Sybil Bruncheon's "Thanksgiving Through History!"...

(Overheard at the very first Macy's Parade! 79 AD): "I don't care what you say Scrotus! My man-tiara does NOT make me look like a parakeet!"...

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*Tour-ette from Madison Ave. in NYC... and a drop-in by a surprise guest!!! 11/22/2021

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Thanksgivings Past"... It's In The Mail!

This particular card is part of the Harburton Holiday Greeting Card Collections... This Thanksgiving card was painted by Siglitz Bünter using his own children Kåaren and Biff as models. This is the third in the series showing scenes from a typical Thanksgiving in 1905 America; In card #1 the children welcome their parents and relatives to the barnyard to select a turkey. 2) The unchaperoned children play tricks on the turkey and try to engage it in mischief before it's killed for Mother. 3) The turkey realizes what is about to happen and turns on the children who are out of earshot of the adults. ...and 4) The enraged turkey pecks out the eyes of Kåaren and pushes her down a well. It then tears Biff to pieces and eats some of them while other barnyard animals gather to clap and laugh...

Needless to say, although they were wildly popular at the time, a complete set of the Siglitz Bünter cards is extremely rare to find today. Sotheby's auctioned a complete set in 1998 for $36,000 even though cards 3 and 4 were strangely stained... and stuck together.

(with thanks to Bob Gutowski for the image)

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Separated At Birth?... or THE SAME PERSON?!?!?"...

The strange case of Velma Cruther and Leroy Jessup... born in the South but of exact "parts-unknown"... and not even exact birth-dates or certificates. Were they neighbors, classmates, siblings, lovers, or perhaps even the same person??

What IS known for sure is that they seemed to have lived their entire and fairly short lives within a 23 mile radius of their childhoods and final... ahem... "demises". They both, coincidentally, had careers in custodial and housekeeping service, and never progressed past the 7th grade. They never attended any professional academy or training facility, nor did they serve their country in the military or in civil service. Neither of them was apparently married or had children, or even had relatives to be concerned when they were deceased.

As to another theory of who they were; in the South, the tradition in vaudeville and showboat minstrelsy included "gender comedy" with performers donning costumes and characterizations of the opposite sex. Perhaps these "two persons", both known for extreme eccentricity and borderline anti-social and even criminal activity, may have fallen on hard times and been driven to unfortunate fates in the backwaters of the South. According to authorities and what few public and official records we have, they both came to fairly terrible ends which were verified by witnesses and local (though rural!) coroners. Yes, bodies were buried in marked graves. Interestingly, both bodies were seriously disfigured, beyond absolute recognition as was recorded, although their identities were surmised and seemingly irrefutable. But.... were the bodies actually Cruther and Jessup?... or corpses substituted in some bizarre conspiracy? And what did the pair of bright red girl's tap shoes and a small bottle of so-called "smelling salts" have to do with anything?? Are Cruther and Jessup perhaps one-and-the-same?... and is he (or she!) still wandering the country, looking for work... and possible mayhem!

So! We leave it up to you dear readers! Velma Cruther and Leroy Jessup; Separated at birth?... or THE SAME PERSON?!?!?... you decide!

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Sybil Bruncheon’s “Just My Opinion!”…

Has anyone seen the notices that someone is giving away free IPADS?? No one ever gives me anything for free! And I never win things either! Someone may as well be posting that they're giving me the State of Hawaii and "time's running out!!!"... all I need to do is give them my credit card number, and some prince in Nigeria will see that I get Hawaii in the mail…

(Sybil photo by Jack D. Pedota. Styled by Susan Suka Taylor)

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From Sybil Bruncheon's Merry Memoirs: MGM PROUDLY PRESENTS...

The new celebrity paper doll book for 1939!!!! Complete with fabulous and stylish outfits for "Day" and "Evening" wear...accessories included!...

So there we all were in the first weeks on the set of THE WOMEN directed by George Cukor, and Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer start shoving each other, and I end up taking a tumble into the mudbath in the spa. I break my ankle, and I'm out of the picture. All my scenes end up on the cutting room floor, and my official celebrity paper doll book ends up on the remainder table at a couple of Woolworth's 5 & 10s. Oh, and Crawford and Shearer float off into the stardom stratosphere!!...

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Hysterical Histories On This Date - November 17th!"...

... in 1479 - Florence, Italy... Domenica Fibrilligi, the Contessa of Sfogliatelle...

Never a particularly attractive young girl, poor Domenica wanted to be desired like so many of her classmates in the Little Sisters of St. Brutina Academy for Privileged Ladies. Domenica was not even considered prettier than her brothers who were known for their broken noses and cauliflower ears from too many years of roustabouting with the Capulets and Montagues from neighboring towns... (or with farm animals who resisted amorous invitations on Saturday nights!) Interestingly, when Domenica was asked by the family physician if she would want to go to a great surgeon of international renown to have something... ANYTHING changed about her appearance...

...the first words out of her mouth were, "MY BREASTS ARE TOO SMALL!"...

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From “Sybil Bruncheon Plays With Her Food!”… Chapter 14...

… apropos of Thanksgiving, my cook, Hilda, and I learned from Escoffier that if there's ever an… um, “accident”... in the kitchen, one should quickly "incorporate" it into the meal and serve the results confidently... to the... uh, survivors. And remember!... a good sauce covers a multitude of sins!!

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Hysterical Histories On This Date - November 12th!"...

1723 - Mr. Ambrose Godfrey patents a gunpowder-fueled fire extinguisher system in England. A week later, he burns down the entire town of Flamby-on-Peekytoe when he tries to put out a scented candle in his outhouse with his new invention. He is arrested as England's first pyromaniac.

1847 - Sir James Young Simpson, a British physician, is the first to use chloroform as an anaesthetic. Interestingly, he uses it on himself during a do-it-yourself appendectomy/tummy tuck... in his sleep!!

1859 - Jules Leotard performs 1st Flying Trapeze circus act (Paris) He also designed the garment that bears his name. Sadly, he falls to his death only one year later when he's distracted by a run in his stocking during his triple-backward somersault pirouette with a half-pike doodle quirney...

1873 - Bay District Race Track in San Francisco opens. Two weeks later a gay bath house/poodle grooming salon opens next door.

1890 Mabel Loomis Todd publishes the first edition of "Poems by Emily Dickinson"... unfortunately, she misprints the cover of the book; "Poems by Emily Dickmesome"... Fortunately, Miss Dickinson had died four years earlier, although local spiritualists claim the her ghost is seen wandering around Amherst, making barnyard sounds and emitting unpleasant smells during ice cream sociables.

1899 - British troops reach Durban, Natal... (... yeah, they didn't know where that was either...)

1936 - First ever TV Gardening show "In Your Garden" shown on BBC television. Interestingly, 98% of Brits don't have a television yet... or even know that the word means...

1946 - A branch of the Exchange National Bank in Chicago, Illinois opens the first ten drive-up teller windows. Sadly, most people don't understand the concept and end up ordering hamburgers and fries instead.

1966 - Dick The Bruiser beats Mad Dog Vachon in Omaha, to become National Wrestling Alliance champ! Mad Dog had been temporarily distracted by a run in his leotard during a triple-backward somersault pirouette with a half-pike doodle quirney... onto the referee...

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*Tour-ette from the sparkling new Daniel Moynihan Station in Manhattan!... All Aboard! 11/11/2021

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