Word: collector
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Benjamin recalls one collector of rare autographs who verified, wholly by accident, that his priceless document containing the signatures of all 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence was genuine. A hurricane had caused the paper to be submerged in water for five days. When he retrieved it, the owner found to his relief that all the signatures remained clear and bright. They had been written with iron-gall ink on rag paper...
...defeated dictator wrote his will, married his mistress Eva Braun and put a bullet through his brain the a 7.65-mm Walther pistol, phony Hitleriana -including the will, the marriage certificate and the pistol-have flooded the worldwide market for Nazi memorabilia. In 1981, for example, an avid collector asked the noted West German historian Werner Maser to authenticate what he claimed was the suicide pistol of Maser last week: "I told him there existed a whole suitcase full of Hitler of guns, all forged with Hitler's initials and the correct number of Hitler's pistol permit...
Acknowledging the criticism from some local artists who complain of too many repeats in this year's display, Graham Gund, a well-known collector and the architect responsible for the ICA's dramatic interior, explains. "It's impossible to please all of the Boston artists, and it's important to remember that the ICA helps Boston artists in other ways, by bringing the works of other artists here to educate local artists." Gund, whose collection includes works from all over the world, believes that "Boston artists are less 'out' than those in San Francisco and Chicago," nevertheless he says that...
European taxation evolved historically according to different customs. In France, for example, no aristocrats paid any taxes until the Revolution of 1789; it was considered vulgar. Even today there is no tradition of computing one's own tax. That is the responsibility of the neighborhood tax collector, and what he doesn't know won't hurt anyone. Instead of relying on income taxes, French authorities in the '50s introduced the value-added tax, which collects anywhere from 5% to 33% on most commercial transactions. Like any sales tax, it implicitly discriminates against the poor...
...refiles information stored within a computer. Says Software Publishing President Fred Gibbons: "We've modeled it something like a card file." Basically, PFS and other listmaking programs are souped-up electronic Rolodexes with built-in cross-reference capabilities. Having stored his trivia on an AppleIIe, Baseball Card Collector Louis Musher, 13, of New York City can call up such arcana as the names of all Montreal Expo catchers who batted .250 or better in 1980. In Sun City, Ariz., Vinton Ostrander, 76, is using his Franklin Ace computer to record the genealogy of some 3,000 relatives and will...