iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by R. Mark Melville

History:Nevada @historynevada.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The Feb 12, 1904 Courier out of Genoa, NV, via the Reno Journal, reminds us of an unusual marriage that occurred in Tuscarora, NV on Sep 28, 1877. Sam Pollard married Marancy Hughes. But, Sam was actually Sarah. The first same-sex marriage in Nevada. t.co/zN9brPqYcj

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Does anyone like the Monster cereals as cereal? Or is it just the seasonal/nostalgia/novelty factor? (Nostalgia and novelty are valid.)

Grocery store shelves of Boo Berry, Franken Berry, and Count Chocula, with Jim Henson puppet versions of the characters on the boxes.

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Reposted by R. Mark Melville

Cats of Yore @catsofyore.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The Raid. Photo from my collection, no date/info.

Black and white photo of a tabby cat standing on its hind legs to investigate an open fridge, but looking over at the camera. Handwritten text on the edge reads “The raid”.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I found Cinderella's favorite candy.

Wrapper for Peelerz Gummy apple "cinder" donuts.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I know the next book I *need* to buy!

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I have always had an affinity for anthropomorphic produce. (Note the irony of "full of health" while holding a cigarette.) From an advertisement for Shell fertilizer in Life Magazine, April 20, 1942, books.google.com/books?id=FlE....

Four fruits with faces and little human bodies. The apple is a bodybuilder saying "I'm bigger," the pear is a woman saying "I'm sweeter," the lemon is wearing a white uniform and saying "I'm juicier," and the orange is wearing a white swimsuit and "life guard" cap and saying "I'm full of health" while holding a cigarette.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

This is something you could buy in 1967. SKIING magazine, Spring 1967.

A woman wearing sunglasses and a metal "bonnet" around her face that looks like a flower. The caption says, "Tan in all seasons. At 9 a.m. or 4 p.m., summer or winter, Sun Bonnet reflector helps you tan in a few hours each week. Aluminum foil 'petals' stay in place while intensifying sun's rays. Use on partly cloudy days or late in the afternoon."

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I collect music for every holiday, some of which is not available on streaming services. Here is an ongoing thread of mini reviews of all the Halloween albums in my collection. 🎼🎷💀🧛‍♂️🎃

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I *love* Hawaiian haystacks. I don't eat it much anymore as I've become more flexitarian, but I love it.

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Reposted by R. Mark Melville

Tomb Heintjes @hogansalley.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Happy Labor Day from Hogan’s Alley!

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Most of my books are unorganized. But I do have a shelf devoted to books I've helped edit, and I have a shelf devoted to my (mostly scholarly) holiday-themed books (pictured).

The books Encyclopedia of American Holidays and National Days, Consumer Rites, America's Public Holidays, All Around the Year, The Wearing of the Green, Pole Raising and Speech Making, Parading Patriotism, Celebrating the Fourth, The Memory of '76, The Bald Eagle, The Shoemaker and the Tea Party, Centennial Caravan, Halloween How-To, Trick or Treat, and Pumpkin.

The books This Land Is Their Land, Thanksgiving 101, Thanksgiving, The Turkey, Mayflower, The Origins of Christmas, The Dead of Winter, The Battle for Christmas, Christmas with the Prophets, and Christmas at the Movies.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Today I realized that "center" and "middle" essentially mean the same thing, but "center" has positive connotations, while "middle" is not so positive.

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Reposted by R. Mark Melville

100 years ago news @100yearsagonews.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Aug. 26, 1926: Doretta Carstensen (Miss Utah) and Beryl Mills (Miss Australia) make a visit by Studebaker to the state Capitol in Salt Lake City.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Our Summer 2026 issue of Utah Historical Quarterly is out now! I'm really excited about this one: We have Japanese, Transgender, Deaf, Black, Indigenous, and Dutch histories this time. scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/uhq/issu...

scholarlypublishingcollective.org

Volume 94 Issue 3 | Utah Historical Quarterly | Scholarly Publishing Collective

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Perhaps the best part of historical research is coming across delightful little things that are entirely unrelated to what you're looking for. "Bacon and Eggs Made Him Run Red Light," Press-Telegram, April 8, 1965, A-9.

LOS ANGELES (AP)—A motorist made a high-speed exit from the Hollywood Freeway and ran through a red light.

But the driver had a quick alibi for the California Highway Patrol officer who halted him:

"If I make any sudden stops my wife spills her breakfast. It makes her mad."

