s-era postcard: “A feature of the Mural Lounge aboard TWA’s Jetstream aircraft is a distinctive painting by Maric Zamparelli, representing a major city or nation along TWA’s world-wide routes. Each plane in the Jetstream fleet has a different mural subject. This card shows Zamparelli’s interpretation of Paris.”

This is an image of the Starlight Lounge from one of these aircraft, from the collection of Jon Proctor, and used in the book From Props to Jets: Commercial Aviation’s Transition to the Jet Age 1952-1962by Proctor, Mike Machat, and Craig Kodera. These aircraft were prop-driven Lockheed L-1649a (Starliner) Constellations, or “Connies”, and carried around 60 passengers in comfort and style. According to Proctor et al., “With pull-out footrests and deep seatback recline, the chairs were nearly as comfortable as the sleeper berths that were also available, and provided a competitive edge, both on transatlantic and transcontinental segments.” Nowadays, of course, airlines treat you like a sardine, and charge you for the privilege of bringing a suitcase along.

Barbara was kind enough to send greetings from the German coast of the North Sea. At those latitudes, I have to wonder how cold the water is — and how much I would care. Winter’s coming, folks; here’s hoping this helps you to stay warm.

This gentleman seems to be playing way out of his league. Of course, beer and pretzels are definite crowd pleasers, and the young lady might simply be seeing him through pretzel goggles. I love the card; it’s probably a design from the 1930s, but the card itself is a chrome, probably made in the late ’40s or early ’50s.

Sandra in the Netherlands sent me this convincing argument to try some Stimorol Kisscool mints. Sadly, they don’t seem to be available here, so I guess I’ll have to stick to biting. Sandra would also like to encourage us to kiss slowly (when we’re not biting, anyway) and love truly. Sounds like good advice to me.

A letter from Emilie arrived inside this handmade envelope, featuring a member of the Red Hat Society, a cadre of women who resolve, in their old age, to wear purple and create general disarray. I wonder how many of them wear purple when not in group outings? I suspect that their strength is in numbers. Still, it never hurts to live a little, once in a while. Included in the letter was a transcription of the poem that inspired the group. All in all, a good mail day.

Now that spam filters work so well, Dani wanted to be sure that I knew what I was missing out on — and so she sent me this particular selection from Secret Weapon: 30 Hand-Painted Spam Postcards. All of the cards are paintings of spam subject lines. Guess I’ll have to turn off my spam filter to see if this particular message represents truth in advertising.

Surely, you must wonder, why would the sender of this card place the stamp and the address (on a sticker which I removed from the lower right corner) on the front, instead of on the back? Well, it turns out that the back was full:

This is my first “chain” postcard! Unlike a chain letter, a postcard is sent to someone, who sends that very postcard to someone else, who sends it to someone else, until it ultimately makes its way back to the original sender. Each sender covers up their own address with stamps and stickers, and forwards it along.

In exchange for this forwarding, I forwarded along cards from other members of the chain so that each card makes the same trip around the world.  This card had quite the journey, starting from beautiful downtown Gainesville, Georgia, USA on 11 May 2011:

Many, many thanks to the other members of the chain who sent my card along. My second chain postcard is sitting in a mailbox in Hawaii, waiting for Lauren to get back from vacation and return to her serious responsibilities of forwarding my mail.

Yesterday’s mail brought a letter and this wonderful card from my dear friend Ana; it shows the work of Tomo Vladimirski (1904-1971) who, according to Wikipedia, is considered to be one of the founders of Macedonian painting. It’s easy to see why; the colors and textures replace light and shadow in a remarkable way. Despite Vladimirski’s status as painter emeritus, however, it’s not easy to find out much more about him. Even Macedonian cultural websites do not mention more than his existence, and the occasional showings of his work. Truly a pity; I would love to see more of it. If it’s not to be posted online, perhaps I can see his work personally some day.