Veterans' Day: thank you to all who ever served in the military!

I started with US Navy because a friend/collector asked me for a maximum card with an American aircraft carrier, for his NATO section of his international philatelic exhibit: Fight Against Terrorism.

Eventually, I have affixed the stamp on the picture side, and I have applied on the glossy frontside my postmark that you can see, much more visible, on the backside.

In time, I will create similar Zazzle stamps with US Army, US Air Force, etc.

They all deserve our sincere Thank you!, and much more than that.

How many of us, civilians, would risk our lives and livelihood to go to war?

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Full disclosure: all the titles of my posts are clickable (hyperlinks).

In general, you will go either to my photobucket album to see more, or to my store(s) - delcampe or zazzle.

In case you are really interested, you can buy what you want. If you only want to look around, you're welcome, as well. :)

WONDERS OF AMERICA: AUTOGRAPHED SET OF 40 MAXIMUM CARDS WITH FIRST DAY OF ISSUE PICTORIAL POSTMARK

This is an example of active stamp collecting, as opposed to passive.

I did NOT just buy these maximum cards; I created them, in partnership with USPS.

You don't have to buy the set (I already sold a similar one, not identical - the one autographed by Lonnie Busch), but please take a careful look.

- Condition: AUTOGRAPHED SET 40 MAXIMUM CARDS WITH FIRST DAY OF ISSUE PICTORIAL POSTMARK
- Year: 2006
- Number(s): COMPLETE SET OF 40 DIFFERENT
- Catalog value: (UNIQUE IN THE WORLD?)
- Painstakingly and graciously autographed on the back of postcards by the talented Art Director /Illustrator Richard Sheaff. Thank you, Richard! During the Washington, D.C. 2006 International Philatelic Exhibition, the autographing was very limited, only a few hours in total, and only 10 (ten) items per person, officially. By waiting around for a few hours, I was able to obtain, eventually, that full set of 40 autographed maximum cards. Other collectors who stood in line have obtained autographed panes of the 40 stamps and FDCs, mostly. I haven´t seen anybody else been able and fortunate enough to obtain what I obtained. Therefore, it is very possible that this set is the only one in the world with the pictorial FDOI postmarks and with the autographs of Richard Sheaff.
I have also obtained one other set of 40, autographed only by the other talented illustrator, Lonnie Busch. Thank you, Lonnie! That set I have already sold. To my knowledge, there is no other such autographed set, by either one, in the world.
I noticed that Richard Sheaff, as Art Director, felt compelled to answer more questions from the public than Lonnie Busch. That means Lonnie managed to sign considerably more items than Richard.
Photo-certificate of authenticity, showing me next to the two illustrators while they autograph, is available upon request.

Maximum card/ carte maximum/ maximumkarte: Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)

Stoop - there it is...

The fastest animal on the planet in its hunting dive, the stoop, which involves soaring to a great height and then diving steeply at speeds commonly said to be over 320 km/h (199 mph), and hitting one wing of its prey so as not to harm itself on impact.

In 2005, Ken Franklin recorded a falcon stooping at a top speed of 389 km/h (242 mph).

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrine_falcon)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3mTPEuFcWk&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Virtual maximum card / carte maximum / maximumkarte : Stripeless, Snow White Tiger

Akbar Kabul, a Snow White tiger at The Mirage, in a time when the Siegfried & Roy show was dwarfing all the other Vegas shows. Beasts, but not of burden.

Not for every spectator/tourist: some were more into watching a Bad, Bad Queen of the Las Vegas...strip (I mean Strip, boulevard) or into biting from the forbidden fruit (apple).

Aye, ho!...aye, ho...not you, Bambi!

Thus, some of those tourists volunteered for their own Cirque de la Nuit.

Les Misérables...or, if you want to excuse somebody's French: Ley Mizerabb!...desperate for a FEMfatal to happen in Vegas, and stay in Vegas. A hard twist on French, as if Brett FaRVe is driving a DISLEXUS...

If not, there's always gambling (gaming is the official term) and boozing. Both around the clock.

Anagram: SLOT MACHINES = CASH LOST IN ME or CASH LOST IN 'EM.

Keyword: Mirage. A Wynn-Win situation. Steve Wynn - his mind has a far better vision than his eyes.

Maximum cards: white sturgeon, the largest freshwater fish in America

Not from the bowels of Hell, but from... Hells Canyon, Idaho (I-da-ho?), says this postcard:
From the 40-stamp series "Wonders of America". Look at the fish, not at the guy.

:)

He is not fishing for compliments.

The postmark in the second maximum card is almost invisible - that post office didn't have superior ink. That's why a label under the postmark would have made it visible.

Now that you're done looking at the fish, go ahead and look at Macho Camacho / Muscleman / Chess champion Bobby The Fisher (yeah, right).

"Like a sturgeon.../Caught...for the/ Very FIRST time..."

Pick your preferred name:

"The white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus, meaning "sturgeon beyond the mountains"), also known as the Pacific sturgeon, Oregon sturgeon, Columbia sturgeon, Sacramento sturgeon, and California white sturgeon, is a sturgeon (a fish of the family Acipenseridae) which lives along the west coast of North America from the Aleutian Islands to Central California.

