Indiana Jones and the Mysterious Package

Fictional characters can turn out to be real, at least in part.

Seems the University of Chicago got a package addressed to Henry Walton Jones, Jr. Recognize the name? Would it help to cross out Henry and Walton and write in Indiana?

Yes, that Indiana Jones (not the dog).

Inside the package was a very official-looking journal lookalike for Abner Ravenwood, the Egyptologist, archaeologist, and U of Chicago professor who counted among his proteges Indiana Jones.


This package also contained photos of Ravenwood's daughter, Marion, who was certainly a person known to Indiana Jones.

How do we know all of this? Because someone opened the package, twice.


See, a guy in Guam put the journal and photos, your basic movie fan's collector's collection, up on eBay, and somebody in Italy bought it. Seller threw it all in a package, addressed to the buyer, and off it went,  until it got to Hawaii, where the original packaging came off.

Apparently, a helpful postal employee saw the University of Chicago, looked up the ZIP code, wrote it on the package, and put it back in the mail.

The seller has said that he will get another package off to the original buyer and that the U can keep the one that has been delivered to them.

Pay It Again, Sam: Casablanca Piano Sold on Film's 70th Anniversary

An anonymous buyers agreed to pay more than $600,000 for the piano used by Dooley Wilson in Casablanca.

Its keys are immortalized in cinema visuals. Now, the piano itself has changed hands.

The collector, who paid $154,000 a few decades ago, had offered it up for sale to mark the 70th anniversary of the release of the iconic film. Auction-watchers had expected a sale price of more than $1 million.

Wilson played Sam, the pianist who was a friend of bar owner Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart). Sam played the piano many times for both Sam and Ilsa Lund, Rick's now-and-again flame played Ingrid Bergman. Sam and his piano are instrumental in many scenes in the film, including the one in which Rick utters the famous line, "Here's looking at you, kid."

Just a bit of trivia, though. Hollywood lore to the contrary, Rick never utters the line "Play it again, Sam."

Noah's Ark Afloat in Holland

You'd have to figure that a Dutchman would know a thing or two about holding back the waters. Nevertheless, Johan Huibers has completed a 20-year construction odyssey resulting in a full-scale functioning model of Noah's Ark.

Just in time for the end of the world it is, although Huibers insists that the timing is coincidental. He's not actually planning to get into the big boat and sail away anytime soon, but he probably wouldn't mind giving a tour or two in the next week or so.

Measurements match up with the popular scheme advanced in the Bible, so there's lots of room for two or more animals of lots of different varieties. The stalls are ready and able to support animal life, although those stalls are filled with stuffed or plastic animals at the moment. But wait, real, breathing animals are onboard as well, and Huibers and his family are having to look after them. The curious can go aboard and pet dogs, ponies, sheep, birds, and rabbits. (My suspicion is that the number of any of those animals won't remain at two for long.)

He's also included hatches that can be closed and sealed off, on the order of the Titanic and other large ships, in case icebergs or humpback whales or other curious things come into contact with the big boat for more than a glancing blow.

Where's the boat? you ask. Why, it's moored in some water in Dordrecht, a city just south of Rotterdam, awaiting sailing orders.

Huibers began his quest in 1992, after he had a nightmare that included large-scale flooding of his home country. In the 20 years, the quest has evolved into including some modern comforts, just in case we modern people need to make use of "Johan's Ark." So he's included a restaurant and 50-seat movie theater. Will they be showing the movie 2012? Who knows?