Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Because Clowns Just Plain Ol' Scare Me

I'm so grateful that my dad's selling this antique wooden clown ring-toss game -- heck, the clown even has the X eyes of death! Someone, please, buy it so I do not have to deal with it in the estate in 100 years.

Labels: , , ,

StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Technorati Del.icio.us Fark Reddit DiggIt Facebook

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Baby Got Back-Fat

A back cover illustration from The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest, published by Elbert Hubbard, titled (or captioned) "Removing his Pocket-book."



I'm too amused & enthralled to really research this one, kids... Besides, isn't it time you told me something?

The illustration dates to 1909; Vol. 30, December, No. 1, of The Philistine.

Labels: , , , , , ,

StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Technorati Del.icio.us Fark Reddit DiggIt Facebook

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Mamma's Squeeze-Box Ends Up At Thrift Shoppe

Not my momma's, but somebody's momma's squeeze-box ended up at the thrift store. And if you don't want me talkin' 'bout your momma's squeeze-box, don't let it end up in a public place. Jeeze.

Labels: , , , , , ,

StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Technorati Del.icio.us Fark Reddit DiggIt Facebook

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Three dollar signs for THAT??!?

Married To The Sea
marriedtothesea.com

Labels: , ,

StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Technorati Del.icio.us Fark Reddit DiggIt Facebook

Sunday, November 2, 2008

The Room That Is All Wrong

Answers to the How Well Do You Know Your Victorian Rooms? pop quiz.



You thought I forgot, didn't you?

I didn't. I was A) hoping you folks would actually guess & B) I decided this would make an excellent poster for the bathroom -- you know, to give guests something to do while they were just sitting there...

Anyway, posters are now available and so I present the answers from page 3285 in The Book of Knowledge encyclopedias, circa 1910. (In some cases I copied the text direct because it's such a treat to read it as written.)

1 The door by which we enter the room has the finger-plates and handle and keyhole on the wrong side, being against the hinges.

2 The oval picture is hanging from a hook which is placed upside down on the picture-rail.

3 The landscape (next to oval picture) is upside down.

4 The picture hanging inn the corner has no hook at all.

5 The skirting board is reversed.

6 & 7 "We shall be surprised to find that the maid is about to shovel on to the gas-fire some coal she has taken from a coal-scuttle which has quite an impossible handle. The handle is round the bottom of the scuttle in such a way that it could not possibly be swung round for the purpose of lifting the scuttle."

8 The hands of the clock are wrong (the little hand would point to a minute or so past the hour, not before it).

9 & 10 The window fastener is the wrong way around -- and the handle to lift the lower half has been fixed on back to front.

11 The support for the curtain pole is fastened on the top, instead of at the side, which would prevent putting the pole over it.

12 The knob to open the shutter is on the wrong side.

13 "Moving round the room we come against a hassock, the lungs of which are on the sides instead of on the ends. Let us take it up and we shall notice how very awkward it would be if hassocks were always made like this one."

14 "There is something strange about the dog too. It is a spaniel with a collie's tail."

(I guess Victorians weren't fond of mutts.)

15 & 16 The chair has been "very carelessly upholstered" -- the pattern is the wrong way up, the castor has been fixed on wrong and "it would soon break with the weight of anyone sitting in the chair."

17 The floor-boards have been placed in the wrong direction "and what would happen to them underneath the carpet is impossible to say."

How many did you find?

Labels: , , , , ,

StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Technorati Del.icio.us Fark Reddit DiggIt Facebook

Thursday, October 30, 2008

So Your Parents Are Celebrating Their 50th Wedding Anniversary -- I'll Tell You What You're NOT Going To Do

When it's your parents' Golden Anniversary -- or any anniversary, really -- do not buy them a plate or other glass or ceramic gift ware with 'happy anniversary' on it.

I don't care how personalized, pretty, or 'golden' it is. One trip to any thrift store, and you will see isles littered with such token gifts nobody wants.





Sure, you could argue (insensitively, yet pragmatically) that a couple may, in fact, pass away not long after celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary -- but the lesson here is that no one in the family wants to keep such mementos.

Labels: , , , ,

StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Technorati Del.icio.us Fark Reddit DiggIt Facebook

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.

Labels: , , , , ,

StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Technorati Del.icio.us Fark Reddit DiggIt Facebook

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.

Labels: , , , , ,

StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Technorati Del.icio.us Fark Reddit DiggIt Facebook

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Ladies Don't Argue With A Burglar

They pack heat in their nighties.



Via Flickr.

Labels: , , , ,

StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Technorati Del.icio.us Fark Reddit DiggIt Facebook

Thursday, July 17, 2008

1910 End of World Souvenir


Found at Ruby Lane, the Seller Says:
This is a very rare French postcard marking the mania over the approaching of Halley's Comet. Published in Germany (FM Cologne noted on back), the text is all in French and the card is described on the back as "the official souvenir card of the end of the world, the 19th of May, 1910." Quite strange, but the sender Lily looks like she followed her name with the word "aeroplane" and a long curving line .... imitating the tail of Halley's Comet. In the Zeppellin, the words are written "On s'en f..... pas mal!!" That's a little risque for Edwadian times....the f.... word stands for fessess or buttocks. The moon with the outstretched arms is saying, best I can understand, "It will be good to come here." "Good by and thanks" a man hanging onto an umbrella says. "Expedition to the moon: grand speed, 200 francs per blow (from the canon)." Le dernier salut" is French for "the last goodbye or salute."

Labels: , , , , , ,

StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Technorati Del.icio.us Fark Reddit DiggIt Facebook

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Put That In Your Pipe & Smoke It

Many innuendos for this antique clay pipe featuring the figural form of a lady with her end-o on the potty.




It's sold, but I'd love to talk the buyer.

Labels: , , , ,

StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Technorati Del.icio.us Fark Reddit DiggIt Facebook

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Because I Like Storks, And You Like Camera Stuff



An 1887 motion study photograph by Eadweard Muybridge, who apparently used this 1884 "Folmer and Schwing division, Eastman Kodak Co." camera.

Labels: , , , , ,

StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Technorati Del.icio.us Fark Reddit DiggIt Facebook

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Microbe: A Contagious Rag


Via University of Colorado Digital Sheet Music Collection.

Labels: , , , , ,

StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Technorati Del.icio.us Fark Reddit DiggIt Facebook

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Bring Out Your Dead

Guess what's happening in this picture -- Dia de los muertos? CSI exhumation? Art show?


It's an antique sale -- and the antiques are dead people. Note to self: if the bones are old, the state of Ohio stops worrying about whether or not they're human remains. Addendum note to self: there are some creepy, creepy collectors.

Labels: , ,

StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Technorati Del.icio.us Fark Reddit DiggIt Facebook

blog advertising is good for you

No Payola Here!

Join the No Payola Campaign Here.

Powered by Blogger

High-Five Fridays
We give High-Fives on Friday -- do you?

Lifestyle Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory