Venice, California

I think the spectators must be waiting for someone to climb to the platform and dive off? Venice, California is still a spectacle, though of a different kind.

The message on this card to Mrs. Noah Webster, sent in 1906, reads:

Ocean Park, Cal July 2

Dear Friend-

Are you still in the world of the living? And are you still willing to have a visit from me. I may come your way pretty soon now. Can I hear from you again?

Don't get all excited; the recipient of the card is not the wife of the Noah Webster of Webster's Dictionary, unless she was somehow able to outlive him by more than 60 years. However, it is conceivable that this Noah Webster was a descendant of the earlier one.

If you are confused by the differences between British and American spelling, you can blame the earlier Noah Webster.  He thought it would be a good idea to simplify spelling and, among other things, take the "u" out of colour and humour.  Although these spelling changes stayed with us, his suggested spelling for tongue (tung) did not.