Howdy!

After a long week of vacation last week - agonizing, as you can imagine, spending so much time with my lovely wife and daughter in Phoenix and Las Vegas - I got into Atlantic City last Wednesday night. Travel was 13 hours from Vegas, with a few nighmarish waits in TSA lines at all airports.

It's time for good antiques and the Atlantique City Antiques Show.

We have spent two exhausting days getting the show ready, but as I write this morning, the show floor at the Atlantic City Convention Center looks beautfiul, there is a crowd of 2000 people waiting outside the door and we are hoping for a good show. We know it looks good, and quality is ubiquitous. Now we are waiting for the buyers.

The weather here is a bit chilly and overcast, which means good weather for antique buying, and the attitude seems to be optimistic, which is half the battle when there are such problems with the economy. I don't, however, have to tell any Trader readers that.

What I can tell you is that I'm excited for the opening of this show, proud of the hard work we've done and ready to see this thing come off a success.

If any of you out there are coming today or tomorrow, or go this weekend and read this later, give me a holler and let me know what you think.

I'll post more later today, hopeufully with some pics, but no promises...

Returning from New York City only a week after being designated a National Women's History Month 2008 Honoree, Edna Hibel will greet her many followers and other members of the public at the Edna Hibel Fine Art Fair.  The free two-day art fair will take place on Saturday and Sunday, April 5 and 6, at the Hibel Museum of Art, across the street from Roger Dean Stadium, in Jupiter, Florida.
 
In addition to greeting Edna Hibel and viewing her renowned art, the public will be able to see educational exhibitions featuring the complex art of stone lithography, and the complicated work of putting together an art book.
 
Edna Hibel, 91, has been painting for over 80 years. She is the only American woman to win the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts.  Her paintings, lithographs, serigraphs, and sculptures have been exhibited in more than 20 countries spanning four continents in prestigious institutions, including six national museums.
 
Admission to the Edna Hibel Fine Art Fair is free, as is valet parking.  Directions and other information may be obtained by contacting the Hibel Museum of Art at (561) 622-5560.

In September, the Reno business license division sent letters notifying antique mall owners that vendors must have privileged business licenses. Under state law, they are subject to greater scrutiny because they deal in secondhand goods that could be stolen, according to city lawyers.

Wow. Just wow.

Suitcase of money falling from the sky... 

Find a painting in a shop, pay about $700 bucks for it, find out it's worth about $500,000... NOt a bad days work for an umemployed 23 year old in England.

Not a bad life's work, actually. No pic, so I don't know what it looks like. Thing is, too, the guy is going to keep it probably... How un-American...

I think this guy, at a site called Blorgable, sums it up as well as my not-so-well-hidden cynicism ever could.

You will never hear about corn flakes on this blog again, and that's a promise from me to you...