Boat #154, China

Boat(s) #155, Pitcairn Islands - A Thanksgiving Afterglow

Where the U.S. Postal Service seems uninterested in Pilgrim related matters, other countries pick up the slack. Here we have a nice combination set featuring the Pilgrims and the future residents of Pitcairn landing in their respective New Worlds.

Boat #156, Ahoy, Pilgrims! Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Above is the only Mayflower stamp that I own. As far as I know there are only 4 or 5 Mayflower stamps in the history of U.S. postage (and only 1 in the last 35 years!). Odd. It seems like a more stamp worthy event. Anyway, enjoy your day. 365 Boats will be taking the weekend off. I'll see you again on Monday.

Boat #157, St. Pierre and Miquelon

Boat #158, Spain

Boat(s) #159, Isle of Man - Highlights from the Ann Arbor Stamp Show, Day Ten

Today we conclude my highlights from the 2010 Ann Arbor Stamp Show. I hope you enjoyed my selections. We'll end with the Isle of Man, probably the greatest boat and ship stamp producing nation, territory, dependency, or colony in the world.

Boat(s) #160, Palau - Highlights from the Ann Arbor Stamp Show, Day Nine

Here's a unique stamp set. It follows the appearance of Halley's comet in Palau across two centuries:

Boat #161, Tuvalu - Highlights from the Ann Arbor Stamp Show, Day Eight

A tugboat! I love tugboats. When I first moved to New York I worked part-time as a designer for the Brooklyn Children's Museum. The museum is landlocked in the neighborhood of Crown Heights (not as luxurious as it sounds). However, the museum was undergoing a major renovation which meant several people, including me, had to set up shop in temporary offices in the neighborhood of DUMBO. For any non New Yorkers out there, DUMBO stands for "down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass". It's an old industrial warehouse district (now turned yuppie gallery district) right on the East River between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. The tugboat watching in DUMBO is fantastic. Weather permitting I would eat my lunch everyday outdoors in Brooklyn Bridge Park and count tugboats. Good times.

Boat #162, Tuvalu - Highlights from the Ann Arbor Stamp Show, Day Seven

I really, really love this stamp set from Tuvalu. I think we'll spend at least one more day with it tomorrow.

Boat(s) #163, Ukraine - Highlights from the Ann Arbor Stamp Show, Day Six

Ukrainian boat stamps aren't too common so this was really an exciting find for me. Let's take a better look...

Boat #164, Gone Fishin' in the USSR - Highlights from the Ann Arbor Stamp Show, Day Five

Boat #165, Isle of Man - Highlights from the Ann Arbor Stamp Show, Day Four

Boat(s) #166, Carnage on the High Seas! (Marshall Islands) - Highlights from the Ann Arbor Stamp Show, Day Three

Boat #167, Isle of Man - Highlights from the Ann Arbor Stamp Show, Day Two

Boat #168, Marshall Islands - Highlights from the Ann Arbor Stamp Show, Day One

Last Sunday I stopped by the annual Ann Arbor Stamp Show. For the next few days we'll be highlighting some of my favorite purchases. We'll start big with this dramatic, oversized (almost four inches wide) stamp from the Marshall Islands.

This is Not a Boat #14, A Bonus Celebration Day for Amos McGee

Well, this week we've been celebrating Amos's pick as a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2010. We've celebrated in elephants, in tortoises, in penguins, in rhinoceroses, and in owls. That was supposed to be it. But the public has demanded more. So today we celebrate in busses. We begin with the whole gang waiting for the #5 bus to Amos's house. This picutre is especially poignant to me as I've spent a lot of time lately waiting for the bus (Erin and I have been carless since August).

Next, to Finland:

And Hungary:
Romania:
China:
And finally, here comes the #5. Next stop, Amos's house!

This is Not a Boat #13, A Celebration Day for Amos McGee

Today is day five, the final day, of our celebration of A Sick Day for Amos McGee being named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2010. We've celebrated in elephants, in tortoises, in penguins, and in rhinoceroses. Today we celebrate in owls. First, two stamps:

I found this image of a baby saw-whet owl and I just couldn't resist posting it as well:

And then of course we have Erin's owl:

And I'll leave you with an image of the whole gang waiting for the bus:

Thus concludes our celebration of Amos. Thank you New York Times!

This is Not a Boat #12, A Celebration Day for Amos McGee

Today is day four of our celebration of A Sick Day for Amos McGee. So far we've celebrated in elephants, in tortoises, and in penguins. Today we celebrate in rhinoceroses. First, to the Belgian Congo, a country defunct since 1960. I like the Belgians. They have a wonderful tradition of children's illustration both past and present. I hear they really made a mess of the Congo though. In the future they should probably stick to kid's lit.

Next we visit French Equatorial Africa. This country went out of business in 1958. It was a bad few years for European imperialism.
This next stamp, from South Africa, is just great. It bears a strong resemblance to Erin's illustration beneath which is purely (and strangely) coincidental. I guess there are only so many ways to draw a rhinoceros.

Come back tomorrow for our closing ceremony. There will be owls!

This is Not a Boat #11, A Celebration Day for Amos McGee

Today is day three of our celebration of A Sick Day for Amos McGee. On Sunday Amos was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2010! We've celebrated elephants and tortoises. Today is a celebration in penguins. Can you believe that in my entire stamp collection, a collection of ten of thousands of stamps from just about every current and defunct country in the world that has ever had a post office, I have only one penguin. One penguin! This is a situation that is going to have to be remedied.

Tristan da Cunha, by the way, is a remote volcanic group of islands in the south Atlantic Ocean, and also the name of the main island of that group (thus spake Wikipedia). It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world. Sounds like a great place for a shy penguin.

Speaking of shy penguins, here we have one of my favorite illustrations that Erin has ever done:
Come back tomorrow. We'll be celebrating in rhinoceroses!

This is Not a Boat #10, A Celebration Day for Amos McGee

Today is day two of our celebration of A Sick Day for Amos McGee. On Sunday Amos was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2010! Today is a celebration in tortoises. First, to Vietnam:

And now to Korea:
Lastly, we have Erin's tortoise from Amos:
Come back tomorrow. The celebration continues with penguins!

This is Not a Boat #9, A Celebration Day for Amos McGee

I'm very pleased to announce that A Sick Day for Amos McGee, illustrated by my wife, Erin, has been named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2010. Ten books are selected annually. You can view this year's entire list here. To celebrate I thought we'd take a break from our regular scheduled boat countdown and spend some time getting to know the animal characters from Amos McGee—an elephant, a tortoise, a penguin, a rhinoceros, and an owl. I'll have to dig deep into my stamp collection to find some of these animals. After all, not many countries have penguins! I'm sure I'll find some though.

This Thai elephant is great, don't you think?

And this set from Laos is one of my all time favorite. Fantastic!

And here of course is Erin's elephant from Amos.

One last elephant before I go. This elephant is from Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat. For those of you new to 365 Boats, Jonathan will be published this coming June. A certain amount of plagiarism happens in the studio between Erin and I. My elephant here definitely bears a resemblance to Erin's.

Thanks for stopping by 365 Boats. Come back Monday. We'll be celebrating tortoises!

P.S. - Notice the stamp in the elephant's back? It's the Thai elephant (in a different denomination) from the beginning of this post.

Boat #169, Uruguay

Boat #170, Gambia

Boat #171, Nigeria

Nice cancellation!

Boat #172, East Germany

The 1972 Olympics were the first year for a new rowing event then known as "slalom canoeing". The steroid addled East Germans were able to snag 5 of the 12 possible medals, including all four golds. Go team!