So before we had Interwebs to do this sort of thing more cheaply, publishers would release pocket-sized little volumes with brief essays or stories suitable for giving or carrying around in a pocket or purse. It was the equivalent of the 45 RPM single of our record days, as opposed to a LP, orContinue reading “Booklet Classics”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Doggy Domiciles
It is hardy the job of this blog to critique architecture, but I a as ready and equipped to give advice on the matter as anybody else who dispenses information on the Interwebs. So today we will consider some of the principles in constructing a useful dachshund domicile, collie cottage and other dog housesContinue reading “Doggy Domiciles”
Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days
So maybe you’re not the sort of person who notices this, but it has been rather warm lately. Or maybe you’re one of those people who enjoys the warmth that allows you to broil steaks on the hoods of the cars in the parking lot. But comedy is not made from people who areContinue reading “Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days”
REVENGE OF THE JINGLER
All right, all right. I apologize. The last pop quiz about music videos stuck in between television programs (what some people insist on calling “commercials”) apparently disappointed some people who expected the question to deal with the product, rather than the lyrics themselves. Still, there are plenty of golden oldie pop singles—okay, “jingles”—whichContinue reading “REVENGE OF THE JINGLER”
Right Back After These Melodies
A while back, we spoke of the sitcoms which have been neglected in narratives on television history because they lasted a minute or less and were called “commercials” or “ads”. Well, the folks in charge of television have, in their unending quest to keep us entertained, also pioneered the very short music video. Continue reading “Right Back After These Melodies”
UNPOP QUIZ
I picked out a number of postcards which referred to bygone issues and inventions to provide questions of that quiz last week which skyrocketed to instant acclaim. (According to the data on this website, I am the only person to read it so far. This is part of the world’s attempt to remind meContinue reading “UNPOP QUIZ”
Pop Quiz
It has been a while since we enjoyed a quiz together. Here are some references to bygone bits of popular culture which sprang up in the selling of vintage postcards. (It is easier to sell a joke if you understand why somebody thought it was funny, once upon a time. This does not meanContinue reading “Pop Quiz”
Just Take a Seat
We have discussed, hereintofore, a number of important props used by courting couples on postcards of a hundred years ago or thereabouts. We have discussed park benches, rowboats, and hammocks. But romance is nothing if not inventive (say several websites that have turned up on my computer for absolutely NO REASON) and there wereContinue reading “Just Take a Seat”
Shifting Shirts
We were so busy in history class in my schooldays that we hardly ever got past about 1928. The older and more cynical I get, the more I wonder if this was intentional. In my day, kids were exposed to an ongoing debate on the relative merits of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt amongContinue reading “Shifting Shirts”
Fishing for Affirmation
It has been a while since we discussed fishing postcards. These were wildly popular in the middle of the last century, when people stopped sending postcards the way our modern generation sends texts, and instead made postcards a vacation staple: something you sent to the folks at home while you were on a fishingContinue reading “Fishing for Affirmation”