Normally I wouldn't have even bothered picking up a comic, even if it was free, in such a state, but after flipping through it and finding this ad, undamaged (save for a bit of toning), I decided to take the book so that I could pull the ad out. I have quite a few books with this ad in them, and have always liked it, but wasn't going to be destroying a whole book just to get a copy of the ad.
It's been a few years now since I moved away from set building, but as was the case last year with the old Post sets, I've really been wanting to start working on the Hostess sets again. Thankfully I never sold, or gave away, any of what I had, so at least I won't be starting from scratch if I do give in to the urge.
I haven't gone so far as to make any checklists or anything yet, but I do know that I've got at least 60% of the '76 set, and maybe 10-15 cards for each of the other sets. Obviously 10-15 cards isn't very far along, so I'd probably just start with 1976 and see how much joy I get out of trying to complete it before making any decisions about going after the other sets. I tend to believe that things happen for a reason, so finding this ad, at this particular time, almost makes me think that the universe is telling me that, yes, I should start working on the set again. Why the universe would care about me of all people, doing something as trivial as this though... well, that's a whole 'nother matter; and one that is most certainly above my pay grade.
On an unrelated note: I sent out 1/3 of the envelopes/packages from my recent giveaway last Wednesday, and am dropping off an even bigger batch at the post office later this morning. That leaves me with five packages (Matt K., Nick V., Dan, Al, and Merlin) and two PWE's (our resident teenage bloggers seem to be unable to respond to messages... kids!) left to do. And if all goes well, those last five packages should be done by the end of the week.