The first time I saw him, glowing in the light of an early-November afternoon, I looked at his price tag and said, “I can’t do it.” Not for $30. Especially not when he was made in India and may not be food safe.

But, oh, he haunted me, with his calm, kind penguin face, the proud tilt of his pour-spout beak, his gently curving wings… And so today, a month minus a day from the day we met, I returned to the Council Thrift Shop, and said, “If he’s still there, I’m buying him.”

And he was.

And I did.

But he wasn’t $30. Oh, no. He had a new tag. It said “20.” Anna had suggested I offer $15, and use him sparingly – I figured I’d ask if they’d take $15 when I took him to the cash register, but I was prepared to pay $20.

As it turns out, I didn’t have to. “Ten,” the clerk said.

I didn’t argue.

Tonight then, when I make a pink gin in honor of Repeal Day, I’ll shake it in a penguin.

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To start with the machine-made – the Swimming Pool, which is, as you can see, unfortunately shaped like a bedpan. (The brown box on the far side of the pool is the fat little man’s radio. I hate to think what he’s got to swim through to get to it.)

Moving on to the religious, we have this brightly-colored, papier mache god, who looks rather startled to find himself in the Jewish Ladies’ Thrift Store. Each head is a separate unit, as I discovered when I inadvertently pulled the middle one off trying to pick it up.

And moving on to the hand-crafted, we start with a candelabrum that I’m just sure was someone’s summer craft project…

…and move on to an abstract piece that was doubtless the project of someone either rather less talented than the candelabrum artist, or someone rather more artistically advanced. (I’ll admit, it shows a nice sense of asymmetry, but why, why is it glued to the tray? And it is glued down, unlike the god’s middle head.)

Finally, though, we come to the item I almost couldn’t leave without. Two things stopped me – the price tag, and the “made in” label on the bottom. $30 wouldn’t seem so high for such a fantastic piece of pewter penguiness, if it hadn’t also been made in India. I prefer my martinis unleaded.

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