Mystery object and other knick knacks and junk

The mystery object is what is called an "eye cap". It is inserted under the eyelid by a mortician to keep the eye closed. You know how in the movies when a person dies, someone (the hero, usually) will go over and close the eyes? Well it doesn't work, they just open right back up again. Apparently so does the mouth, and they make something similar for that, too. I got my eye caps from my friend Craig Featherstone who is a mortician. He has stuff like that just lying around on his coffee table.

For some reason I love Kewpie dolls. I love their hands and their sideways glance and, of course, their dimples. I have a small collection of them somewhere in my storage unit. I also have a collection of Princess Phone keychains. I can't wait til I can have my own place someday and it will be a museum of very cute useless stuff. Actually it's not totally useless in that it makes me happy to look at it.

I am reminded of a restaurant I used to eat at in SF around 1990 or so. It was called New Dawn and it was on 16th Street. On the weekends at breakfast was great because it was crowded with all the same people from the bars or the rock shows you were at the night before, many still in the same clothes. There was a refrigerated dessert case at the front counter that said "We have many knick-knacks and junk in this case". There was a section in the back where it said on the wall in magic marker "employee smokeing lounge" (this was before the smoking ban in SF restaurants). Then a few feet away it said "visit our new speling lounge". I loved that place. There was also an incredible burrito place right across the street called Chapalita that hardly anyone remembers.