The officer looked into the car. There sat the driver's wife, a plate of bacon and eggs in her lap.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Several nights a week, I go on neighborhood walks to pull up goathead plants from a few patches I've adopted. I have spent hours and hours doing this, so I can't help but feel resentful that some folks can't be bothered to remove them from their own yards. 😠🐐

A mass of puncturevine, or goathead, plants. They are vines with sharp, green fruits.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I would read more historical markers if they weren't written in ALL CAPS, making them harder to read.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Suddenly people are talking about Thanksgiving, so I'm here to tell you that "Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday" by James W. Baker is the only book you need to read on the subject.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Last night I dreamed that my brother was a federal employee and managed to get ahold of Trump's personal phone number, so I called Trump on his birthday with a sarcastic script "wishing" him a happy b-day. At the end of the call, I went off script and said, "Happy birthday. I hope it's your last."

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Sitting in sacrament meeting, wondering if the speaker realizes she was quoting "Helium" instead of Helaman.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Stumbled across this Nancy strip from December 5, 1942, while checking a source today. WWII history doesn't interest me when it's about the battles, but I love these little slices of life.

Nancy comic strip. First panel: Nancy says to Sluggo, "How do you like my column, chief?" He says, "Very good—we sold a lot of papers today!" Second panel: "Nancy's Gossip Column: What man in this neighborhood is hoarding an extra tire?" Final panel: "That night!" Tires are being thrown over the wall into the Scrap Rubber Depot.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

My otherwise intelligent brother kept talking about camel spiders eating people's limbs.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

adaptive cruise control, corn maze, emo, non-avian dinosaur, queer theory

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Reposted by R. Mark Melville

Cats of Yore @catsofyore.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

We need to return to traditional masculinity, to the time when real men took their kitties for walkies so they could smell smells.

Black and white photo of a young white man in a white t-shirt and dark pants, sitting on a porch step and smoking a pipe. He’s looking down at two longhaired tabby cats wearing harnesses and attached to leashes that he holds in his hand.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

On Labor Day 2024, I went to a library book sale and found *two* cultural and environmental histories about birds, The Bald Eagle and The Turkey. I finally finished them both. They were both really well researched and interesting. The Bald Eagle gives me hope that we can fix environmental problems.

The books "The Bald Eagle: The Improbable Journey of America's Bird" by Jack E. Davis and "The Turkey: An American Story" by Andrew F. Smith. The first book has a bald eagle on a branch. The second has Uncle Sam holding a live turkey while sitting on a pumpkin with a document that says "Thanksgiving Proclamation" next to it.

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Reposted by R. Mark Melville

NANCY COMICS BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER @nancycomics.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Nancy By Ernie Bushmiller July 27,1945

P1- NANCY IS LOOKING OUT OF HER WINDOW AS OTHER KIDS CARRYING PRESENTS WALK PAST HER HOUSE
NANCY: HMM ---
EVERYBODY'S GOING TO JOSIE'S PARTY BUT ME!

P2- NANCY CONTINUES TO WATCH AS OTHER KIDS ARE GOING TO JOSIE’S PARTY

P3- NANCY WEARING A PARTY HAT IS USING HER MEGAPHONE TO SHOUT OUT OF HER WINDOW

NANCY: THIS IS JUST TO LET EVERYONE KNOW THAT I'M THROWING A BIG PARTY AND NOBODY INVITED

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Guess who the "Utah history expert" is 😉

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I love spotting garden-path sentences in the wild! I had a wildly incompetent coworker at the Sundance Film Festival who thought "that" was wrong, so she deleted it from a sentence, making it a garden-path sentence. Drives me nuts when people think that you need to take "that" out of a sentence.

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Reposted by R. Mark Melville

Cats of Yore @catsofyore.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

"There seems to be a popular impression that cats are thoroughly selfish and incapable of any natural feeling. I do not believe that. My experience has shown me that cats are very affectionate, especially to persons whom they like." C.E. Bullard, 1915.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Happy 129th birthday to the Utah Historical Society! Part of UHS's contribution to America250 is the Peoples of Utah Revisited, a collection of information about the communities that call Utah home. The website is live today! peoplesonline.history.utah.gov/s/peoples-on...

peoplesonline.history.utah.gov

Home · Peoples Online · Peoples Online

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

This week is Pioneer Day in Utah, which means it's also Pie and Beer Day. Pie and Beer Day has always rubbed me the wrong way, for a few reasons:

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

My siblings (biologist and nurse) wouldn't be especially good at my job (editor), but they'd probably be better at my job than I would be at theirs.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Just got a calendar invite to the staff holiday party in December, and I'm really hoping we get a snowy Christmastime this year. Seven months later, I'm still traumatized by our dry, warm Christmas. 🤞❄️☃️

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

While visiting Yellowstone two decades ago, I saw a tourist stop in front of a bison, clap repeatedly, and even step off the boardwalk to stomp on the ground. I wish the bison had tossed that dummy instead of this man who was innocently taking a picture.

