MOMA moment from Mom

I am procrastinating. I have a new refrigerator that will be delivered tomorrow (my life is SO exciting!), and I should be defrosting the old one, throwing out items that have been lurking in there for far too long, cleaning the kitchen, moving the furniture to make it easier for the delivery, etc etc etc....sounds exhausting, non? Fortunately, my mailbox had a couple of interesting items today to distract me from such boring endeavors.

First up:

The Vegetabull, Jan Lewitt, 1943

"Read the fine print! xxx Mom"
                                                    is all she wrote.

I'm not really sure if that's a literal instruction or a figure of speech. There is one line of type so tiny it couldn't possibly say anything relevant - but I do know this image was part of a very groovy exhibit on kitchens that my mom and I went to in September 2009 at the Museum of Modern Art. It might be a surprise to see vegetarian propaganda from the mid-20th century, but the message - "a vegetable dish made with dried eggs or household milk is as good as a joint" - is not espousing an ethical, non-meat diet; it's a positive spin on wartime rationing.

I also got a card (not a postcard) from my friend who was in town last month, and in light of my last post I had to share one line:

"So many times I've wanted to return your fabulous postcards that you've sent with an extra cool one from me, but, no dice. Sorry!"

See? For some reason, correspondence creates pressure, even though it should just be fun. And no, I didn't pay her to say my postcards are fabulous. All I can say to any potential correspondent is: in this day and age of mostly electronic communication, anything other than bills or junk mail in the post box is a huge thrill! it's not so much what you write - it's that you write at all!