Owl Drug Company Blog

[mctaggart67]

Just wondering how many out there read this blog about the San Fran Owl Drug Co. and its collectibles?

http://owldrugcollectors.wordpress.com/

Cheers, Glen

 

[GLOPTOP]

Hey Glen, I have been waiting awhile to see if someone would post something about this site. I see that you made no comments about this, so I will put my 2 cents in. This is a very bitter old man who thinks that he is the only person that knows anything about collecting Owl Drug bottles and ephemera. Obviously he does know a great deal about this subject, has done much research, and written several books on the Owl Drug Company. However, in his narrow minded opinion, he is the only expert on the subject and if it didn't come from his book, it ain't true! He constantly criticizes most anyone that sells Owl Drug items on ebay (they are fake, they are doctored, the seller lies, etc.), makes nothing but negative comments about most bottle shows and the clubs that sponsor them, and goes on numerous tirades about the Federation Of Bottle Collectors. There is not enough time or space on this blog for me to expose all the negativity that this elderly, bitter, narrow minded, mean spirited old man spews out on his web site. I encourage every reader of this blog to check his site, read his past writings, and make your own determination of his sanity! He sees himself as a possitive force in the bottle hobby, when in fact, he is a big detriment to it. Let me be perfectly clear, I am not an Owl Drug collector, and have no personal vendetta against this guy whatsoever. I just happen to know of, or personally know, many of the people that he slanders or lies about, and enough is enough!

Dennis

 

[westernbittersnut]

I agree.

 

[mctaggart67]

Hey Dennis and Warren: He's made a similar impression upon me. I suppose we've all got a few axes to grind here and there in the hobby, but I've always felt that personal issues should either be kept to one's self or be addressed privately only to the party with which you've got a beef. I did send the blogmaster an email about some of the Canadian Owl Drug Company connections, and I allowed him to post the email on his blog. I think it would be a much more effective blog if it stuck with just the facts and eliminated the editorializing. By the way, I want to make it clear that I shared my info with the Owl blog purely out of a sense of getting the info out there for others to enjoy and benefit from. Also, I've dealt with some of the parties besmirched on the blog and have never had any problems with them. Quite the opposite, in fact, as I found these people to be honest and a pleasure to deal and communicate with. Our world is filled with so much vitriol (and so are some of my poison bottles -- sorry but I couldn't resist the wordplay!) that we don't need this sort of thing in the hobby. Hobbies are supposed to bring people together, regardless of other differences. Cheers, Glen

 

[mctaggart67]

Follow up to my above post . . .

I can no longer find my contribution to the Owl Drug Company blog. Perhaps my searching overlooked it?

 

[andy volkerts]

I also agree wholeheartedly!!

 

[probe buster]

You're dead on GLOPTOP.

There’s a psychological condition known as Negativity Bias. This is where a person dwells more strongly on negativity. They become engrossed with the fact that spewing out negative information and making personal attacks creates a bigger impact and generates a much larger reaction than positive comments and compliments. Once addicted, they continue to churn it out and feed off of it. It is known that if one follows such negative diatribes too closely they can become afflicted themselves. Best course of action is to provide no response and ignore.

Dr. Probe Buster, M.D. []

 

[mctaggart67]

Sorry to bring up this topic again, but Mr. Levine has just gotten under my skin. I recently posted the following on his Owl Drug Company blog in response to his call for Canadian information, which I had already given him, but which he deleted from his blog, as I note below. I want my response to him posted somewhere on the internet for posterity, so please forgive me for using this great forum to do this. If Mr. Levine doesn't erase my response to his blog comments, then that's to his credit. Anyhow, here goes:

David:

I find it interesting that you found my information on the Canadian Owl Drug connection to be inaccurate and hearsay. My qualifications as an historical researcher are beyond the amateur. I have the following degrees: Honours BA (History), MA (History), BEd, and I started a PhD at the University of Edinburgh, but had to withdraw on account of financial reasons stemming from a life-changing event. Nonetheless, I am an academically trained historian. As to bottle-related and local history research, I've been conducting that since I was in high school. I have written the following published books (this list is not exhaustive):

1) The Ontario Drug Store & Druggist List (1851-1930)[/i]
2) Sarnia: A Picture History of the Imperial City[/i]
3) Sarnia: More Picture History[/i]
4) On Tap: The Odyssey of Beer and Brewing in Victorian London-Middlesex[/i] (North American Guild of Beer Writers' Quill and Tankard Award for best book published on the subject of beer in 2000)
5) numerous contributions to Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia[/i]

I think my research and writing credentials speak for themselves. I know how to undertake proper historical research, using relevant archival material, and I know how to think and write critically about the past. I have good track records in these areas.

I also believe that sharing research findings is important in our hobby. That's why I shared what I know, based on proper historical research methods, with you and your blog audience. You, in fact, published them. It was only after I politely declined your offer to sit on your blog's editorial board that you deleted my contribution to your blog about the Canadian Owl Drug Company connections. It seems that you also deleted what I shared with you about RIGO poison bottles and the Richards Glass Company of Toronto.

I can only conclude that your choice to delete what I shared, not long after I said "no" to joining your blog, was an act of spite, pure and simple. To then turn around and ask for Canadian information, as if you've never received it before, is, as much as it troubles me to say, mean-spirited. This same mean-spiritedness is an ethic which unfortunately underpins many of the diatribes featured in your blog, in which you impugn (with self-serving logical syllogisms and consequently invalid conclusions, I might add) the character and reputation of good, decent and hardworking people and organizations in our hobby. Sadly, such invective detracts from what otherwise would be a wonderful blog for information.

In other words, you could be building a great space on the internet for bottle collectors to enjoy (which, by the way, would give you the esteemed reputation you so obviously and so desperately crave). Instead, you metaphorically burn bridges, which leaves you quite literally alone and embittered. If only you played it nicely, you might find the results so much more satisfying.

Yours Sincerely,
Glen C. Phillips

 

[mctaggart67]

The blog link for Mr. Levine's comments to which I responded:
http://owldrugcollectors.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/truth-at-reno-expo-non-profit-worldwide-connections-owl-drug/#comments

 

[mctaggart67]

Yep, he deleted my response. Figured it would happen.