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Reposted by R. Mark Melville

Annette Gordon-Reed @agordonreed.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Don’t know who to credit for this. But it is how I feel.

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Reposted by R. Mark Melville

KetrinaDrawsALot @ketrinadrawsalot.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Creatures of the Marinara Trench 🦀🐟🐙🪼🍅 #octopus #crab #siphonophore #jellyfish #tuna #tomato #artsky

The sea life of the Marinara Trench:
A striped tomato tuna
A golden tomato siphonophore
A yellow tomato crab
A red tomato jellyfish
A red tomato octopus

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Got my Pioneer Day decorations up.

A bear holding an American flag while the old Utah flag is behind him; small toys of nineteenth-century pioneers, one of them pulling a handcart; salt and pepper shakers of a horse and covered wagon, with the present Utah flag behind them.

A large decorative jar of a beehive (skep) with bees and sunflowers on it. Patriotic wire decorations sit behind it.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

"Would you believe that the same face could become so beautiful? Just take off those ugly 'specs.'" Indianapolis News, April 6, 1953, p. 14.

A newspaper ad for "New Type plastic, unbreakable, fluidless Invisible Lenses." It features two women next to each other, one wearing glasses, the other without.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

When I was in third grade, we wrote poems about Thanksgiving, and when the teacher typed mine up, she changed "steaming pumpkin pie" to "steaming yams." I didn't even know what yams were! She said she changed it because you don't eat pumpkin pie when it's still steaming. (I never said you do.)

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Reposted by R. Mark Melville

Movies Silently @moviessilently.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Thematic posting from BETSY ROSS (1917), with the heroine meeting George Washington and delivering possibly the corniest title card in all of silent cinema.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

OK, now that it's patriotic-music season, can we agree that "the oceans white with foam" is an awkward/dumb lyric?

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Reposted by R. Mark Melville

NANCY COMICS BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER @nancycomics.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Nancy By Ernie Bushmiller June 30,1958

P1- NANCY SEES SLUGGO SITTING ON A ROCK IN A VACANT LOT

NANCY: I HEAR YOU LOST YOUR KITE
YESTERDAY
SLUGGO: YEP --- I DON'T KNOW WHERE IT WENT

P2- SLUGGO IS POINTING UP TO THE SKY
SLUGGO: THE STRING BROKE AND IT JUST TOOK OFF

P3- THE DAY BEFORE…
THE SOVIET UNION SATELLITE
“SPUTNIK” CROSSED PATHS WITH SLUGGO’S KITE, BROKE THE STRING THE KITE STRING BECAME TANGLED ON THE SATELLITE ANTENNA AND IT WAS TAKEN AWAY .

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Just in case it's useful: Contrary to some sources, John Adams did *not* say in 1776 that the 4th of July would be celebrated with fireworks. He said "shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations.” Fireworks are not on the list. "Illuminations" meant placing a candle in the window.

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

I'll be working a morning shift for the grand opening of the Museum of Utah (June 27)! Come check it out! (If you're not a fan of crowds, you can wait for a different day.)

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Fun fact: Utah banned personal fireworks from 1939 to 1983. But the laws went unenforced, and the fireworks industry lobbied to make them legal again. I wrote a blog post about this last year: history.utah.gov/blog/sparks-...

history.utah.gov

Sparks of Celebration: A look at Utah’s firework traditions | Civic Season 2025 | Utah Historical Society

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I'm glad Stuart Adams and Trevor Lee are conceding, rather than following the example of their illustrious leader by claiming fraud/cheating.

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Reposted by R. Mark Melville

Alessandro Rigolon @alerigolon.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Salt Lake City has many oddly shaped buildings due to now-defunct railway lines. A 🧵: 400 S and Pierpont Ave

Aerial view of an irregularly shaped block

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R. Mark Melville @rmarkmel.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

The great thing about the internet is that if I randomly remember a super awkward picture from a high school textbook more than two decades ago, sometimes I can find it.

An illustration of a boy (Paul) sitting on a bench offering orange slices to another boy (Vincent), whose back is to Paul, and Vincent is awkwardly positioned on the bench. The captions say "Paul ést généreux" and "Vincent est égoïste."

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