This almost-seven-year-old, no-button Apple mouse is on its last legs. In recent months it has stalled repeatedly, allowing itself to be fixed by unplugging and replugging the USB port. In the last few days more serious symptoms have appeared: intermittent and sporadic cursor lags, jumps, and the like.

The book-mousepad in my photo is volume 125 of Scientific American (July - December 1921). Scientific American went to a monthly in October 1921 — by consolidating its weekly "journal of practical information" with a supplement that had already gone monthly in January 1920. A goodly number of size and format changes were still to come until, twenty-six-and-a-half years later, finally another long-lasting standard.