I've run several items lately regarding messages in bottles. The folks at New York magazine have apparently been noticing all the bottle-borne messages in the news as well, because they've put together an entertaining timeline on the history of messages in bottles. Check it out here.

Another day, another message in a bottle. I feel more of a personal connection to this one, because the bottle was found in Patchogue, Long Island, which is one town over from where I grew up.

The bottle, which originally contained ginger ale, was tossed into the Great South Bay in 2001 by a 10-year-old girl named Sidonie Fery. It apparently traveled only a mile or so to the west, where it was found last November by municipal workers involved in the cleanup from Hurricane Sandy. One of the workers, named Brian Waldron, noticed the note inside the bottle and took it out. The note included a phone number, which led Waldron to Sidonie Fery's mother, Mimi Fery.

Unfortunately, Sidonie died in an accident in 2010, so Mimi was extremely grateful to have this additional memento from her life. Sidonie probably didn't intend for her mother to be recipient of the note inside the bottle, but it turned out to be the best possible outcome.

Further details on all of this are available here.

(My thanks to James Poisso for yet another great story tip.)

The gentleman shown above is Chuck Kunellis, who lives in Sacramento, California. The letters he's holding were sent by his father, Chris Kunellis, during World War II. The elder Kunellis sent them to his wife — Chuck's mother — while stationed in Italy during the war. But for reasons that remain unclear, the letters were never delivered and instead ended up with an American stamp dealer, who recently sold them to an Australian stamp collector named John Armstrong.

Armstrong was intrigued by the letters and did a bit of internet sleuthing that led him to Chuck Kunellis, to whom he then sent the letters. Unfortunately, Chuck's father (who sent the letters) and mother (the intended addressee) are now both deceased, but he's still excited to have these newly discovered family artifacts.

You can read more about this here, and here's a video report:

(My thanks to David Sonny and Sue Kendall for letting me know about this one.)