It is the largest freshwater fish in North America and is the third largest species of sturgeon, after the Beluga [not beluga the dolphin - Dorin's note] and the Kaluga. The white sturgeon is known to reach a maximum size of 816 kg (1,798 lb) and 6.1 m (20.1 ft)." (http://www.wikipedia.org)

Beluga, Kaluga...wait till you see Azuga!

Nah...just kidding. That's a small city in Romania :D, renowned for skiing slopes and beer brewing. Two activities that can knock you down.

http://www.primariaazuga.ro/module.php?module=newsannounce&catid=105&item=722

Halloween costume idea? WTH is this, a scary pig - the swine flu source, host of H1N1 virus? No. It's just a babirusa!

USA declares swine flu 'emergency'.
Just don't blame the babirusa, an innocent wild animal. :)

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll201/dorincard/World%20collections/Indonesia/INDONESIA3a.jpg
The two tusks that went thru the roof of the snout are crossed, in the case of the male in this photo. Read the text in the link above. :)

This is a freestyle maximum card (non-FIP), that I made from a cut-out from a book, with a matching Indonesian stamp that has been appropriately courtesy-handcanceled in Indonesia (I have other items from the same shipment where the handcancel / postmark is more visible - that's why sometimes I use transparent or white labels under the postmarks).

If I want to fully postcardize this item, I could apply white adhesive shipping label on the back - I could have even asked to be sent directly thru the mail, as a big postcard, with additional stamps on the address side, all wear, tear and loss risks assumed.

But I didn't do it here, because the back has a rare photo/article about aye-aye. I could eventually make an aye-aye MC -> double-sided maximum card, giving me 2 scanning opportunities.

Forgeries: how to spot fake stamps from St. Vincent about Michael Jackson, apart from the real ones

I suppose that the above maximum card, from my collection, is genuine. :)

From myphilately.com, a very nice and useful forum for stamp collectors, and not only - here's how to spot the fake stamps:

http://www.myphilately.com/blg_view.php?blog_id=1356

Navajo Jewelry - (virtual) maximum card. Raquel Welch, too.

The subject of this (virtual) maximum card is...Raquel Welch? Nah!...pas du tout. It's the art of Navajo jewelry - category: necklace.
Right? Yeah. Right. :)

Normally, I would put, maybe, additional postmarked stamp(s) on the back side, to make up the domestic postcard rate, currently 28 cents. So 26c more in stamp(s). But this is virtual, so...

FIP regulation: "- In general, abstract or symbolic subjects do not suit Maximaphily and are excluded from its field."
http://www.maximaphily.info/Articles/Regulations/MXLY%20regulations%20approved%20in%20Malaga%20conference.%20English%20version.pdf

Too bad, FIP! That's exactly what you should accept and aim for! Otherwise, anybody can simply stick to, for example, a bull postcard, a bull stamp (better be same breed) and a bull pictorial postmark. Or "a postmark from a post office nearby" a bull. Yes, it could be a nice MC (maximum card), but if it's all bull, then maybe it's too much bull. Viva variety!

But abstract or symbolic subjects could offer great opportunities for intellectual stimulation...

In this case, WE WILL NEVER FIND a regular, commercial postcard that matches EXACTLY the necklace from the stamp, I think.
So, instead, I found a SIMILAR necklace, hanging out with Raquel. (Not me; the necklace). :(

Is Raquel's necklace a Navajo artifact? How the hell should I know? It looks Navajo enough to me...:)

Now she's 69 :) (it's all in YOUR mind) years young, but in the Romanian postcard she was VERY YOUNG, when she didn't even know how to pluck her eyebrows, apparently. Eh, what do I know?
See tips from the Romanian-born Anastasia Soare, the Hollywood Brow Expert:
http://anastasia.net/blog/
In the above bloglink, please read Building, not Buliding or Bulding :) .

"Anastasia Soare was featured on For Business News on Wednesday, September 23, 2009. The segment entitled, Bulding a Business Brow by Brow focused on Anastasia’s Brow Empire, and how she became known as the Brow Guru. Check out the video here, or click on this link: Fox Business News: Buliding a Business Brow by Brow."

Best wishes to, in no particular order, Raquel Welch, Anastasia Soare and the Navajo jewelers!

:)

Tigers - Zazzle personalized stamps: comparison of 6 different designs

Comparison of 6 different Zazzle stamps with tigers of 4 color varieties (striped white, stripeless white, golden tabby and regular). I have designed and already bought 6 different sheets of 20 identical (designwise) stamps. But each individual stamp is uniquely encoded in the IBI (information-based indicia)- the black and white little squares.
I (temporarily) applied these six stamps onto a transparency sheet. Besides this group scan, I will use them, after cutting the stamps onto individual transparency rectangles, for maximum cards projects, demos, comps, experiments.

Maximaphily item: collector-created USA maximum card - bullfrog

The eyes may be the window of the soul, but when you are about to "kiss a frog", you better get a good look at the whole body. Don't take a leap(frog) of faith. Otherwise, you may end up with a complete bull_ _ _ _. No inner Prince, maybe.