So, What'd Ya Get at the Al Capone Auction?-- Part 1: Madonna Bust, Cigar Humidor and a Letter

From the October 17, 2021, Chicago Tribune "Al Capone auction:  Top 10 highest winning bids" by Kori Rumore.

An auction of Chicago Outfit boss Al Capone's possessions brought in more than $3 million earlier this month.  

Here's a look at the eight lots that brought the highest winning bids:

8.  Al and Mae (his wife) Capone's marble Madonna bust.  Estimate $5,000-$10,000   Sold for $55,000.

7.  Al and Mae Capone's decorative cigar humidor    Estimate:  $5,000 -$10,000   Sold for $120,00

6.  Personal letter from Capone to his son, Sonny, from Alcatraz   Estimate:  $25,000-$50,000   Sold for $45,000.

--CootCapone

How Did We Get 8 1/2 by 11 Inches Paper?

From the June 2017 Smithsonian Magazine.

Question:  "How did we get 8 1/2 by 11 inches as the standard size for letter paper?"  James Cloonan, Rochesterm New York.

Answer by Helena E. Wright, curator of the division of culture at the National Museum of American History:

Early paper sizes were limited to what a vatman -- the worker who dipped a paper mold into a vat of pulp -- could handle.  Sizes varied within certain ranges.

In the late 1600s, papermakers invented molds that produced sheets that could be quartered into leaves of about 8 1/2 and 11, and businesses gradually adopted variations on that size.  By the 1920s -- despite efforts of a government-appointed Committee for the Simplification of Paper Sizes --  most private firms were doing business on 8 1/2 by 11, and federal employees on 8 by 10 1/2.

That disparity persisted until 1980, when the government adopted 8 1/2 by 11 as its standard as well.

Paper Me.  --Cootpaper

LBJ Letter to MLK's Widow Up For Auction

From the Feb. 20, 2015, Chicago Tribune "LBJ letter to King's widow up for auction" by Ian Shapira, the Washington Post.

It was written April 5, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee.  And it was sent by President Lyndon B. Johnson to Coretta Scott King to express his condolences and determination to find the murderer.

"We will overcome this calamity," he wrote.  She kept it until 2003 when she gave it to her husband's confidant, singer Harry Belafonte.

But he considered auctioning it in 2008, shortly before Coretta King died and King's three children objected and it wasn't.

But now, it is slated to be auctioned again.  Belafonte gifted the letter to his half-sister and brother-in-law who figured it was a good time to sell it because of all the 50 anniversary of the Civil Rights movement going on these days.  The minimum bid is $60,000.

They seem to be a bit too money-oriented and should have gifted it or sold it for a low price to the Civil Rights museum in  Memphis.

A followup in March in Reuters said it sold for $60,000 to an online bidder, but auctioneers had been expecting twice as much as I am sure Belafonte's relatives were as well.  Too bad, a piece of American history gone.