Dr. Goat Is One Of The GOOD Ones

If I could choose my favorite part of blogging, besides sharing all the cool things I find online, it would be the truly magnificent people that I have met through this project. It is an avenue that allows me to find like-minded individual who have subsequently become the dearest of friends - the same folks that I would be the first to rescue when the zombie/octopus/alien apocolypse begins.

I have a small pile of unopened boxes that have been sent to me. Some are my toy and Amazon orders and others come from my friends. I like to wait until I am feeling down and need a pick-me-up before opening them. It's like the joy of Christmas morning only on my timetable.

Today was such a morning because I woke up with a very sore throat and probably the beginning of bronchitis. That's what I get for cheering too long and loud in a cold curling rink. I needed medical treatment and when that is the case, I call on the venerable Dr. Goat.

Dr. Goat (Peter) thinks of me all the time and is always contributing pictures and ideas that he comes across. More often than not I use what he sends me to compose a post. Our conversations have the power to send me off into a totally new area of research on something that we both think is cool.

He recently honored both me and my father by adding my Dad's name and image to his local Day of the Dead parade. Both I and my Mother were deeply touched by the gesture.

If we lived closer to each other I would find excuses to hang out with him daily, even if it's just to sit around and talk about all the interests we have in common or to complain about the oppressive Arizona heat.

He recently told me he was sending me a small package and mentioned something about a pack of the original trading cards from the movie DUNE being in the box. Here I was thinking he found a single unopened package as they came in the store 25 years ago. I have a few of those in my collection that I treasure so much that I have never opened them. They still have their bubble gum smell.

So today his package arrived and I was thrilled to discover it was not only a few DUNE cards but two containers containing dozens and dozens of cards from the movie. I am in DUNE fanboy heaven. There are few films and books that had such a powerful effect on me than DUNE and it's subsequent series. Not only can you put the cards together to re-tell the story of the film but they have translations of the words used in the movie and books - words made up to give the place a more exotic feel. If I didn't already know the difference been a Kwisatz Haderach and Bene Gesserit, I do now.

That would have been enough of a gift for any good day but my dear Dr Goat packed two other treasures for entry into my special marble jewelry box - you know the one - the box that contains only the coolest things I have found or been given in my life.

Now I have a special badge to wear to give me some authority when I cross the Canada/US border. Montana now has a new Marshal - one that isn't afraid to confront any rogue Buffalo or right wing numnut that threatens the fine people of that state.

 

But the coolest and most unexpected thing to come out of the package was this coin from 1937 Germany. On one side is the handsome visage of Otto Von Bismark but on the reverse are the symbols of the Nazi Party, the Eagle and the Swastika. A real Nazi coin!

 

If I was still teaching about the history of the 20th Century to my students this would be a highlight of my presentation on pre-war Germany. You can learn alot just from the coins of any historical era. I know this would have had a powerful impact, just as my pieces of the Berlin Wall (that I picked up myself as I was there when the wall fell) often do. This is REAL history that I can hold in my hand.

As a historian, this is gift beyond measure.