German Torpedo boats and U-Boats. This was possibly taken at the Adriatic seaport of Trieste. Scanned from the original German 9x12cm hand colored glass slide. Unfortunately the bottom 2cm were broken off.

German naval and merchant marine officers on the deck of their U-Boat, possibly at the Adriatic port of Trieste. Scanned from the original German 9x12cm glass slide. View full size.

We don't do many current-event photos but I thought this one deserved wider exposure. Yesterday, after weeks of rumors that North Korea's "Dear Leader" had been incapacitated by a stroke, the country's official news agency released what it claims are photos of Kim Jong Il at a recent soccer match. (Their "recentness" supposedly attested to by the fallish foliage in the background; this comes two weeks after an earlier batch of photos showing the pudgy dictator amid lush greenery that was obviously out of season.) Of the relatively few news accounts that actually showed any of the photos (I found them here on Breitbart), most used this one, of Kim seated indoors. The one I thought most interesting was the photo above, of the D.L. greeting an assortment of functionaries whose hovering selves levitate shadowlessly over a stone platform. Eerie, huh? View full size.

An adorable photo, from the 1940's I believe, of a Siamese kitten on top of a (birdie) sundial. From my collection of Instant Relatives photos. Wish I knew more about this one.

One of my "Instant Relative" photos. Always thought it's a tall pumpkin or gourd he's sitting on, but now am not so sure ... maybe a big rock? Whatever it is, he sure seems to be having fun!

This photo was likely taken in 1950. The cruiser HMCS Ontario was originally HMS Minotaur before being transferred to the Canadian Navy in May 1945. After the war she became a training ship with the Canadian Navy. This photo was clearly taken on or near the bridge of the ship. The caption written on the photo has the name "Antigonish" crossed out and replaced with "Ontario." Since HMCS Antigonish was a single gun River Class frigate while HMCS Ontario mounted nine 6" guns in three turrets, it suggests that the person who wrote the caption wasn't in the Navy, though the photographer clearly was.

Entrance to Frontierland, August 1963. Disneyland was my favorite place in the whole world even before I ever got there. Over the course of several trips starting in 1960, I took hundreds of color slides, but apparently this Kodachrome is the only photo actually showing me there. The first one who spots me gets a free E ticket for the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland.