Monday, September 29, 2008

Halloween Costume Idea #24

Kids today may not recognize the clunky old bakelite phone style, but grandmas & grandpas will -- and they have some of the best candy.



Via Flickr.

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Saturday, September 27, 2008

Night of the Lepus

Some people Live-Twitter the debates; I opt to Live-Twitter my viewing of Night of the Lepus, starring Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun, DeForest Kelley, & Paul Fix. Here it is, cut & pasted for you, typos and all.
Watching Night of the Lepus - when rabbits terrorize! http://www.imdb.com/title/t... Still less strange than Palin/McCain campaign

Yes, yes, go in cellar to hide from rabbits.

Slow motion humungoid bunnies running to slow version of Twilight Zone's do-do-do-do. Excellent.

Why didn't they stop for the lone guy with a rifle acting so crazy on the side of the road? Huh.

Ah, the turn-off to Woodale is a dirt road... that seems to bode that they are safe.

Giant rabbits fill the wild-west general store!! No need for cheezy music -- I am enthralled!

A helicopter approaches. I am waitnig for a giant bunny to rear up and snatch it from the sky... I wait for it.

Siren sound effect is large kazoo?

Maybe just a child going "wooooOOoooo WoOOOOoooo"

"Attention" police say to drive-in movie attendees, "There'a a herd of large attacking rabbits, evacuate!"

Giant killer rabbits killed on railroad tracks -- electrocuted. Or shot. I can smell the burning fur.

Goodness is restored to the earth. Children play in fields. Roll credits.

Thank you, Turner Classic Movies.
Should this interest you at all, why not watch the trailer?

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

SHATNERICA!

The Millenium Edition of Shatnerica is out!


What's the Encyclopedia Shatnerica, you ask? Well, it is everything you'd ever want to know about the Shat. And then some. It's enough Shatner to fill a whole book, for crying out loud.

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Saturday, September 20, 2008

Salt & Pepper Skunks

You might think skunks would make cute vintage S & P shakers, what with their being white & black and all -- but then you realize you have to shake the seasonings out of their backsides.

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Retro Push-Button Phone Pushes My Buttons

This powder-blue push-button telephone caught my eye, but the cord, as usual, was discolored. I wasn't sure if it was faded or dirty -- and I wasn't going to use my finger nail to lightly scratch the cord to see which either.


Those enough old enough to remember using phones with coiled cords remember all-too-well how difficult they are to clean -- and that knowledge, my friends, was what removed the idea of purchasing from my mind.

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Thursday, September 18, 2008

Shop Like A Pirate Day



Zazzle wants you to help you shop like a pirate -- with easy ship-ping.

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Saturday, September 13, 2008

Pop Quiz: How Well Do You Know Your Victorian Rooms?

From our incomplete set of The Book of Knowledge encyclopedias, circa 1910, this picture exercise on page 3175:

What Is Wrong In This Room?

This picture has been drawn with seventeen things wrong in it. It will interest you to find out these mistakes and write them down, comparing your list with the correct listing appearing on page 3285.
Luckily we have the volume with page 3285 -- and I'll present the answers in a few days or so.

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Mixed Fortunes

What's this old gypsy fortune telling book got to do with one woman's Uncle Stuart & his knickers and another woman's parent's marriage? Read it, if you dare.

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Theater Is Too Kitsch

You know theater is bad when it cannot be spoofed or lampooned:
“Forbidden Broadway,” the satirical revue of the New York theater scene, regularly updated with the passing seasons, has spoofed and skewered the best and worst theatrical performances since Gerard Alessandrini introduced it in 1982. Four months from now — on Jan. 15, 2009, the 27th anniversary of the show’s debut at Palsson’s Supper Club on West 72nd Street — “Forbidden Broadway” will close, with no firm plans to reopen, Mr. Alessandrini said.

The show has gone on hiatus before, when it moved theaters in 1988 and when it took a two-year break for financial reasons in 1994. This time, however, the decision to close is strictly artistic.

“When I look at the seasons coming up, I don’t particularly think we’ll have a great opportunity to have really funny numbers about ‘Shrek’ or another ‘Guys and Dolls’ revival or some of the stuff that’s coming out,” Mr. Alessandrini said by phone before a rehearsal on Friday for “Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab,” which opens on Wednesday at the 47th Street Theater.

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Friday, September 12, 2008

No White Spots On Your Scottie Dog

We know it's after Labor Day so you may be adhering to the old "no white" rule, but FYI, if you need a product to whiten your shoes that won't rub off on your dog...



We don't think Carbona Shoe Whitener should have promoted kicking or "rubbing" dogs with shoes by making such product claims, but it was 1941. Things were different then.

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Back When Davenports Made The News

It's 1936 and women are being encouraged to have sleep-overs -- as long as the furniture is discreet. Why else would the newspaper be pushing sofa beds?


First it was a day bed and it was kept in the sewing room or the children's playroom where it served for guests. Then it evolved into the studio couch and it found a life of service in the one-room apartment. Now it is a sofa bed and has a definite place in the living room where it is hardly distinguishable from the ordinary sofa, davenport or love seat.

The newest versions of this two-purpose piece of furniture are offering interesting innovations both in appearance and in operation. Practically all of them are provided with backs of some sort, so that the cushions need not stand against a wall in order to maintain an upright position; and many of them have sides. Perhaps newest of them all is the love seat which opens into a four-foot bed.
Scans from The Milwaukee Journal (Sunday, August 9, 1936) sent from Silent Porn Star * (yup, adult content present at site), who wrote about the Sanity in Art movement article.

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Thursday, September 11, 2008

How Can Your Body Move?

Why the Great Puppet-Master In The Sky pulls our strings, silly.


From The Teacher's Guide to Discovering Our World, Book 1, copyright 1952.

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Kitschy Kistchy Coo -- We're Watching You!



Painting by Dan May.

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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Shoulda Been A Beagle


Wendy should have been a beagle. Her father, drunk and cruel, would tell her how she would have been smarter, prettier, and would find a rich man and get out of that hell-hole...if only she had been a beagle. A beagle, certainly, but Wendy? No, not Wendy.

Wendy's actual story is devoid of family cruelty, according to a 1969 Women's Household magazine:
"Our dog, Wendy was given to us about four years ago. We were told that she was a six month old beagle. The vet said she was a three months old "you name it" and she proceeded to grow and grow! Her tail is almost a lethal weapon and she delights in wagging it in circles."
Oh, she should have been a beagle, but she ended up being something else, big, clumsy, easily amused. She should have been a beagle -- things would have turned out differently.


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Tuesday, September 9, 2008

PIRATES ARE SISSIES!

...when it comes to adventure, thrills, and romance with America's greatest hobby: stamp collecting.
Ummmm...I'm not sure I get the connection. Are there postage stamps which depict pirates in frilly undergarments? Or eating bon-bons while watching their 'stories'? Is this all an insidious plot by the ninjas to discredit their sworn enemies, under the guise of philately?

I believe they're alluding to the globe-trotting habits of pirates, who visit exotic and varied locations around the world, and that a stamp collector has a far greater range than a hijacked schooner staffed by privateers. Frasek Company was a minor supplier of stamp collecting supplies in the 1930s, which is why this (quite tiny) ad appears in a 1939 issue of Radio Guide.

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Monday, September 8, 2008

Modern Woman Monday: What's In Your Fridge?

Just one of the many quirky, unique items available at the Kindness Of Strangers shop, a group in which I am just one of the quirky, unique artists -- but I didn't make this one; Slip of a Girl did. (People always think she's so sweet. She is, but she's also got her twisty side.)



If you don't see the works with art nudes, create an account at Zazzle, go to 'account settings', and set 'the maturity level' to R.

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Hey! It's That Thing!

When I designed this webpage, I used details taken from a Sears catalog to get the funky shapes -- and there's one person out there who knows it:



Yes, that is the exact clock from which I adapted that circle-thingy in the upper- left- hand- corner of this blog. Photo above copied from Retrothing, who claims to have copied it from BigHappyFunHouse.

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Sunday, September 7, 2008

How Your Brain Gets You To See The Parade


From The Teacher's Guide to Discovering Our World, Book 1, copyright 1952.

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Book Boards At School

Introduction To Economics, by Alvin S. Johnson, Ph.D., copyright 1909 and 1922 by D.C. Health & Co. sure looks like your usual old, unloved school text, complete with water damage (mildew & bent boards), but I didn't just throw it away... If I had, I hadn't taken the time to look at it, I would have missed the fabulous doodles inside the cover and on the front free end page.



Inside the front board, the illustration features "John Tards" at a streetlight, looking quite drunk. The streets appear to be cobblestone -- or uniformly lumpy. The city backdrop is darn-near a big city skyline.

On the front free end, beneath the title "Economic of Fr nk Jones" (a teacher, perhaps?), several comic versions of a man's face (also one lady) and the very stylized full-view (from the side) of one man.

These could be attempts to draw very popular comics at the time, but they still please me greatly.

The doodles are presumed to have been made by the former owner, Gordon A. Martin, a university student & an Alpha Psi Delta member (at whatever university was in Grand Forks, North Dakota, at that time).

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Saturday, September 6, 2008

Why Other Countries Hate It When McDonald's Comes To Town

Kids in Japan beggin' for the toys in Happy Meals.



Photo from a 1986 National Geographic magazine.

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Look Maw...No Anemia!


Lucky for Wilbur the Pig, Charlotte had minored in veterinarian medicine during her years at Wellesley, and was able to save his life by outlining, in her web, a week-long regiment of iron supplements to help his fading health. This is from an ad for anti-pig-anemia medication in 1960. Piglet anemia is a big deal for hog raisers, and in the '60s they used Armidexan, an iron-dextran compound that isn't marketed anymore. Armidexan was produced by Armour Pharmaceuticals, and any meat-lover should make this connection: Armour and Company was king of pre-packaged meats for much of the twentieth century. Tasty, tasty, non-anemic meats.

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Friday, September 5, 2008

Pixies On Toadstools & Whiskers On Kittens

Hannah not only made them, but offers pdf instructions.


Nothing goes better with pixies on toadstools than whiskers on kittens (I know you're singing along!). We'd prefer you had your own cats who would brush their whiskers against the toadstool doorstops, but if not... Here's a vintage kitty -- with whiskers -- pattern; some assembly required.

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Susan Has A Headache

What will stop it, once and for all?


OK, so this photo captioned "Until The Doctor Arrives" (from 1954's The Family Physician) is all about first aid treatment for poison, but just saying that would be far less fun.

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The Unknown Comic - Artist

From The Saturday Evening Post, June 14, 1941, a full-page ad for Hotpoint electric refrigerators and ranges. The top portion features a comic, Just Around The Corner: Ed And Alice Open Up The Summer Cottage, which extols the virtues of having appliances in your summer cottage "just like in town." So much for getting away from it all & roughing it.

And no one ever shows up to help me move.


Having a title seems to signify a series -- be it a regular comic series or an ad campaign -- but it's unsigned. The style is so familiar... Capp? Marge? I honestly don't know; neither does Google. If you do, please share.

Here's the bottom portion of the ad, in case that helps.

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Wednesday, September 3, 2008

You Know What They Say About Artists With Big Noses


Le blog de mister M is au Francais -- which is, along with a few swear words, about all I know in French (sorry, Mlle Pfister, my high school French teacher) -- so I do not know what he says about this art piece... But I'm pretty sure the "big nose" euphemism is internationally understood.

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Your Homework

From Making Words Work, 1942, a "Thinking about the picture" assignment:


HELLO, JACK!

Thinking about the picture
Is Jack having a good time? How can you tell? What is he doing?
What kind of boy do you think he is? What kind of day is it?

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Nothing Smells As Good As The Radio

Parfum de Radio, cardboard toy radio with fragrance. I'm betting it smelled like CBS; all the crazies preferred CBS.

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Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The Cobra's Name Is Post-Holiday Tuesday

Gina Tuzzi shows us the tempest in your coffee mug which is returning to work after a holiday weekend.

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Monday, September 1, 2008

Dad Always Used To Make Jokes About "The Naughty Nurse"

I'm pretty sure these old nurse paperbacks have good nurses in them, but at 50 cents each I couldn't pass 'em up... Now that the kids are back to school I plan on killing a few hours reading them just be be sure. And that feels really naughty.



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Why Mom Never Let Us Play Billiards


Via CardCow.

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"Gee, Mom, Them's An Important Collection!"

An article published in The American Home, October, 1942, extolling the virtues of & importance in collecting as a child -- no matter how cluttered it makes their room.


Click the image to read the scan of this still wonderfully appropriate advice by Clifford Parcher.

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Even After Years Of Studying Them

Betty never would understand boys.


Illustration from Making Words Work, 1942.

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