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Necessary Nagging

I was thinking of returning to a topic I’ve blogged about before, possibly blaming it all on Psalm of Life, Longfellow’s magnificent bit of motivational poetry. But it obviously goes back before that. Poets, among others, have always been willing to tell us how to live, and how to feel about what we were doing. Continue reading “Necessary Nagging”

Oh! You Running Gag!

Albert and Harry Von Tilzer were responsible for a lot of pop culture at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. Albert composed “After the Ball”, considered the first pop song to sell over a million copies (sheet music, since records were at this point going through a format war andContinue reading “Oh! You Running Gag!”

Undivided Attention

Some people have noted that the postcards I have been showing off in this column have had writing on the front, and asked if the message was just so long it wouldn’t fit on the back. It’s a bit of postcard history reflected in the design of some of the cards. Sending a cardContinue reading “Undivided Attention”

Behind the Seen

I have always stood with Jim Henson and his Muppet crew, who had as one of their guidelines the motto that “A joke not worth telling once might be worth telling seventeen times.” I have tried, in my own small way, to hold true to that standard, and I see that the postcard makersContinue reading “Behind the Seen”

Insufficient Centennial Note

Once upon a time, Pineapple Fry, there was no Internet. No, come back. I know most of your grandfather’s stories start this way, but stick with me and we may get somewhere. In those dear, bygone days, the major electronic entertainment devices in our home were the radio, which we used for weather reports, news,Continue reading “Insufficient Centennial Note”

Around His Neck

So in our last two installments, we considered the mockery postcard cartoonists made of two items of women’s fashion in the 1905-1915 era: the hobble skirt and the picture hat. Can we have the same wild and crazy time considering men’s fashion of the period? Well, if you look at that first picture,Continue reading “Around His Neck”

Picture This

Now, the world has never been long without big, bizarre hats, the kind that really catch the eye (and the wind.) Floppy or rigid, expressing extreme elegance or extreme zaniness, the wide-brimmed hat was worn by women who wanted to express SOMETHING with a flair. The postcard hasn’t been around long, its modernContinue reading “Picture This”

Hobbled

I graduated from high school at a time when it seemed everyone, male or female, was trying very hard to look like Cher. I remember very well a class where our teacher was explaining how things come into fashion and then disappear, to be laughed at by the next generation. One of my serious-mindedContinue reading “Hobbled”

More Worries

We were discussing faded fads in our last column, considering those phenomena that blazed through the culture with such acclaim that everyone knew what they were about, but which disappeared so suddenly that it isn’t easy to figure out, years later, exactly what was going on. (Not now, Butterscotch Broth, we’ll discuss pogs someContinue reading “More Worries”

Making Lemonade

So, as I was trying to point out, before I was so rudely interrupted by a pandemic, the world is so full of wondrous things that I’m sure we should all be as busy as bees. I may not have that quotation exactly right, but that’s the way it goes. Whereas I used to sortContinue reading “Making Lemonade”